Does this mean we have to invade them, too?

Originally Posted by Tonchi
Oh well, you force me to mention again that my MOTHER was discharged from the US Army with a higher rank than you held.

Totally irrelevant. In the military, just as in other walks of life, there is rank and then there is position. Most people grasp this concept just from watching television programs like M*A*S*H when they see a doctor who is a Captain and a Nurse who is a Major go into an operating room and that Major follows the Captain's orders.

I was at a US Army field hospital in Central America when a nearby military police station got fired up by domestic terrorists. Fearing an attack on the hospital, the troop Commander (HQ Co.) walked up to me and said "Sergeant 'NoBoxes', I relinquish my command to you." The full bird Colonel (physician) who was the hospital commander wasn't even a factor. I, a senior NCO and the senior Special Forces advisor in the vicinity established protocol for the security of the hospital proper and the security of the troops in the contonment area. I issued the weapons, established the fields of fire, and I gave the order to shoot to kill anyone* who breached the security protocols (*including US troops and indigenous allied troops who had never been under fire before).

I've related this experience because the troop Commander (Captain) and hospital Commander (Colonel) were both female Army officers. The only legitimate inference that can be made from your statement is that "Your mother wore Army boots." Nowadays, ironically, that is a good thing!

That was; however, your mother and NOT YOU! Using someone else's accomplishment to assert your position reflects second world ethics. I've seen others who, like you, have spent extended periods of time dealing with second worlders and have had their judgment unduly influenced by second world ethics. The change is so gradual that the person is almost never aware of it. I've seen this in you on multiple occasions which is why I have discontinued PM correspondence with you. In another forum we both frequent, even though I enabled my option not to receive PMs, you used your capability as forum Administrator there to send a PM through to me. Don't do that anymore. I have no use for people, who have adopted second world ethics, in my personal life. Live and let live.

Originally Posted by Ibram
Forcing freedom on people is no way to act.

(from the mouths of babes)

[Tonchi]

Originally Posted by NoBoxes

That was; however, your mother and NOT YOU! Using someone else's accomplishment to assert your position reflects second world ethics.

I'm surprised at your response. You missed the original conversation here, over a year ago, which led to my remark. I was speaking totally tongue in cheek, which even UG realized, and harkened back to that previous (unrelated) thread where UG was fulminating about his medals and rank. When somebody else asked him what that rank actually WAS, it turned out that he was not exactly as "high up" as his rhetoric would make you believe, whereupon I made my remark originally. Poking UG with sticks is a time-honored tradition here and is definitely is more satisfying than getting into a rabid shouting match with him the way others have.

As for your other evaluation, I am even more surprised. Because YOUR opinions and suggestions were always appreciated and forwarded on, it is not easy to understand why you simply didn't communicate your feelings directly if you saw a problem instead of just slamming the door and then venting here. Even people who genuinely hate me and wish me serious harm will tell me so in a PM, you couldn't?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Tonchi

I was speaking totally tongue in cheek, which even UG realized, and harkened back to that previous (unrelated) thread where UG was fulminating about his medals and rank. When somebody else asked him what that rank actually WAS, it turned out that he was not exactly as "high up" as his rhetoric would make you believe, whereupon I made my remark originally.

Actually, to set the record even straighter, I've never "fulminated about [my] medals and rank" or more properly my rate. Rank is officer, rate is enlisted, and anybody who thought I was a rear admiral was regrettably deceiving himself. I've merely remarked that I left the US Navy as an E-6 and that I have a couple of decorations of which I am proud, but which aren't the stuff of mighty heroism either. I know what I did, and I know the worth of it, in spite of attempts by certain fools and an antipatriot or two to denigrate it. These persons are of course despicable.