In an earlier post, Alice opined:
> I don't agree with a national army either, ...
Oops. Sore spot. A little light reasoning for you:
Living in a well policed country which hasn't seen armed conflict on its
soil in your lifetime tends to make you myopic about the nature of the
world in general and nations in particular.
The reason you don't see the need for an army is this : It's doing it's
job well. That job being to make it expensive and unpleasant for some
other bunch of gun toting nutters to come and take over your little
slice of the world.
<RANT>
"In a world where nobody has any arms, the one armed man is king" -
somebody. Don't talk to me about the man/person thing, I'm quoting.
In a country that has no army, half a hundred yahoos with guns will rule
their own little fiefdom. What about the police, you say? If the
police are going to deal with an organised army, they're going to have
to act like one themselves (and to some degree, they can and do). We
don't have that many organised gun toting psychos, you say? Don't
worry. If you have no army, they'll import themselves. Customs won't
let them in, you say? What are they going to stop them with? A good
stern lecture?
</RANT>
IMO, western women have a far greater vested interest in maintaining a
national army than western men do. I say this because most of the
nations and cultures which western standing armys exist to keep away are
far less female friendly than "we" are.
There are nations in the world where millions of people think that if
you're gay or lesbian they're morally obligated to put you to death with
penalties nearly as severe for women who talk back to their husbands. I
personally don't want that here. Call it a hunch, but I don't think
anyone else here wants that either.
Standing armies (even small ones) are vitally important because they
place a lower limit on the number of lunatics which have to get their
heads together before they can forcibly spread their insanity.
<OT-RANT>
New Zealand recently lowered the bar for this kind of crap by cutting
back the air-strike capability of our airforce. Strangely, this was
done shortly after contributing troops to East Timor. How's that for
intelligent: Slap the hand of one of your most powerful and least
friendly neighbours and then loudly toss out your weapons. The wisdom
of that maneuvre knows no beginning.
</OT-RANT>
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