War Is A Lot Of

Of The Primary Emotions, Fear Is The One That Bears Most Directly On Survival. Children Show Fear. Adults Try Not To, Maybe Because It's Shameful, Or, In Some Circumstances, Dangerous. The Fear Response Is Automatic, Though, And Your Body Runs Through Its Reflexes Whether You Want It To Or Not.

If You Shell A Military Base And Happen To Kill Civilians, You Have Not Committed A War Crime; If You Deliberately Target Cities And Towns, You Have.

Combat Isn't Where You Might Die -- Though That Does Happen -- It's Where You Find Out Whether You Get To Keep On Living. Don't Underestimate The Power Of That Revelation. Don't Underestimate The Things Young Men Will Wager In Order To Play That Game One More Time.

I Would Never Want To Pass A Law Limiting Freedom Of Speech, But That Doesn't Mean We Have To Condone Statements That Undermine Basic National Unity And Respect. Imagine Being Asked To Defend A Country Where Some Citizens Say The Man In The White House Isn't Their President. Or A Major Presidential Contender Accuses The Commander In Chief Of Not Even Being A U.s. Citizen. Those Kinds Of Statements Erode Trust In Our Democracy, And It's Up To Both Parties To Publicly Reject Them. We Have To Restore Confidence That We Are A Nation That Loves And Believes In Itself.

Soldiers Join The Military To Serve Their Country, But When Bullets Are Flying, It's Hard To Fight For An Abstract Notion Like Patriotism. They're Fighting For The People Standing Next To Them, And It Doesn't Matter Who's A Republican Or A Democrat, Or Who's Black Or White Or Christian Or Muslim Or Gay Or Straight. If Congress And All Americans Could Manage To Ignore Those Differences, We Would Have A Perfect Country, But Somehow We Cannot Rise To That Level Of Nobility.