"We had been told, on leaving our native soil, that we were going to defend the sacred rights conferred on us by so many of our citizens settled overseas, so many years of our presence, so many benefits brought by us to populations in need of assistance and our civilization.
We were able to verify that all this was true, and because it was true, we did not hesitate to shed our quota of blood, to sacrifice our youth and our hopes. We regretted nothing, but whereas we over here are inspired by this frame of mind, I am told that in Rome factions and conspiracies are rife, that treachery flourishes, and that many people in their uncertainty and confusion lend a ready ear to the dire temptations of relinquishment and vilify our action.
I cannot believe that all this is true and yet recent wars have shown how pernicious such a state of mind could be and to where it could lead.
Make haste to reassure me, I beg you, and tell me that our fellow citizens understand us, support us and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the Empire.
If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware of the anger of the Legions!"
Marcus Flavius,
Centurion in the 2nd Cohort of the Augusta Legion,
to his cousin Tertullus in Rome
"When a nation re-awakens, its finest sons are prepared to give their lives for its liberation. When Empires are threatened with their collapse, they are prepared to sacrifice their non-commissioned officers."
---Menachem Begin, freedom fighter and former Prime Minister of Israel in his book, The Revolt
HAS AMERICA BECOME TOO SELF-SENTERED TO DEFEND ITSELF?
The news headlines read daily of eroding veterans benefits which has various groups up in arms. And at the same time the headlines read of continuous military blunders; Beirut bombing, USS Cole, U.S. embassies blown up, Subs striking fishing boats, 9/11 attacks, V-22s, Lav3stryker armored cars, all created by a military that doesn't THINK to effect good judgment throughout its all of its ranks and thus does not trust its members to have live ammunition to defend themselves from attacks...
You see, the Pentagon DOES understand!
That's why its working very hard to take our sooooo courageous men/women OUT of cockpits, tanks and warships and replace them with expensive robots. So they will not get hurt and need benefits or burial services for as long as possible. And by automating warfare, the few humans that remain will not be needed to be smart, bold and aggressive, they just need to shut up and do what they are told so those with superior rank can better manipulate them to get the desired automated firepower response, even though this bombard & occupy mentality is a proven failure. America has "mercenaries" to do its dirty work like Rome had, except ours are MACHINES.
I am going to shine some truth on the current veterans-whining-for-benefits situation...
They need to shut up their whining about themselves and their loss of benefits and start thinking about the future battlefield and how they will defend this country? They should use their collective voices to demand that decisive MANEUVER that can project globally to defeat nation-state surveillance strike complexes or locate and destroy hiding sub-national terrorists which is only possible by enlightened Soldiers with empowerment to execute fire and maneuver warfare in a decentralized manner using robust war machines with human powers fully utilized not diminished be the direction DoD takes so America can survive and not be destroyed by possible nuclear 9/11 attacks.
ARE WHAT VETERANS GROUPS DOING NOT RELEVENT TO AMERICA'S DEFENSE?
O, but these veteran whiners are no longer in the service you might say!
BS.
They are still citizens and their cries of "me, me, me" have handed to the automaters in our military, the initiative, the excuse and the funding to take men out of warfare and seriously weaken our national security in the process. I'll say it again. And they are not doing it out of love for the troops, either!
...their cries of "me, me, me" have handed to the automaters in our military the excuse and the funding to take men out of warfare and seriously weaken our national security.
These are the same morons (YES) who back the black beret whiners who want their egos stroked while the rest of the Army has to walk around dejected without esperit de corps. The military is a big ego game for them with their time in service freezing their status in the pecking order forever. Yet noone speaks for that E4 in uniform today who hasn't gone to "ranger school" who will be soon asked to die for his country when the war robotic machines fail, he who isn't "worthy" of a beret. He will march and fly to his death quietly without protest because he loves America and he loves YOU. Because he is a SOLDIER.
