"Kevin Brooks" wrote in message ...

Out of curiousity--when was the last time you posted something positive
about the US, or its military forces, or its military operations (and keep
this in the modern era, please)?

How about these most recently, in an exchange that you and I had in
February, on a thread entitled ' "The New Soldier" by John Kerry et
al':

" You and I have differing views of what makes someone "admirable". I
find the
Army aviators who landed at My Lai and placed themselves in between the
perpetrators and some of the soon-to-be victims as being "admirable"...

Actually, I find that admirable as well. You don't like what Kerry
said after a war that, AFAIK, he was in and you (and I) weren't? Fine,
but that's hardly a reason to condemn him, in my book."

and "Kerry went to a dumb-ass war, then opposed it when he got back...
both admirable things and fulfilling the duties of a citizen, I'd
say."

Or don't those count because the conversation involved a Democrat? I
won't even ask you to find a case in which you were critical of the
American military... I'm sure they exist, somewhere.

In any case, why would you think that I'm disgusted with America, or
even with the American military? It's a standard practice in these
forums to accuse anyone who brings these topics up of hating America
(you're actually far less dramatic about doing that than a variety of
other people...), but you must realise that it is possible to
criticise -- even consistently criticise -- particular aspects of
military affairs without hating the organisation involved.

You want a statement of principles? OK: I have a great deal of respect
for many aspects of the American military, and for American soldiers
as a group. I think that for the most part, they are professional and
sincere in what they do. I think that an American doctrinal emphasis
on overwhelming firepower is not equalled by a similar emphasis on
intelligence gathering and target confirmation, in circumstances of
expeditionary warfare where people who may be valid targets are
interspersed with innocent civilians and where military knowledge of
local populations is often abysmally low. I think that the rhetoric of
the 'War on Terror' has led American civilian leaders to put in place
procedures where significant violations of human rights, more
specifically the various Geneva Conventions, have occured; the most
systematic violations appear to have involved civilian agencies, but
military units have been involved in some cases. I think that a
military as professional as that of the United States should be able
to police its own screw-ups, and I don't like to see cases where it
doesn't. I dislike historical amnesia, and historical revisionism.

Now, you may think all of that nonsense -- and I won't care a whit.
But now you know more or less where I'm coming from.

The reasons I stay here are fairly straightforward: I find a lot of
things to admire about the United States, I like my job and I like the
community I live in. The reason I bring these issues up (here and in
other forums) are equally straightforward: I disapprove of the way
they're handled, I pay (rather substantial) taxes in America and I
don't have an American franchise to exercise. The fact that I live
here doesn't mean that I have to approve of everything your government
does, nor that I have to show any deference toward your president.
Sorry, lèse-majesté isn't even a crime in Canada, let along the USA.

You have inaccurately paraphrased, or incompletely paraphrased his
statements to the point of changing his meaning.

A paraphrase is necessarily incomplete, and I'm not about to paste
full transcripts into a Usenet post. If you have cases where I've
distorted what Kimmitt has said, post 'em.

Scott