Day 57 - Double-Down

This week begins my transition to planning for only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday blog posts. I believe this will suffice to keep you informed of any developments while we all continue to await the final decision of NAVPERSCOM (PERS-832) as to whether or not the Navy will continue to retain my unwilling services.

The extra time will also allow for me to organize a revisiting of the issues of "Obedience as Virtue?", "The Nature of Government", and "Consent, what consent?". If you haven't already, I encourage you to read these posts and their attached comments , then join the discussion by commenting and/or emailing me with your own thoughts.

As for today's post and the double-down title, I want to draw attention to the right side-bar link to "Letters of Support" or as it's also known, the "Evidence of My Sincerity" page. Over the weekend, I made available online quite a few more of the letters I have received in support of my CO request. If you haven't written yet but would like to, I have no doubt that your letter would still help since I know members of the Navy are among my readership.

To close this brief post, here's a quote from one of the most decorated Marines to have ever worn the uniform of the United States Military.

"War is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.

It is the only one international in scope.

It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, 1935

Two-time winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor