A reader responds to an earlier post:
As Augustine said, an unexamined life is not worth living. My single attribute was the ability to defend others. After nearly 16 years in special forces I found myself shot up one time too many. I had too many broken bones to keep jumping out of aircraft. Too many psychotic violent people had come too close to killing me. As I woke up in intensive care again I contemplated the meaning of life. I met a fine young lady that had volunteered to help a bunch of us soldiers with our therapy before returning to duty. By divine providence I returned to the area for training afterwards and was hurt once more. I found my soul mate and a new challenge for my intellect. I no longer wanted to match wits with violent people, my busted up hands were no longer agile enough to safely disarm bombs as I once had, I needed a new reason to live. Teaching gave me something important to do that used my mental talents, my wife gave me the courage to become a teacher, she said she could live with the lesser monetary status it would assure us. I have no regrets other than not doing this sooner
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Too many psychotic violent people had come too close to killing me”.
While I am glad that this individual has “seen the light”, when one lives in the world of violent psychosis, i.e., special forces, one should expect psychotic behavior. I hope that the writer of that post realizes that he too was a “psychotic violent” person as this post reeks of narcissism. Has he atoned for those deeds? Has he gone back to apologize to those who survived his killing escapades? I don’t know and I don’t care one way or the other but he chose that path, the path of death and destruction.
No, I don’t glorify those who choose the path death and destruction, i.e., those who join the military, over the path of life and living that they could have chosen. Nor do I “honor” those who have chosen that course of life. It used to be that soldiers were considered the vermin of society but boy the pentagon sure has changed that perception, eh! American exceptionalism at its finest in that propaganda.
LikeLike
I so much disagree with you. this person joined the armed services as many of us did, to defend this country. Where the politicians send us is out of our control. Our soldiers should always be appreciated, as our police and firefighters and others in public service who rush to danger as we run away. I applaud this person and thank him for his service to all of us. What I think is funny and speaks of the career of teaching is that his wife gave him the courage to teach after all he’s been through. Good luck to him, welcome to our ranks, and thanks again.
LikeLike
Those killing escapades involved taking innocent hostages back from their holders, protecting innocent unarmed people from those wishing to exterminate them… I think you have too much faith in conspiracy theories Duane. Remember, the massacres of Lt. Calley were stopped by American Soldiers pointing their weapons at their countrymen. I was not a violent psychotic person, I chose to stand in the breach and oppose them. Fortunately for you, many will continue to defend you, military and police, even though you will never understand or appreciate them.
LikeLike
Should I really apologize for the fact that my team and I brought out over 100 hostages alive and well? Should I apologize for the fact that as a negotiator I rarely had to take another life so many others could live? I think not. Those that died made their choice to commit evil. It is their actions and choices that put them in my gun sights. I don’t owe anyone an apology.
LikeLike
K.
Generally I agree with most everything that you post. But in this instance we will just disagree.
” I chose to stand in the breach and oppose them.” If you were at My Lai and chose to “stand in the breach” then I applaud your actions. And I contend that there is a major difference between those who voluntarily serve and those who were drafted and had no choice.
I did not say anything about police, only the military. And I don’t believe this whole “protection” way of viewing the military. “We’re fighting over there to protect you all in the US”. Pure hogwash, we’re only making more enemies who would love to do us harm because of our illegal wars of aggression.
Now I don’t know when you were in (although you hinted it was Nam), but if it was after the draft then it was a voluntary action on your part. Did your actions with the hostage situation occur on US soil/territory? If not then more likely than not it was part of an illegal war of aggression as defined by the UN treaty to which we are a signatory which means it is the law of this country. Although at the time (and still maybe do) you believed that it was “the right thing to do” in reality it was part of what the Nuremburg court concluded was the highest evil, that of illegal wars of aggression. Since I don’t know the exact circumstances of your situation, I can’t say for sure, but I don’t know of many “wars” that the US has been in since Korea that were ratified by the UN maybe Bush 1’s Iraq and Bush 2’s Afghanistan and those were sham ratifications at best.
In reality the US has become an empire using violent force to accomplish nefarious ends and impose its will. That’s just how it is. I think in education when we see this type of behavior we call it bullying, except that in the case of the US it is bullying to the Nth degree. I consider myself to be quite patriotic but not nationalistic which is the form that most people in the US adhere to-my country right or wrong. I’m quite sad at our current state of foreign affairs where death and destruction seem to be the overriding mode of dealing with those with whom we have disagreements. No wonder we have serious problems in education when the same type of hierarchical, top down, I know better than the grunts (teachers) and you will do as you are told or suffer my wrath type of thinking holds sway. It’s a cultural thing I guess.
LikeLike
Agreed. You owe no one an apology. Thank you for your service.
If people don’t like the wars our nation fights, take it up with the President and the Congress, not the men and women who serve and put their lives at risk.
It’s kind of like what is happening now in the nation regarding education.
Teachers are being blamed for a poor economy, instead of looking at the malefactors of great wealth who outsource jobs and the bankers who brought the economy to its knees.
LikeLike
To Duane. I hope you are not spreading these views in the classroom. We teach our students to think for themselves not what to think. Students, especially in HS, are very impressionable and often relate to teachers they admired. We should be very careful how we express ourselves to them.
LikeLike
To Diane R. I agree with you on this issue. Teachers do not make educational policy. They are trying to make sense of it and work with it to teach our children. Yet, they are taking the fall for failed policies.
LikeLike
You mean Socrates.
LikeLike
Originally yes, echoed eloquently by Augustine also.
LikeLike
Duane, any response to you would be a waste of time.
LikeLike
Duane, I joined after Nam. I was part of a specialized team trained in hostage extraction. We negotiated hostage releases and used force when necessary. Yes, we rescued diplomats and civilians being held abroad. I consider the taking of hostages an act of war. We were the response to the evil acts of others. I also was an EOD technician and sniper. I disarmed bombs and provided personal protection to diplomats. Several of my friends were at MY Lai, their gunship stopped the massacre and reported it. WE aren’t all immoral robots. Most of the people I served with in Special Forces with were the most decent and moral people you will ever meet. I happen to agree with you on the questionable justifications for recent wars. War should be a last resort over vital issues of survival, not convenient economic issues or wounded pride. We will have to agree to disagree on your other points.
LikeLike
Thank you for your service.
LikeLike
K,
Thanks for clarifying your service.
Contrary to what many here may think, I am not against a military that is used for defensive purposes but that is not how the US is using it’s military these days and hasn’t been for many years prior. I have known many service members and many were very honorable and intelligent, moral folks. I just don’t agree with the blind nationalism being bantered about in the guise of “patriotism”.
One of the best ways to insure that our country’s politicians wouldn’t be so willing to use our armed forces for nefarious purposes is if we would re-institute the draft so that all had to participate. But that won’t happen because the pentagon has realized that that was part of the “problem” with the protests against the Nam war-too many people were being affected.
And there is a nation without any military-Costa Rica. And it hasn’t had one since ’48, even in the 60s-90s when there was war in many of the countries around it (much of that strife caused by meddling US policy).
I’d ask all who read this blog to read Gen. Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket” found at: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm . And the problems Butler identified with war are even worse today. Butler also prevented a fascist coup against FDR when the plotters (one of whom was Prescott Bush) came to him to be a part of the plan, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
LikeLike