Okay I am going to chime in, and I fully expect to be slammed or banned.
I get what LUIGI was saying.
His reference to IDF, a country where they have lived in a battle zone for years, even as a citizen...imagine you live in fear of riding Mass Transit, let's not even start the conversation of them dropping bombs on their neighbor quite frequently.
I also understand when he says we don't want to talk about the white elephant in the room Many or most of us will have children facing horrific situations soon due to the decision our children made. He is not wrong to say we need to be realistic.
I am sorry if anyone takes offense to what I will say now, but here I go:
I have kissed Bullet goodby knowing that he would be in a badlands area, way too many times than I care to remember. This life is not only difficult because you will move 15 times in 20 years, but you will spend many of those years scouring the TV and internet to find a tidbit of info about your loved one.
When we get to the bottom of this subject, there will be people who will have to live the rest of hteir life knowing they killed someone. Someone said, that is what makes us different, we did not go out and intentionally kill innocent people. This life is hard. IT IS ABOUT FOLLOWING ORDERS REGARDLESS OF YOUR OPINION. IT IS ABOUT BEING SENT AWAY FOR MOS. AT A TIME IN A MOMENTS NOTICE, IT IS ABOUT NEVER LIVING CLOSE TO HOME (BABIES BEING BORN WITHOUT A PARENT BEING THERE, LET ALONE FAMILY MEMBERS), IT IS ABOUT MOVING CONSTANTLY, IT IS ABOUT BALANCING ALL OF THESE THINGS WITH YOU PERSONALLY.
I believe too many people are wrapped up with the dream of being an officer and not realizing they are alot of other facets.
No military member wants to take another life, bbe it a military member or "collateral". They will have to deal with it, yet, in the end of the day Luigi was right, I think for many people this conversation was just too close to home.
I have been the spouse for @ 20 yrs., I have watched Bullet leave me for conflicts when my eldest was 6 mos. old for Gulf I and when my youngest was 4 mos old. for Haiti (we had 5 other deployments to the badlands besides these 2). Honestly, all we should do is support our love ones. They will have to live and deal with what they have done...in our family we have never discussed it, I know a little bit, but in the end I KNOW THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR HE DID IT WITH HONOR
Also remember that I know I have another 20 yrs of having to deal with this issue, since DS will be serving our nation.