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Originally Posted by MedMech
and to say that war is based on greed is the equivlent of saying that The Dead went on tour for the sole purpose of giving drug dealers a large venue to make money.
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Well put. I don't want to be just a guy who hollers non-stop about what horrible people we are. Ward Churchill has that angle sewed up and he can have it.
WW2 was a different ball of wax all right, and I'm sure you don't want to hear me brag about my Dad's heroism there again. Full time pacifism is lunacy. Every one of us has untold thousands of ancestors, who, if they hadn't jumped up and repelled some invader, would not have survived to be our ancestors.
I think Butler's time and the actions he was called on to carry out were less noble and he spoke to that. On a similar note, I hear that the average CEO of a military supplying industry today makes 20 times the salary of a U.S. General with 20 years service.
Good men are getting chewed up in Iraq and to help cover for Bush's tax cuts, frequently to people whose overseas businesses are safeguarded by our troops, their VA benefits are being cut. I've built or remodeled about 10 houses in the 10,000 + sq. ft. range and some of the people are sweet and some are full time *********s (it's weird... a barely reconstructed hippie like me on a first name basis with billionaires). I've seen up close the opulence and splendor of this crowd. Do they deserve it? Maybe. But some national guardsman who's losing his house and business because of a lonnngg call-up deserves something better than he's getting.