In contrast, the whole focus of the vet benefit/beret whiners is selfish, as in they have "earned" some exalted stature and are now owed their due. Every year its the same thing, and not a peep about the technotactical defense needs of this country, the same lessons-not-learned mentality in Vietnam to defeat a non-linear, thinking, asymmetric enemy. They see the military as a personal ego trip for glory and benefits and frankly, I have no use for them. Neither should you. They have sold out the institutional culture of our military to the machine-war people when they should have stayed unselfish and engaged---and fought for and insisted that our military reform itself to be a THINKING, SEEING, SELF-CORRECTING military that empowers Soldiers to be smart, professional WARRIORS. Instead they want to keep in place a system that dehumanizes but somehow wants it at the same time to be more human (!?!) and give THEM more benefits. They see nothing wrong with the military culture as-it-is with its hubris and blind obedience and probably when they were in uniform were full practitioners of such snobbery and inhumanity and now they want the system to treat THEM like kings?
I got to see the fabulous film, Gladiator recently. Hope you all have or will see it. Compare the Roman General who becomes a slave and a Gladiator and a General again's entire ethos (frame of mind) to the veterans/ranger beret whiners. He is thinking about Rome as we should be thinking about America FIRST.
Airborne!
Mike Sparks <-----speaks the truth
FEEDBACK!
An Army helicopter pilot writes:
"Socia-hystoric dynamic I'm afraid. When Rome became more concerned with personal comfort (what the-country-could-do-for them, vice, what they-could-do-for-the-country) the borders crumbled. When they started using allies to patrol the frontier (read: low/no casualties) the borders began to crumble. Only when "the hoarde" was at the gates did they get their collective act together (with Hannibal). Later after the Republic became an Empirium and the society was separated into "haves" and "have nots" (no middle-class structure). No one cared to watch the frontier. When the hoarde made it to the gates this time (Germanic tribes) it was too late.
I hope we can see that Hannibal is in the Alps.... and be different than Rome."
An Engineer officer writes:
"Mike,
I think one of the root causes of this problem, is that our kids are not taught critical-thinking skills, nor about the American Revolution. The left-wing education establishment does not want to deal with challenges posed by free-thinking nor do they link the freedoms born of the revolution."
A Christian philosopher writes:
"Do these comments from several people remind one of the blind men touch an elephant and then describing and elephant from their own realization? I am not putting any of these thoughts down. I merely mean to say that the 'decline' is so deep and pervasive as to include the very fabric of society and the fabric of the individuals of this country and others.
We are so far, involved in a discussion on how the country can be changed or how the individual can be changed. All of these are needed. But we are now in an all-out attack by different groups against the individual thinking and against the country changing.
I am pessimistic concerning the 'short term' and optimistic concerning the long term. There is a 'controlling authority' in the affairs of men. There are powers and principalities that struggle against the 'controlling authority'. And then there is man who thinks he is in control and can change things by him self.
There is something that we individually are in charge of, ourselves. Then we have a responsiblilty to prepare our children.
We do need a Shepard. We do need to follow him.
'The Lord is my Shepard I shall not want', was said by a man called David, who was absolutely amazed that no matter what happened to him physically, His Lord took care of him.
We need that realization. The struggle is not up to me. I must hate evil in me first. Then prepare my children to hate the evil in them also. Love hates evil. The Evil is strong. Love will conquer all.
I am no shrinking violet. I am no push-over. I will defend my 'rights'. But I am fully aware God is on the throne. I am his subject and should serve at His pleasure even to die or through torture. Words are easily stated but action costs.
May His Grace and Mercy be with you all."
MY REPLY:
Good insights. Remember man must reach out to God, and after man has the Holy Spirit inside him, he has to DO SOMETHING in regards to how he shall live. Step one in getting people to accept the cure is to make them realize they are sick. In the U.S. military humanistic arrogance/pride are sickening mentalities that are oddly enough thought of as VIRTUES when they clearly create closed-minded stupid people. When proud stupid people see the error of their ways in this life, perhaps they will see that such arrogance is not going to garner them one iota of merit in the next life!