Warriors & Scholars ** Was: Pregnancy and Essential Oils

[Guest guest]

Howdy Ien,

 

> Butch,

>

> as always, thanks for all the education.

 

Welcome you are fer'shur. :-)

 

> And by the way, someone sent me this quote.

> I don't know who said it, but it gave me much food for thought and I

> immediately thought of how much you would like it.

>

> <A nation that draws too broad a difference between it's scholars and

> it's warriors will have it's thinking done by cowards, and it's fighting

> done by fools.>

 

Thanks much .. its a quote from Greek scholar (who was also an Athenian

General) Thucydides: " The Nation that makes a great distinction between

its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and

its fighting done by fools. "

 

Socrates was also a philosopher who fought in numerous campaigns. Back

then all Greek men fought and generally, the ancient Greeks made little

distinction between scholars and warriors.

 

This quote has come up a few times just lately due to some attempts by a

handful of folks to restrict military recruiting on college campuses and

to stop the teaching of ROTC. Such attempts are short sighted because

of the nature of America's volunteer military .. one must have a degree

to be commissioned and the competition for promotion is so great that

there is little to no chance of making Lieutenant Colonel unless one has

a Masters. In fact, the average mud pounding grunt infantry soldier

today deals with more technology than I did when I graduated from the

six month Officer's Advance Course when I was a captain. ;-)

 

The US Armed Forces still demand civilian education but its specialized

military education that counts when splitting hairs to select one good

officer for promotion ahead of another good officer. Back in 1975, I

was in a doctorate program at the University of Southern California when

I received a call from Washington telling me I'd been selected to attend

the Department of Defense Command & Staff College. I told my controller

I was in the USC program and he advised that I could continue with USC

if I wanted but the US Army was not looking for Ph.D.'s .. they wanted

officers who had higher level military education. So .. I dropped USC

and attended the DOD school. ;-)

 

> I would feel better if more fightning was done by people of Butch's ilk.

> (my preference is for less fighting, period)

 

Thankee ma'am .. appreciated are the kind words. I, like all who have

experienced combat (with some exceptions, I suppose) would prefer less

fighting .. but we are still (methinks) a few generations short of being

able to realize such a dream.

 

> Ien in the Kootenays

> ****************************

> I can finish my own sentences again!

> muddled

> ****************************

 

Y'all have a gud'un .. and keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch http://www.AV-AT.com