I'm somewhat torn here. While I agree, somewhat with DanL53... I just instinctively want to pull for the rogues. I agree, War is Hell. But, that doesn't mean you have to add to the Hell when you have the knowledge and ability to Heaven-ize it. I dunno, people go to war willingly... always. A part of me admires what shim did a great deal. We're taught certain "etiquette" toward country, and I believe that is biased. Soldiers taking an oath to uphold the Constitution rarely know what it even says, or means. It's just a token ritual and then on to degrading you, building you up, and training you to obey. What a total waste of time.
I get what you are saying.
My main outlook revolves around two ideas:
1) We can't have 319 million people running our wars. Our job is to elect leaders which will represent our ideals. Ideals I assume are something like, "Truth, Justice and the American Way." I know that things go wrong in war, it is dirty business. We are intentionally recruiting young men and women without a lot of means, or education, and we're turning them into soldiers. And sometimes it appears we expect them
all to be these perfect citizen's who don't get angry and abuse prisoners, who don't decide to fire on a group of people that turn out not to be the enemy, that don't succumb to the pressures and stresses placed upon them and react violently. Wow, we get to sit back and expect them to do the dirty work, and we get to complain when everything isn't handled perfectly. We want to make this as clean as possible? Let's do our job and elect good leaders and let them do their jobs. Or join the military and take our grandiose ideas of morality and do a better job ourselves.
2) As to information gathering in unlawful ways for good causes. There is no such thing. Nor should there be. It sure seems pretty easy for our society to catch cops behaving badly, or crooks robbing a convenience store. We've got cars that can be remotely turned off if stolen, DNA, cameras everywhere, phones that tell on us as to where we are, computers that we can hit with a crowbar and they still give up info! This is no secret world anymore! And if there is one thing we want, I think, if we're going to send these young people into a war is to protect them. Is to allow our military to have secrets! We've
got a justice system in our military for law breakers. If we're concerned that it isn't doing it's job? Well than go after it! But to justify treasonous theft and distribution of our nations secret documents? No. We need out nation to be able to have secrets. It is not comfortable, but again if concerned let's do our jobs and elect good leaders, or join the military and do their jobs better, or buy time on the television and talk about our concerns.
I was in Camp Pendleton visiting family during the investigation into the Abu Ghraib mess. Personally sick to my stomach at what, once again we good guys, had done in that Prison. At the PX, while we were checking out I picked up a Stars and Stripes and there in that military magazine was an article
applauding the ( I believe I recall it was a Marine) person called to testify who refused! That took me by surprise because I always believed our military was "Yes Sir!" to the government. That article kind of woke me up that things aren't peachy keen between the military, the Government and us. You know what, they are, to a very, very great extent. But start going through their underwear drawer or doing random cavity searches on them like some on this thread seem to support? Ask yourself how long they'll be willing to take a bullet, for us.
The military will be as good as the leaders we elect to lead it. That's our job. Not giving away our secrets, not only to ourselves, but the rest of the world. That was treason.
You get to pee down quite a few legs that go places and do things (sometimes wrong) so you don't have to. Me? If they say the lady should be locked up, I believe them.
Stole 750,000 pages of documents. My opinion, not a Patriot. Opinion of the Court, not a patriot.
