On 4/4/2010 6:46 PM, Darren New wrote:
> John VanSickle wrote:
>> "Do as you're told and don't ask questions" is not a valued idea in
>> the U.S. military, and has not been for decades.
>
> Indeed, the ability of soldiers to think for themselves is generally
> viewed as one of the primary strengths of our military over others of
> other more authoritarian countries, especially those worried about the
> military taking over.
>
I don't disagree. But, not everyone that has their grubby fingers in the 
process *wants* that to be as true as it is. In fact, I would peg it as 
one *big*, but quickly denied, reason for the choice of contracting out 
private armies, with their own weapons, in a few recent wars, all of 
whom seem to have either been idiots, or racist religious fanatics who 
*do* target civilians, and the like.

A lot of people still have a very tribal attitude, and would like 
nothing more than to see the US military "reflect" that attitude. And, 
again, its hardly impossible, if distorted the right way, to hold two 
radically contradictory concepts, like, "Don't do bad thing, like blow 
up hospitals.", and, "Those people's hospitals don't count in the former 
statement." The sort of people that think that the military needs to, 
"Protect the constitution.", while as the same time, "Force the ideals 
of our, and only our, god on everyone.", already do this. Its called 
cognitive dissonance, and radical types have it in spades.

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

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