Throughout history science and civilization have seldom crossed the same azimuth at the same time. Nothing demonstrates this more profoundly than man's history of war. Civilization from Rome to Persia found man willing to bludgeon, burn, boil in oil and crush beneath boulders and elephant hooves anyone considered the enemy. Leap forward to present day. Science has delivered weapons that produce so much devastation and over-kill they are unthinkable for use by men who are not insane. Terrorism is based on asymmetrical warfare. Nineteen terrorists brought down the symbol of free market enterprise while killing nearly three thousand innocent men, women and children, using our own commercial aircraft. A SWAT team from the NYPD could have dropped the bastards where they stood. Why didn't they? Absence of hard intel. Without information the terrorists swim along side us anonymous and unchallenged. The American Left used the loss of fifty eight plus thousand soldiers in Vietnam to justify the piece by piece dismantling of the CIA and the criminalization of HUMINT. Without HUMINT we will be naked and blind in a hostile world.
Courage is not true courage without meaning. Spinoza described the highest form of courage as total self-affirmation, or the balancing of the fear of death with the willingness to sacrifice one's life in defense of meaning. Some things are so valuable they transcend the sacrifice of individual life. Paul Tillich differentiates between Herzmutig which is courage with the highest purpose, or sacrificing one's life for the innocent and Tapferkeit which is fortitude without a higher principle, such as dying in exchange for protecting the less worthy. It is sad as well as tragic that man is both at his highest and lowest mark in life when he partakes in war.
Navy SEALs are by far the most lethal, loyal, intelligent and heroic American fighters in the three centuries we have been a nation. Science has provided them with the best weapons and their training allows them to win as a sniper a mile away, or a terrorist's worse nightmare in close quarter hand to hand combat. I was a Captain in the Green berets. I will always have the deepest respect for Special Operators regardless of the branch of service. They are all heroes.
Thanks for reading my stories.
Scott Grant
2012
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Srey An and Ming Li. The only women David Anderson ever truly loved, were both lost to his violent path in life.
David Anderson and Bill Murphy. Ex-CIA agents who became rich running Drug Operations in the Golden Triangle until they crossed paths with the Chinese triads.
