To: hmaly who wrote (181515 ) 1/25/2004 10:35:58 AM From: Road Walker Read Replies (1) | Respond to hmaly,Of course they do. But saying a soldier is"thinking about survival"; is saying something different from what you first said which is men are out there in Iraq are trying to figure out a way to survive; which has a different meaning. In the first meaning, you are saying the soldiers think about the best ways to do their job,and of course they do. In the second, you are implying that the soldiers don't know how to survive yet, and are hunkered down in their base camp, too afraid to go out, because they are having trouble figuring out how to survive. What if I said the same thing about you? John is investing in the stock market, and he is trying to figure out a way to survive. Which is fundamentally different form me saying; "John thinks the best way to survive is to think, be one step ahead of the crowd, and take profits. In the first, that implies, that you, like the rest of us the last 3 yrs, don't have a successful strategy in place, and you was in survival mode, trying to protect profits, until the market turns and you could make money. The second implies that you already have a successful survival strategy figured out, and it is just a matter of applying your strategy properly, to maximize your profits. I thought you was talking about the average draftee, being smarther than the average professional soldier; in which case, I totally disagree. The main reason is, the professional soldier has a different mindset, than the draftee. No matter how smart someone is, if he doesn't care, he very likely won't do as well as, as someone does care, and has a good attitude. Oops, your train just broke a wheel and went off the track. There are justifiable reasons for going to war. are still responsible.However combat is no place for participatory democracy. In fact, the military chain of command is a strict hierarchy command structure; and the US has been very successful with it. What intellectual debate? Think about this. How did we defeat communism? Actually the term "chicken hawk" was coined by the so called intellectuals on the left, who have proven themselves to be utterly devoid of intellectual capacity. Did you know the West Wing is being cancelled for low ratings. Low ratings because Sheen, as president, in the series, is decisive, aware of the geopolitics involved,and willing to use force when necessary. In real life Sheen is seen as a wuss, who couldn't make a decisive decision, if a million votes depended upon it.
