Kosovo Message Board - Msg: 8973295

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Pastimes : Kosovo

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To: Meredith Cullen who wrote (3980)	4/16/1999 6:36:00 PM
From: nuke44	Read Replies (2) of 17770

No Meredith, I try not to imply anything, preferring to say it in plain language. My response to Jamie was to inform him that he need not worry that I was "shell-shocked" as a result of being overwhelmed by his rapier sharp intellect. If you inferred that my military experience and two plus decades abroad gives my opinions credibility insofar as this thread is concerned, well I suppose it does. At least in comparison to those on this thread whose experiences are confined to their access to cable television. You are mistaken though in assuming that my experiences overseas were limited to the little Americas that surrounded some of the major U.S. bases abroad. Outside of billeting at facilities in war zones, I never lived within 20 miles of a military base during the last twenty years of my career. I always chose to live "on the economy" and because of my particular career field I was more often than not assigned to host nation (Non-U.S.) units as a liason or advisor. I often went months at a time without dealing with another American face to face. As some of my assignments dealt directly with some of the forces involved in the present day situation in the Balkans, I believe that it did give me a insight lacking by many Americans. Your anti-military bias is obvious, and to try to sway your opinion on that is probably useless, but some of the finest minds I ever encountered belonged to men and women that serve in the various branches of our military. Service in the military has less to do with "accepting and reinforcing the rationalizations of the military and our government" than it does with making conscious choices based on the facts and your own individual beliefs. Those choices involves swearing to an oath of duty and allegiance. I see no contradiction between making that informed choice and then abiding by that oath. I have no regrets for anything I ever did in the performance of my military duty. I believe that we (the U.S. and it's allies)have done what is right (as opposed sometimes to what is popular)the overwhelming majority of the time. I guess it's pretty easy to second judge those actions from the comfort of a computer desk somewhere in heartland U.S.A., but the men and women who are actually involved in those actions don't have that luxury. I myself am a hell of a lot more concerned about their welfare right now than I am in that of their adversaries or in caring about whether or not I offend those who despise them and would see them fail.

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