[AnAmericanMother]

The tradition with English and Scottish sheepdogs is that you NEVER give them so much as a mutton bone. NEVER.

See Kipling's short story "The Knife and the Naked Chalk."

[RKV]

Don't have any idea about tradition. I know sheepherders (Basques) from growing up in the San Joaquin Valley of California. As I noted, the sheepherders and the sheepdogs eat mutton there - mutton the sheepherders butchered themselves. Period.
My point in all this is to point out (in spite of all the glowing sentiment about our soldiers [which I approve of]) is that we need to stop being like sheep! Self-defense is a positive good and Americans need to stop delegating that natural right to others.