>>>As the bumper sticker put it: "Thou Shalt Not Kill/Includes Your Enemies." I suspect we all have things worth dying for, the only question being "was it worth it?"
>>>
>>>Hank
>>>
>>>PS: the case can, and has been made -- by US Military strategists including Petraeus -- that we messed up in Vietnam, Irag and Afghanistan because we focused on killing the enemy, rather than protecting the public and providing them with better lives. While everything is open to interpretation at some level, any discussion of these wars has to begin with the analyses of those who have the most to lose by bucking the system.
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>>It's why the military spends so much time building bridges, schools, youth centers, roads, hospitals, trucking in food and supplies, etc.
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>We give the civilians cookies. That's nice.
>
>The bad guys kill them if they don't help them kill our people. The bad guys destroy anything we gave them while they are at it.
>
>Let's see -- cookies or life. Pick.

It is not necessary to pick between the two and short-sighted to do so. The only hope after the bullets stop firing is for the children of those countries to grow up in a stable envioronment with a future where extremism is not taught at every school and as a condition for a food handout.

Update: Just stumbled across a great show: Top Shot on History HD. Have you seen it? It was pistol competitions tonight...