It has been said that it was easier to convince ten thousand Athenians of the need to fight a war than it was to convince one Spartan. The Spartans were professional warriors. I know something about that mindset. Think about the men like my husband, the Cold Warriors who won that stand-off - the real threat to the life and liberty of every American. In hindsight, these guys really deserve a hat tip. The ones on both sides. Think about the awesomeness of that Titan II that you can see launching a couple of posts down. It would deliver a payload of 10 megatons. That is the explosive force of ten million tons of TNT.
When you consider this time in history and the men who were charged with maintaining the weapons systems that are appalling to contemplate, when you become impressed with their restraint, consider their Soviet counterparts, and in particular consider Lt. Colonel Stanislov Petrov. He avoided a nuclear war in September of 1983 when he refused to believe the early warning system that indicated the United States had launched a nuclear strike. At that moment, the nuclear clock that we all heard so much about for all those years was at 23:59:59. That is the closest it ever came to being game over. I can tell you that now, but I couldn't have then.
Our military is all volunteer. That implies a professional warrior class. The goal of the professional warrior is to win without hostility because the implications of hostilities are so very well understood by the professional warrior. If you aren't from a military family and if you have never served, I don't know if you can really understand. The motto of SAC was Peace is our Profession, and SAC saw it's mission through and never engaged in hostilities. They were professionals. They enacted the principles taught by Sun Tzu, and they prevailed without engaging in hostilities. Those weapons were not their idea, they did not dream them up, but they did the jobs they were ordered to do, and they completed their mission. The troops in Iraq want nothing more than for their mission to be complete, but they are fighting an unwinnable war that should never have been started. This was not their idea, but they are doing their best. Unfortunately the place is unlivable and the state is failed and the presence of American troops is only fannign the flames of violence.
We are against the war in Iraq precisely because we do not take war lightly. The simplest and most basic of principles have been ignored; and the troops, who volunteer to serve, have been let down. This is unconscionable and it is intolerable. There is a sacred trust between those who serve and those who are served. In this war, that trust has been violated in so many ways.
I want every mothers son and daughter home safely, and I want an appology from this president. I want over a million appologies because that is how many troops have rotated through theatre, and I want over 2800 specific appologies from this president.
Since I am not going to get the appologies I want, I voted for Democrats.
