There He Goes Again

Lileks thinks of those who fight:

It would be stretching the point to say every soldier wants to be there. We don’t have 200,000 killbots straining at the leash, eager to bayonet a hapless foe.

A reservist who kissed her husband and child goodbye and left knowing her employer will cut her pay, she might rather be home. A sailor who’s seven months into a six-month deployment, who’d rather be back in San Diego having a cold beer with shipmates or throwing a Frisbee on the beach, he might prefer some shore leave. Some new recruit sweating in his chemical protection gear, sitting out the stinging sandstorms, wondering whether Saddam Hussein strikes first, waiting for the order to go, go, go — all things considered, he might prefer to be sitting in the rec room with a Bud, the TV and the Final Four.

Yet there they are. On our behalf. Underpaid, overworked, ready to fight.

This is from today’s Newhouse column, not a Bleat or Screed. Read the whole thing already.