I'm very torn on this article and the positions it's author takes. I am a USMC combat vet of OIF, from a long line of warriors (all the way back to when we were Hessian mercenaries). I have been steeped in the ways of war, and even though I am a regular old sysadmin to most, it will always be a part of me, and me of it.

So it confuses me when a Marine who has experienced as much as the author, including having been rewarded a Navy Cross for taking a bunker hill, says things like: "Born warriors are interested in war and fighting, not philosophy or politics." and "They don’t think or talk about whether war is moral. They don’t ponder why they are fighting for their country or whether their country was right to put them in battle. They don’t think about foreign policy—and they certainly don’t make it."

I can see the point he is trying to make, but I disagree vehemently with these particular statements. For me, it was the realization that a true warrior not only does, but should... no, must take an active interest in politics, philosophy, foreign-policy, and the reasons behind the war they are engaged in.

I would consider myself a born warrior, but I didn't go merc (modern term: contractor), or otherwise stay in the fight just to fight. Why? Because I realized, even from the very small picture a mcsf/infantry grunt, that there were lies in abundance being told to us, even to our CO's, in Iraq. I got out so that I could educate myself and I have spent the majority of my free time trying to understand the bigger geopolitical/geostrategic picture since then.

Just within the last few years have I begun to even feel as if I had a grasp on these concepts enough to claim a modicum of understanding. Yes, I have known guys who seemed to excel in combat, who went contractor and have generally stayed involved in the action side of things, but, quite honestly, while I would love to have them by my side in the heat of a firefight, their failure to understand the bigger picture is part of the reason we failed so spectacularly in the middle east in the first place.

When you have ground pounding knuckle-draggers, ready to destroy the enemy, but that aren't able to see a grander scheme, they become fodder, dispensable tools in a cause even they don't understand, and their lives are spent far too frivolously. Mr. Marlantes is correct that in the moment of battle we don't care about these things, because in that moment you just want to live, save your friends, and kill the enemy. It's the downtime when you should be preparing, recovering, thinking, studying, mentally and physically, for the next fight.

This is why Mr. Marlantes fails to understand Jungers statement that, "There’s nothing worse for a soldier than boredom.” For the born warriors, often the boredom allows bad things to surface they would rather not face, rather not think, rather not contemplate. Battle is like eating an extremely hot pepper; if you eat more you delay the pain of taking that first breath. That's my theory why many of what the author calls "born warriors" hate downtime. (besides the normal reasons all servicemen/women hate downtime).

It is for this reason that the ones most gifted in war but ungifted in larger thinking are to me, not the true "born warriors". Yes there is a certain adrenaline addiction that can occur, and a certain artistry to combat most don't understand, but I think that a warrior without philosophy isn't a warrior at all, but rather a tool. One that can be, and almost always is, misused and then discarded.

For me it all boils down to the fact that we swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Full stop. The warriors Mr. Marlantes speaks of have done nothing of the sort, despite their gallantry in particular battle. We have allowed our true enemies, both foreign and domestic, to embroil us in foreign entanglements, abuse our military might, and through the permanent alliances our first president warned us about, undermined our national system of economic protectionism and our uniquely American philosophy of individualism.

Personally, I think we are being set up as the fall guys so that the supranational oligarchy can finally put the last nail in the coffin of the American revolution and continue on with their plan of global government conveniently under their control. I also think the internet has been surprisingly effective in delaying this, which is why the internet is the next primary target of the oligarchs. With a surveillance engine the Stasi would have drooled over in place, the turn-key totalitarian system is in place, and now all it needs is the right dictator to turn it on.

We need to stop knee-jerk warring, and strike at the root of the evil. The oligarchy.

https://youtu.be/L-hkKmhssSU?t=69