| Point: | |
| No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor bastard die for his country… | |
| — General George S. Patton, Jr. | |
| Counter-Point: | |
| We have been progressively separating human courage from warfare, allowing wimps with computer skills to kill people without the slightest risk to their lives. | |
| — Nassim Nicholas Taleb | |
| From his book: “The Bed Of Procrustes“ | |
| . | |
Winning Wars
May 2, 2012 by kmabarrett
2 Responses
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Kevin Barrett's Blog 
Hi Dale,
I agree and actually go a bit further. My point – counter-point was not to “agree” with the statements, per se. It just struck me that when war get too clean, politicians will be more likely to use force instead of diplomacy. Note that Gen. Patton is not saying being a computer jockey is a bad thing – the important message is to be able to engage and destroy the enemy without being killed yourself. By the same token, recall the riding scene in the movie where “he” criticizes the use of atom bombs because it removes heroism and glory from combat.
Technology evolves and, as a result, weapons become more advanced to provide precision strike capability without putting troops at risk. This has happened throughout the history of warfare. Fortunately, as technology evolves, so do the people who are tasked with delivering this lethal technology to the enemy. No matter the technology, and no matter where the people are stationed to operate that technology, I will always thank a ‘computer jockey’ in the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard over someone who is hanging out at Game Stop everyday.