But the one who knew you long before I did was Janet Taylor Caldwell from Manchester, England. At first I wasn't sure if she was talking about you, Mr. USA, or you, Mr. UK. But then I realized that she was actually talking about both of you, but one in the present tense and the other in the past tense.

Even though Mrs. Caldwell was born in England, I can almost feel her standing beside me grinning and saying in that unmistakable MacGregor Scottish clan accent, Every ambitious would-be empire, clarions it abroad that she is conquering the world to bring it peace, security and freedom, and it is sacrificing her sons only for the most noble and humanitarian purposes. That is a lie; and it is an ancient lie, yet generations still rise and believe it.

Ah, and what a damn lie it is to. But the absolute truth is that few soldiers are pulled in by the war propaganda that comes out of the lie factories in Washington, D.C. and London, England. No lengthy research is needed to discover that few of the privileged sign-up to rush off to save the world from some sociopath for some other sociopath. Armies are made up of guys who are looking for adventure and jobs. The embellishing is added as needed as time goes by to justify and to qualify. Oh, for sure the war propaganda, like worms on a fish hook, does bring in a sufficient number of those from the shallow end of the gene pool, and for this let us all give thanks, for they are the ones the sociopaths send to the front lines to die for God and country.

Footnote: A few people have taken offence because a member of their family had fought on the front lines in some war. I haven't put anyone in either of the three categories referred to in this article. I have left that decision up to the reader. I will submit that those who have sent men to the front lines to die supposedly for God and country have stated my case much better than I ever could.

"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon." ~ Napoleon

"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." ~ General George S. Patton

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. ~ General Dwight David Eisenhower

"The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living." ~ General Omar Bradley

"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." ~ Henry Kissinger, quoted in Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POWs in Vietnam.

"The worst outcrop of herd life [is] the military system, which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in fours to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; unprotected spinal marrow was all he needed." ~ Albert Einstein

"The Distinguished Flying Cross along with assorted other awards are displayed in my den as a reminder that the godless, murdering degenerates in Washington, D.C. recognize and appreciate talent when they see it." ~ Bobby Miller