Norman Horowitz: I Continue to Wonder Why We Have Become the Leading Warrior Nation in the World

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from HuffPost:



Norman Horowitz
I CONTINUE TO WONDER WHY HAVE WE BECOME THE LEADING WARRIOR NATION IN THE WORLD
Posted February 24, 2008 | 08:25 AM (EST)



For some reason it strikes me as odd that there are more or less 35,000 registered lobbyists in Washington.

In the last 50 or so years about 120,000 of our boys and girls have died in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq, and the count continues.

Am I trying to make a connection between the two?

I don't know or even have a clue.

I wrote something a few days ago that was meant to be critical of a pro war article carried in the Wall Street Journal, (where else?) by a PhD named Arthur Herman.

While it was my intention to ridicule Dr. Arthur Herman, as I often regrettably do, I became sidetracked inside my own hostility to "non-operating" PhDs, and annoyed many holding this advanced degree, and I am sorry about that. I continue to believe that business and life are not about the intellectualism of it, but rather the experience of it.

Forgive the metaphor, but it is like spending all of your time researching and studying about sex and sexuality and then writing about it, or instead learning about sex by engaging in it, and after doing "it" writing about it.

A friend, a retired Marine Colonel, wrote to me at my request to tell me a little about his service in Vietnam. After all, what would he know about this stuff? He did "Marine duty" in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam and Dr. Herman "read about it."

He was an "I have my feet on the ground and my ass on the line Marine." Dr. Herman is a promoter of "winning" in Iraq and is ready to blame the left wing media if we don't, this "blame the messenger stuff" is just wrong. I expect that you certainly do not need to be a soldier to comment on WAR, but I expect that it helps. (This is only a kittle more churlishness on my behalf.)

My friend's words are not just some "year's later intellectualization. A Marine Colonel can safely say what matters to so many like me: "Been there, done that." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norman-horowitz/i-continue-to-wonder-why-_b_88157.html

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