I'm stupid

I suspect that I am a bit stupid. I've in the past said some intolerant things about the military. Yesterday I read the anguish felt by a sibling of someone sent to fight in Iraq. I felt through her writing what it must feel like and it was awful.

I had realised, intellectually, before that these people sent to fight there had to follow orders. They had no real choice in the matter. It is well-nigh impossible to buck the system; that is how it is set up. But somehow I rationalised that once sent to an unjust war that we washed our hands of them; that they somehow deserved to reap what they sowed. But that's plain stupid! They're caught up in a system that works hard to remove responsibility for their actions. How can anyone justify thinking that they suddenly do bear the responsibility for decisions taken by others far away from their realm of influence?

I know there is some proportion of soldiers who really get a hard-on at the prospect of shooting up a bunch of "towel-heads" or "pinkos" or "wogs" or "slants" or whoever are the hate target of the day, but even their families don't deserve the fear and anguish. And we should be protecting bullet heads from themselves instead of inflicting them upon a hapless population. A sane military should have nothing to do with such mentality. Even these, frankly repellent, people don't deserve to be killed or maimed. They are broken and need to be fixed, not broken more.

We all know where the responsibility lies. It is in the so-called "leaders". The political and military "leaders". Our current crop is the most irresponsible I've seen.

Unfinanced Entrepreneurs

This is really good. (via chunkygoat at illustrator)

Unfinanced Entrepreneurs by Mark Evanier
and
The Followup