Quote:
|
What I said had nothing to do with policy. It was about the boneheads who glorify Chris Kyle. If that's criticizing militarism, I can live with that. I said that most soldiers don't deserve to be lumped with Chris Kyle.
|
A lot them would see being lumped with him an honorable thing. That's a fucked up worldview, but as much as you and I may not like thugs, they're a necessary evil.
Glorifying Kyle or his kind is silly, I agree. But noting that we do need them, and they serve a purpose, is not glorifying them. This was, I believe, Icky's original point. War is kill or be killed. Having lunatics killing innocent Iraqis is indefensible. ...But if there are guys like him assassinating radical clerics who support ISIS or Al Queda, and naively seeing their work as a black and white thing, I'm alright with it.
Quote:
|
What side of what coin am I not seeing? I'm not pretending Chris Kyle was a saint.
|
You're not acknowledging Kyle was a necessary evil.
Quote:
|
If you are saying that we need a military that is ready to kill people, I don't disagree. But if you are saying that we need a military full of Chris Kyles, I think you're wrong, and I think your adopting a pose that has nothing to do with what kind of soldiers we need. The guy I've been hanging out with if full of interesting things to say about the military and the recent conflicts, and much of it is critical. I don't get the mindset that the military deserves unthinking support.
|
I've had the same experience with military people I know who've seen time in Iraq and Afghanistan (and Vietnam, fwtw). These people were critical of the bases for the wars, their length, and how they were fought. But this is just talk, after the fact. In the mess of a firefight, where the grey areas and equivocations evaporate quickly, you want a true believer like Kyle around.
