“Andrew, I know from reading your site that you are intelligent, but you really put your foot in it with your comment. You must not have your brain fully engaged after your vacation. Your quote of the day from LCDR Whitsitt misses the point completely.
EVERYONE in the military would rather be saving lives than taking them. More important, most military personnel don’t see any difference between the mission in Iraq and the mission in tsunami-stricken south Asia. The goal is to help people who have been ravaged by forces beyond their control to get back on their feet and join the community of nations so they won’t continue to be a burden (or danger) to us.
Relief work is hard and dangerous and unpleasant. No one enjoys the stench of rotting corpses, whether its in Fallajuh or Banda Aceh. Military personnel will be exposed to any diseases that break out. Working in the tropics with only rudimentary living conditions (as those assigned onshore to the cleanup and reconstruction will face for months) is no picnic. Flying supplies off of ships to remote locations over miles of ocean and jungle will not be accident-free.
LCDR Whitsitt’s point is, he’d rather risk his life helping the Indonesians than fighting in a place where some of the very people he’s risking his life for are indifferent at best, and gunning for him at worst. However, like virtually every other person in the military, he’ll do his best to accomplish the mission assigned to him by the nation’s leaders… in Baghdad or Banda Aceh.
I, for one, am extremely proud of the US and the US military and the job they are doing in south Asia… and the job they are doing in southwest Asia. You should be, too. What other country could bring relief to the suffering on the scale that we can? What other country would even try?” – more feedback on the Letters Page. My point is not that bringing relief to stricken people is somehow less worthy than fighting wars. My point is that the military is primarily about fighting and winning wars – not disaster relief.
TAX REFORM FIRST: My case for Bush punting social security reform in favor of tax simplification. (You need to subscribe to TNR online to read it.)
MARIJUANA AND HIV: Here’s an interesting new study that suggests that marijuana can greatly help people stick to nausa-inducing anti-HIV drug regimens. Sticking to the regimens is critical for preventing viral resistance and progression of AIDS. But the feds would rather people with HIV accelerate their deaths than give any sort of approval to pot.
The Dish 