I should know better than to be reading about why the U.S. needs a "warrior mentality"

it's a big mistake to start off the day reading crap like this... i should have known better from the title of the article, the source in which it was originally printed, and the author...





points of visceral nausea...

• War is a fact of the human social condition...

• [A]ny policy lacking martial vigor—any policy that fails to communicate a warrior spirit—only makes war more likely.

• [A] leader ... sanctions every manner of deceit provided it is necessary to gain strategic advantage [and]is never swayed by public opinion...

• Americans as a people are ever further removed from any semblance of a warrior spirit...

and if those weren't bad enough, he keeps right on going...

[O]ur near obsession with finding ways to kill others at no risk to our own troops is a sign of strength in our eyes alone. To faithful or merely nationalist enemies, it is a sign of weakness, even cowardice.

[...]

Never-say-die faith, accompanied by old-fashioned nationalism, is alive in America. It is a match for the most fanatical suicide bombers anywhere, but with few exceptions, that faith is confined to our finest combat infantry units—and to specific sections of the country and socio-economic strata from which these “warriors” (as they like to call themselves) hail.

[...]

That kind of faith is receding in America among a social and economic class increasingly motivated by universal values: caring, for example, about the suffering of famine victims abroad as much as for hurricane victims at home. Universal values are a good in and of themselves, and they are not the opposite of faith. But they should never be confused with it. You may care to the point of tears about suffering humankind without having the will to actually fight (let alone inconvenience yourself) for those concerns. Thus, universal values may pose an existential challenge to national security when accompanied by a loss of faith in one’s own political values and projects.

kaplan, in this 5000+ word article, loaded with multi-syllabic, professorial jargon, literary and historical references, and examples drawn from his time spent with "real warriors," is a perfect example of the phony intellectual justification of a military-industrial complex, and money and power-hungry elites forever focused on endless violence, war, death, and destruction to maintain the world they've created for themselves... it's worth reading if for nothing else than to gain a full appreciation for the minds behind our country's behavior in the world... remember, it's men like kaplan who provide much of the theoretical horsepower for those in our government who are calling the shots... i find it to be a profoundly cold and twisted world view, particularly in its repudiation of universal values, but certainly accurate in depicting the mindset that drives our foreign policy...

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