“... However, I can tell you that 99.5% of most units are focused on the task at hand - destroying the enemy.”
I hope that they soon realize that the enemy is located at 1600 Pensylvania Avenue. Just sayin’
“... However, I can tell you that 99.5% of most units are focused on the task at hand - destroying the enemy.”
I hope that they soon realize that the enemy is located at 1600 Pensylvania Avenue. Just sayin’
I had a conversation with some kids I work with yesterday - junior high guys who often get in trouble because they’re bored and think the rules are stupid, which they often are. I told them that the rules that don’t make sense are largely for CYA (in so many words. lol) so nobody could sue the people in charge or accuse them of being bad or out of control.
They couldn’t believe that there would be people who would sue somebody for something that wasn’t a person’s fault. I almost had to cry at their innocence. I told them that not only are there people who would sue, but there are judges who would award them lots of money for suing. And I gave them some examples.
The conversation twisted and turned a little bit and eventually got to the no-go zone in Arizona, where our government has signs telling people not to go there because it’s not safe. One kid asked why they just didn’t send in Delta Force and MAKE the area safe. It would be so easy, he said. And I explained that we have the ability to do a lot of stuff that would make the world a better place, but it can’t happen without the permission of somebody in government, and those people in government will not allow it. He said, “But it’s their job to keep America safe!”
I said it is indeed their job, but the person who is supposed to give the AOK for border security is AG Eric Holder, and he has said that he will overlook crime by minorities - they are “his people” and he will not risk angering them. He needs their money and he needs their votes.
The look on the faces of those boys gave me hope.
I would love to watch “The Lord of the Rings” with those boys and help them understand that what Tolkein intended to be a picture of the power of sin in the spiritual realm also applies to the political realm: men are easily seduced by the ring of power, and it consumes them. I would love to explain to them that this country’s Founding Fathers knew that power makes monsters out of men and so they insisted that no person or group should be given power that wasn’t somehow able to be stopped by the normal people who don’t have enough power to be corrupted by it.
I practically had to drag those boys away from the conversation we were having. To finally be able to talk about the reasons for things that didn’t make sense to them was something they were very interested in. They don’t want to piddle around with stuff that doesn’t matter; they want to engage with what’s REALLY going on in their world.
Maybe they will be in the military someday, and maybe they will remember that conversation. Maybe it will help them understand why people in upper positions are often the least trustworthy of all. Even better, maybe they will come up with ideas for how to destroy the corrupting ring of power within our government and its arms - the absolute power that seduces whoever touches it and turns him into Gollum.