BRAVE
If you want to talk about bravery, you've got to talk about the infantry. Here's how Lee Child describes it: "The infantry puts up with a world of shit. They live in holes in the ground, cold, wet, muddy, , hungry, with incoming mortars and artillery and rockets and bombs, and gas, and air assault and missiles, and they have nothing ahead of themexcept barbed wireand machine gun nests."
If you want to talk of bravery, just be an infantryman in an invasion scenario for just one day. And, the miracle is that we have thousands of these young men doing this, not only day after day, but month after month and yes, year after year.If you wonder why good good leaders are reluctant to to put boots on the ground , the above is one reason. Not because of a political concern , but because of a human one.And, that's only the good leaders. Some leaders do this for personal aggrandizement, with no regard for for human life, on either side . That's why when I hear certain generals who are touted as great winning strategists, I think about the guys in the holesin the ground and I wonder where he would be without those brave souls who kill people and break things for him?
If you want to talk of bravery, just be an infantryman in an invasion scenario for just one day. And, the miracle is that we have thousands of these young men doing this, not only day after day, but month after month and yes, year after year.If you wonder why good good leaders are reluctant to to put boots on the ground , the above is one reason. Not because of a political concern , but because of a human one.And, that's only the good leaders. Some leaders do this for personal aggrandizement, with no regard for for human life, on either side . That's why when I hear certain generals who are touted as great winning strategists, I think about the guys in the holesin the ground and I wonder where he would be without those brave souls who kill people and break things for him?
Infantry seems to be relegated to stupid "wars" that we seem to get involved in, like in Iraq, Syria, and places like that. Wars where there is no booty to get taken, and no real reason for us to be there.
I trust our tech more than I'll ever trust a politician. Yes, there is brave as you described but then again the wood going into the chipper....
Me dino had seen the original and very impressionable 1930 All Quiet On The Western Front about four years before getting drafted during 1969 the same year we landed men on the moon.
Me dino did not have any choice. Getting on the bus, a scared fellow draftee asked the draft board lady, "Mrs. Kennedy, are they taking any Marines?"
Yeah, I even remember her name. And I have good reason to remember what she said:"Don't worry, they haven't taken any Marines for a whole month."
When we arrived at base near Montgomery, AL, a lieutenant told our group, "This is the end of the month when they take Marines. I have five names."
The scared guy wasn't among that five. I was.
Seconds after I heard my name, I imagined myself charging a machine gun nest screaming, "Gung ho!" Yes, I had see John Wayne movies, too.
Parris Island was brutal and very much like the first half of Full Metal Jacket, but me dino got lucky in the long run. Never went to Vietnam. Somewhere along the line~I think Camp Lejeune~I was actually told that "the Marines had to draft smart people to be admin and supply clerks." I was the latter.
"In the rear with the gear"~is a line I heard in a war movie.
Once you fired those slow to load single shot flintlocks at close quarters, you went to work with steel.
Those collars are why Marines used to be called Leathernecks.
I know this because the Marines taught some Marine Corps history during my happy pampered little stay on Parris Island.
When I worked for the Department Of Corrections and had some seniority, I changed shifts to get away from certain supervisors.
that this Helps these world leaders ignore the excruciating pain and heartbreak the weapon peddling and war causes. They simply don't care. Go President Trump first Saudi Arabia, now N Korea next Iran. Trump wants peace and he knows it takes strength to achieve. He is not an arms dealer like Bush
Lesson, always appreciate your view.
The long lasting effects on US from WWII have been exasperated by operation paper clip and the installation of 2500 top NAZI into the CIA and NASA and other dark areas of govt.