I have the strong sense that True Believers have learned their attitudes about war from John Wayne movies. And Sylvester Stallone. There are good guys and badguys with a line in between and all the evil in the world lying 1 click behind those badguys (Carl Jung), all the good over here. Everyone wears uniforms, the badguys play dirty tricks and the good guys figure them out and play them back. The badguys then conveniently line up to be machinegunned. John Wayne stays cool, hiding behind a log, inspirational, fatherly, warm and comforting in a rough sort of way. And then charges into the face of Death, leading happy troops, all but two of whom run between the bullets and kill as many badguys as they want.

It is rather sickening to see people promote war who have that view of a very, very dirty business. The contempt I feel in this area extends to EVERY conservative on these boards. And elsewhere. It's a blind spot. Kerry knows war, Bush doesn't. Kerry knows war, True Believers don't, and aren't worthy of tying his shoes.

"Pat Tillman investigations spur questions.
Probes highlight chaos surrounding former football player's combat death."

That describes a bit better what it's like. Kids, adrenaline, confusion, guns, grenades, screaming, yelling, booms, pops, stuttering, swearing, dust, smoke, tracers, hate & fear those goddamned tracers, goddamned purple, thank God for 'em, there you are, concussions, hot metal, looking, not seeing, fear fades into unawareness of self. The noise slows, stops, more yelling, screaming, and the fear starts to return. Big time. Ya stay busy then, helping, anything to avoid thinking. 'Cause when it comes, maybe days later when you're safe again, there will be some bad days and nights.

One shouldn't judge the children put into that situation. One can, should and must judge those who put children in that situation unnecessarily. As I've said before, there are war crimes without war criminals. Except at the top. I can tell you who killed Tillman, and they weren't within 30 miles of him. And some of them were 10,000 miles away.

Arf