Beavis and Butthead Grow Up

I'll actually give this guy a few charity points for honesty, but is this really what someone wants as the public expression of the US Military?

"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," [Lt. General James] Mattis said, prompting laughter from some military members in the audience. "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

I guess Mattis brought up Afghanistan to reassure folks that, well, you know, he wasn't for shooting normal white folks like himself--just pathetic little brown skinned ones that abuse women. Why, it's almost as if he's a regular Charles Bronson.

Maybe it's just me, but I think I'd prefer to see someone who is given a training and lethal weapons be a little more aware--no, not even sensitive, just more aware--of what it means to actually kill people, even if the people being killed REALLY are assholes. And, for the record, I don't doubt that plenty of Afghan men treat women like shit. Some of them almost certainly deserve to be punished--um, by an Afghan court, under Afghan law--NOT by some foreigner running around in fatigues wielding an M-16 or .50 Cal.

Oh, and I wonder if Mattis gets the same rush when people on HIS side are killed? It'd be nice to know--"General Mattis, is it "a hell of a hoot" to see, oh I don't know, the corpse of Pat Tillman? Just wonderin'..."

Being as how war involves such a complete breakdown of social order, it's pretty goddamned important for soldiers in the military to show a degree of awareness as to the lethal nature of combat. Some troops have a grudging respect for the people they fight--sort of an 'honor among soldiers' situation. My own father, a career military officer, was granted the priviliege of flying Soviet officers from one location to another within the United States during a period of detente. He was presented with a set of Soviet wings, which he kept with his other decorations and insignia. He considered this gesture one of honor and respect.

James Mattis has no honor.