A civilized military?

David Limbaugh has an outstanding blog, and is an almost daily read for me. In one of his recent posts, David asks the question, "Does the Left want to "Civilize" the Military?", and details the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the recent remarks by Lt. General James Mattis, where he said, "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront 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. 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'm a Navy vet, and as I was reading David's post on this, I was reminded of a conversation I had years ago (in the early '90's) with a former female co-worker, who asked me why boot camp was "so rough?". What prompted her question was me relating to her how I used to watch the Marine "boots" (trainees) run miles every day through semi-deep sand (I went to basic training in San Diego back in the mid-70's, and the Marine basic training facility is right next door to the Navy facility), and how they had ambulances following behind, to pick up the guys that passed out during the run.

I explained that, first of all, MY boot camp was a relative breeze in comparison, and that second of all, things are much different "today" (there have been other changes since) than they were then. Then I tried to explain to her why the Marines trained so hard - that they were training to go into combat, and they needed to be trained hard, to give them a better chance of surviving and accomplishing the mission.

I've never been in combat, but I know that combat is a rough business, and in order for combat missions to have a successful outcome (i.e, us winning), you need to have rough men, trained hard. There is an axiom in the combat arms of the military that goes something like this - "Train like you're going to fight, and fight like you've been trained." - with the truth behind that being, if you don't train hard, you will not be able to fight hard.

Think about that for a moment, and consider what might have happened in Afghanistan and Iraq. While each casualty on the battle field is a tragedy - and I mourn each loss - think what the casualty rates might have been if our forces didn't train hard. You think the hysterics from the defeatist Left are over the top now? Think of what they would have been saying, if the casualty rates were higher!

While I think that basic training has been watered down way too much, I thank God that the training our military people do go through, produces such "rough" men as Lt. Gen. James Mattis. Without men such as him, I don't know how free America would still be, and that's a scary thought.