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

To: Bruce L who wrote (145213)	9/9/2004 3:25:22 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Respond to of 281500

Bruce, many reasons can be found for fighting for or against something. The thing that seems to most motivate men to fight hard and win, seems to me to be the motive of protecting their families, their homes, their pride and their tribe. In Vietnam our forces fought to survive. In Iraq, similarly, I think our forces are fighting to come home alive and bring their buddies home with them. All other things being equal, however, I agree that men will fight harder for a mission they choose and that they agree with. In a democracy the men that fight may often be more likely to agree, but not always. You must remember that in some instances, as in Vietnam, the people who "vote" for the war are often not the ones who are sending their sons and daughters to fight it. That's why the poor, the young and the politically powerless often come to oppose wars while the major support comes from the rest of us. Still, in Vietnam, where there were a huge number of draftees in the jungle in the mid to later years of the war, our men fought so well and so bravely that if you'd have been there I think you'd have been amazed. They fought, as I've said, not out of choice but out of necessity and to save each other. The Germans, not a democracy, fought very hard and very bravely in the past. The Japanese fought like tigers. On reflection, I don't know that we can say that those who fight for democratic countries or democratic principles are necessarily going to fight harder and more tenaciously. Ed