Spiritwolf wrote:I can see why you would feel that way and i respect your analysis and opinion. "Combat Mindset" is a skill in its own right and is useful when the need for lethal force exists. Whether that need comes in the form of an enemy soldier trying to take your life or an armed intruder in your home, the simple fact is a weapon will do you no good if you are unwilling or afraid to use it. I am enthusiastic about using lethal force on a threat, thats true, but in any other context it is unacceptable. A Marine who will not use his weapon is worthless to himself, his family, and his Nation.
There is an implied subservience here. Who decides when lethal force is necessary? That is a homeowner or tenant's right within reason, and should be viewed with leniency when s/he is protecting the lives of others (which by the way is not necessarily happening when someone comes to your place to steal your stuff, even if they have a knife, though of course their brandishing a weapon makes the line blurry). But on the battlefield, sometimes an American must value respect for freedom and self-determination above the goals of the politicians who volunteered them into some dank hellhole. Many Marines in the Vietnam Era served their country by refusing to shoot the poor suckers with the other uniform on. Think about the dilemma of a black soldier, probably lacking civil rights in their home state, drafted by a country which has no room for them in its economy, where their countrymen hate him and throw rocks through his window if he dares get too close to the Included Ones. If you were that man, would you fire because the politicians that hold you down, told someone to give you an order? Many of these men had unspoken agreements with their co-draftees on the other side: if they saw each other, they would avert their eyes and keep looking for the enemy in another direction. Two people live another day, maybe with the hope of coming home to put food on the table, maybe hoping to come home and change their society for the better. I think our country is much stronger for these men having survived, and come home to participate in our democracy, and I despise the implication that servicemembers who respect life above hierarchical command are "worthless".
At the very least, you should acknowledge that this is my country too and I get to determine who is and isn't worthless to me.
