This has been going on since the begining of time. This should come as no suprise to anyone.

JonEden at yahoo

Connecting the Dots: From human behavior to ecosystem collapse http://StudentsForTheEarth.org

Part of what I was getting at though is we will never see Bush on the horse for two reasons. First, he’d have nothing to say. When there is no clear cause, when you can’t even define victory, how can you craft an inspiring rallying cry? Second, he knows he doesn’t have to, it’s their JOB to fight, and their inspiration is getting paid and getting rank. Of course I believe these are the two reasons this mission is doomed.

Have we ever won a war without a rallying cry?

Although I only listened for the last few moments of the debate regarding how much say should our troops have in creating policy, the fact that such a question is asked shows how wide the attitudinal gap lies between between that of foreign and domestic policy.

Every year it seems there is a cry for more police in the streets. The reverberating voice ultimately begins in the city’s throat with the policemen until it rises and then emanates from the mouth, that of the Chief of Police. Usually, a fiscal song and dance occurs between the Major, the Chief of Police and the City Council. The end result is that those who first verbalized the need for more help wins. Why? Because we consider police to be on the front lines of an urban war: crime and hence, the police, we tell ourselves, ultimately know what is necessary to fight and to win.

Yet, when soldiers in Iraq, are fighting in a different type of war, one of no, we consider them unable or inept to set and understand foreign policy. Ironically, it is probably our soldiers who understand best what the lack in understanding of Iraq’s culture can create, how no schooling in the Iraqi language leaves them at the most vulnerable. More importantly, like the police, our soldiers understand what to lose means more than anyone else. It means death.

Death to their friends, death to themselves and death to a region that they are fighting maintain and stabilize. Losing is not an option and it is not due to an motto drilled into them but because simply, loss can be a synonym for death.

So why do we accept the police officers’ cry for more police on the streets and yet, we do not accept what the soldiers tell us is needed or what they believe should be done to win?

Why do we allow police officers to set domestic agenda but we tell ourselves that soldiers can not understand foreign policy, even when they continually shape it by their wins and losses and more importantly, who wish to see it in a manner that is beneficial to the nation that they are fighting for?

What is it about our thinking and our bias that allows such blatant discrepancies to exist and to flourish?

opps… if this sentance didn’t make sense…

That’s Mel Gibson alright – a little closer to the movie I think than Braveheart though its basically the same thing with different costumes.

It was suppose to say…

That’s Mel Gibson alright – a little closer to the movie ‘Patriot’ (another Mel Gibson) I think than ‘Braveheart’ though its basically the same thing with different costumes.

He makes pretty much the same speech from his horse in both movies followed by riding by yelling FRRRRREEEEEEEEEEDDOOMM! … must be the standard thing for rallying troops.

This view of Kerry has gained so much traction recently that, like any falsehood repeated often enough, it’s threatening to become the accepted wisdom.

Kerry’s unfortunate wording of a jab at President Bush has been pointed out often enough — and his notes for that speaking engagement verify that he was referring to the *leadership’s* being stuck in Iraq, not the ground troops’ being stuck there.

Does Kerry have contempt for the mind of the enlisted man? It’s possible, but considering his own combat experience, and his many years of involvement with veteran issues, isn’t it far more likely that he has at least as much empathy for soldiers as does George W. Bush, whose privileges and negligences are too numerous to list here?