[baseball_fan]

the author's hypothesis of why there too often appears to be "glib hubris" and a "I-told-you-so" mentality among political leaders, the media and opinion-makers and what would need to change before that changes

[butternut_squash_bisque]

And what's the so-called author's son doing these days? Smoking dope? Surfing child porn sites? Protesting at US Military funerals?

Just curious...

[bnelson44]

The author is out of touch.

[bandleader]

I just saw on"Newsmax"that a 12-year old(girl)has indicated that she knew of the impending attack on The Marine convoy.She was wounded when The Marines entered her house(following the attack)and began shooting.Now,I don't know many details concerning this affair,but if The Marines had confirmed that these people had prior knowledge of this attack,then they also knew who planted the IED!!!

[ruschpa]

On Memorial, I remember reading about a Cobra gunship being shot down and the crew missing. Does anyone know the latest?

[M1911A1]

War is Hell, and you cannot refine it.

Sherman had it right. Even the most moral war is a sewer, but it does not negate the need to fight and win wars.

I'm afraid that if the politicians and opinion makers (elected officials and the MSM) had relatives at the "sharp end" the net result would be zero, or close to it.

Perhaps if we pursued the author's line of thought to the point where only combat vets could make policy on combat there would be a change.

My father, a WWII infantry vet, darkly told me before I deployed in the WOT that I should do whatever I had to do to return alive, but measure my actions by the simple idea that I had to live with whatever I did or I was better off dead and honored. I thought he was being melodramatic, I know now that he was merely stating the obvious.

[4woodenboats]

Another insightful paragraph;

Judging by Lewis's diary -- and many other accounts -- the so-called Greatest Generation of World War II was often badly led and worse-behaved, and was certainly less merciful than our present-day soldiers and their leaders. We haven't carpet-bombed Baghdad or nuked Fallujah to spare the lives of our troops. Yet most Americans are glad we forced Italy, Germany and Japan to become democracies, however brutal our means

And an acknowledgment of the New World Order Rules Of Engagement;

Sixty years later and caught up in another war, we are confronted by the massacre in Haditha. And we are also caught up in the anguish of another generation of young men and women asked to kill but to keep killing within "civilized" bounds, to take insults, be fired upon by men hiding behind women and children, yet not respond in kind