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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: aladin who wrote (115107)	9/17/2003 5:38:00 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Every male in my family served in the armed forces, and my mother served in the WACS- yet I know that soldiers are generally trained to kill. They are trained to do other things as well, but the primary duty of a soldier is to kill. That fact destroyed my father, who was gentle, and very young, when he idealistically signed up to fight in WWII. That war destroyed him, and I have no doubt he thought he was a serial killer (or just a really big killer) for what he did in that war- because he felt overwhelming guilt, and he was only doing his duty in a "good" war. While Jacob's comments were provocative, they certainly seem to me to be supportable, if you look at the military as a killing machine (which, imo, is what it is). Of course the moniker "serial killer" applies to any army- was Jacob saying it only applied to our army? I didn't read that post all that carefully- but I do remember the point about Mao, because I've always been fascinated by Mao. The Mao point is separate from the serial killer thing, imo. I realize you think the two things are intimately connected, but I don't agree with you.

To: aladin who wrote (115107)	9/17/2003 6:13:53 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

John, I already apologized once: I'm sorry if I offended you with my "play on words". I was deliberately ambiguous: "serial killer" has one meaning as a single phrase, and a different meaning if you consider them as two separate words. Soldiers are killers, and they do kill serially, but they aren't "serial killers", in the sense of, say, McVeigh. Message 19310704 I'll say it again: I apologize. I'm sorry. Yes, it was Clintonesque. Bad, bad, bad. OK? My brother, father, step-father, and 3 in-laws, are or were in the military, including 2 in the National Guard currently in the ME (nurse and pilot). I happen to think that most military people have about the same sense of duty and honor as the general population they come from. Another deliberately ambiguous statement.