This thread's not going to go well I feel, however, while I don't care about his politics or similar (not being a US citizen, it's not my interest or business) I think the following quote is worth bearing in mind. My emphasis.
Quote:
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I've been asked before, where did the brave men I was privileged to serve with in Vietnam draw the strength to resist to the best of their ability the cruelties inflicted on them by our enemies.
Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment -- a few of them even unto death. But every one of us, every single one of us knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.
That faith was indispensable not only to our survival but to our attempts to return home with honor. Many of the men I served with would have preferred death to such dishonor.
Soldiering is of course an abrogation of normal, civilised standards. Soldiers are licensed to step outside some conventions. Pragmatic realism shows that 'our' people do 'the wrong' thing sometimes. It remains inexcusable, because when it's licenced it undermines what they are supposedly defending.
Any number of excuses can be offered for the things that happen in war; they don't matter. It's the ideas that the society aspires to that counts, and the continuation of that aspiration,
despite the efforts of your enemies.
It is always the people and their ideals that make a country 'great'. If they fail, whatever noise is made, that greatness is gone.
Finally, it's not what you can excuse of your military that matters, it is the good opinion of your friends and allies, where they too are free, and your society can accept and act on the criticism of your allies, and know you live to your standards, not the depths of your enemies'.
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