[ArcLight]

Very good story.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

All of a sudden it dawned on me, Those bastards are in there right now and they don't have a clue what's fixing to come their way.

I've never been a soldier. But I imagine that you can be a lot better off when you have the initiative. That is the right way to think to calm yourself down. FReegards....

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Too bad there are so many registration hoops to jump through there. For what? To read the NYT? LOL! Ok, ok. I'll do it. Urrgh.

[Gritty]

I would love to read the rest of the article, but I refuse to register with the Neuw Yawk Slimes! No telling what sort of porn they would slide my way....

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

American soldiers have not always pulled the trigger with such reliability. During World War II, according to the military historian S.L.A. Marshall, as many as 80 percent of the American infantrymen he interviewed failed to fire their weapons in combat. Marshall attributed the low ''fire ratio'' to a mixture of poor training and a natural reluctance to kill.

I admit that's interesting. Thank God for violent movies.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I wasn't sure what to think when Col. Charles King, who commands the First Special Warfare Training Group at Fort Bragg, told me that he trains his soldiers in negotiation and combat -- and that they can turn from one to the other in a split second. ''These guys have got to be able not only to work with you but to shoot you, if necessary,'' he said. We laughed awkwardly, and he quickly added that Special Forces soldiers would never shoot a journalist. We laughed again, awkwardly, and I chose not to mention that a U.S. military commander had threatened to shoot a Washington Post journalist who was trying to visit a site in Afghanistan where an American airstrike appeared to have killed civilians.

Perhaps a minor gastric upset alert would have been a good idea....

[Future Snake Eater]

Fascinating article...I get the impression that this writer is a commie but he was won over by the good Major.

[Iris7]

''The cost is huge and it requires serious deliberation. I'm privileged and truly want to be a part of it, but it's not cheap. It's not a big laugh.''

He has crossed the great divide. He has lost his boyish laughter. He will never again be what he was before.