The actual makeup of the armed services of the world is no mystery to
those that actually look beyond the veil of trumped up glory and puffery
that passes for military ceremonial and mystique. The militaries of the
world exist to further the policies and beliefs of the ruling classes of
their respective countries and to secure those for classes their
positions
of primacy within their countries.  They are hired or impressed killers
and they are made up primarily of inexperienced young men drawn from the
disadvantaged of their societies. You can dress this unpalatable fact up
with gold braid, coloured ribbons, arcane styles of sddress and
more-or-less fashionable clothing but the bottom line is that armies
exist
to kill on command and most people whose have any reasonable alternative
would rather not.


-- 
James B. Byrne                mailto:[log in to unmask]
Harte & Lyne Limited          http://www.harte-lyne.ca
9 Brockley Drive              vox: +1 905 561 1241
Hamilton, Ontario             fax: +1 905 561 0757
Canada  L8E 3C3

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-----

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing
is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is
willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal
safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless
made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill 



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