Quote Of The Day
The always worth the effort to read the whole thing Ace
Yes, our troops are the best in the world, and not just the best at destroying the enemy — they are the best at destroying the enemy while sparing noncombatants’ lives. They are the most disciplined and most precise forces the world have ever seen, in addition to being the most lethal.
So yes, the presence of our troops can in fact spare any number of noncombatants in such a bloody civil war.
But… I have to say: Who gives a shit? How many foreign citizens in an country we’ve gone to war with do I need to save in fair exchange for one American soldier’s life?
I think that number must be more than 100. Actually, I think it must be more than 1000 before I really start to think that maybe that’s a good exchange.
These basket-case, broken, violent rogue countries have their own growing up to do. They have to go through their own spasms. They have to shed their own blood, and inflict their own massacres.
Yes, we can spare them some of this; but why should we? Someone is going to die in a war. I nominate foreign nationals.
In case I didn’t say it, read the whole thing.
Military Thingies, Morality, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
August 19, 2011 7:21 am
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Amen, Ace.
I really hope that we can start a dialog in our culture to stop believing that civilians are not responsible for the governments they allow to rule them.
If people of the world knew that they were certain to die if they allow their tyrant to attack us or allow non-government organizations to operate in their borders to attack us, then perhaps they would stop said tyrant. Who is in a better position to overthrow a government, us or them? Them. If they choose not to do so, they should suffer the consequences.
It is a false morality to allow our men-at-arms to die because we don’t want to hurt the very citizens that allow our enemies to stay in power.
Besides, it is too expensive and ineffective to fight wars this way. While we spend billions for the enemy’s thousands of dollars, our men are encumbered in heavy armor they can’t run in and in vehicles that roll over easily because they are top heavy. I feel like a modern Agincourt is coming soon. We are fighting the way they want, not the way we should.
“Nobody ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb sonofabitch die for HIS country.”
— Gen. George S. Patton
And once we have overthrown the government of the enemy country? The calculus of civilian casualties becomes different. One of the things that has turned many Muslims against Al Qaida is the realization among them that the terrorists have a callous indifference to the civilian, noncombatant casualties they inflict among Nuslins thenselves.