I think you are slightly off base there Coberst. First off, I get the impression that you think the United States of America is a Democracy, and if I am correct, you are wrong. The United States Constitution clearly states in paragraph four of section four that our government must be a republic. If you would like me to explain the differences between a republic and a democracy, I will do my best in a later post.

The part of your post which troubled me most was your understanding of what would make a good Officer. You described the journalist as honest, but failed to describe the Officer as honest, and you said that he had to be somewhat an automaton, which is exactly the opposite of what would make a good officer in the military. The officer has to be a very good critical thinker who can best interpret something known as Commander’s Intent. If you like to know more about Commander’s Intent, I will try to explain it in a later post.

You say that you think that Democracy will live or die due to the degree of critical thinking of its citizens, and I would point out that because we are a republic and we have a buffer called the Electoral College which can vote independent of the citizens to prevent the Government, or “Democracy” as you like to think it from failing. Personally, I think we should get rid of citizenship as we know it today and replace it with a form of citizenship similar to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.