I sometimes wonder if some of you misunderstand me, when I talk about who and what I am, what I mean when I talk about living your life as a warrior, about killing, and the act therein. The concept of honor... dying for something. What do all this things really mean? What's it all for? What's it amount to?
I've been called many things, through out humanity's history, warrior soldier, spartan, legionnaire, Marine, ranger, commando... and a thousand other names, murderer, monster, baby killer and many others amongst them. I've been called those last three to my face more then a few times. In the end I am, we are, all of these things and none of them. To be a pretentious git and quote one of Shakespeare's lesser known tragedies "Make you a sword of me!" (Gaius Marcus Coriolanus, watch the recent movie with Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler at the very least it's phenomenal). That is in fact what we the willing say when we sign up as free volunteers though the words are different. The meaning is quite similar. (Even if the usage in the play is VERY different from the way I use it here). It's been said a solider should be prepared to die for his country, I disagree. Dying for your country isn't good at all, nor should it be the goal of a military operation, as George S. Patton said, the goal is making the other poor son of a bitch die for his country. This can go poorly for us, and result in horrors and misuse the world over. A sword is no better then the hand that wields it after all, thankfully the United States any many nations are making far more intelligent soldiers these days, and slightly more enlightened, or at least more cowardly leaders, so many once great horrors have vanished from our kind, to be replaced with smaller terrors and demons all the same... but, I like to think we have made some small progress.
What then did I enlist for? Why did I say I would go? It's a question I get asked a lot, and it's a complex answer. More complex then I think I can ever explain in words, it can simply be understood by those with a similar mindset. In short though, beyond all other meaning and reasons, I could, I was willing... and if I went, someone else wouldn't have to.
Then the question comes, from those too dumb to know better, or those bold enough to demand such answers... what would you kill for? Or die for? When it came down to it... when it was just me and my soul, checking my gear before I was told my orders had been changed, and I would not be sent overseas (I believe this was the third or fourth time I attempted to volunteer to deploy) I faced myself and thought, not of country and colors, cause or creed, simply the men and women by my side, my brothers and sisters, family of mine by choice, and by oath, for them... if it meant saving just one life of those I called mine, and called me theirs in return, for the chance to survive... and for the chance to ensure the safety of those I care about, there and here... living and dying for what, in the end can only be called love... some honor that perhaps.
Not for the love of death, and the act of killing. To survive, and give my life so that others may live.
"You're not a soldier! I'm a soldier, with the career goal of all soldiers - staying alive in situations where it ain't all that easy to do! You're a death-lover. Some sorry son of a bitch has got you convinced that dying for a cause is oh, so romantic. Well, that's the worst kind of all the kinds of bullshit there is!"
- COl Kerby, Taps
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Topic: Blog Thread 4; Live Free or Blog Hard - 'cos we all like blogging (Read 568981 times)