Because of Iraq, there have to be many future military leaders who have experienced first hand the horrors of blindly following civilians into unnecessary wars, who will finally learn, unlike those who experienced Vietnam, that when your strategy and mission are seriously flawed, you must not allow a war to happen.

Why would the Iraq experience teach a different or longer lasting lesson than the Vietnam one?

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

Seriously, the Powell Doctrine was forgotten by everyone, but most especially by Colin Powell, as soon as it became the slightest impediment to a war the government wanted. Powell was the damn cheerleader for this war which violated every damn point of the doctrine he formulated and that was named after him.

It's pellucidly clear that the vast majority of the military desperately wanted to go to war in Iraq and ignored the fact that both Cheney and Schwartzkopf both accurately predicted the current quagmire very shortly after Gulf War I.

Human nature has not changed in tens of thousands of years and will not change in the next fifty.

Go and read Twain's _War Prayer_ and tell me that anything significant has changed since that piece was written, that the runup to the the Iraq war was different that what Twain expounded upon.

http://www.warprayer.org/

Then go and read Kipling's _Tommy_ and tell me that anything has significantly changed since that one was written either.

http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/tommy.html

Well, when the poles given for the social scale are control vs. more or less "live and let live," and they are called libertarian vs. authoritarian, it's not surprising to see this crowd have a strong "libertarian streak" as you put it.

What would you call the polar opposite of authoritarian then?

Political compass - I don't accept the premises of it. I don't accept that people even have political personalities like that. It's like pop Jungianism - you know, sensation,intuition, thinking, feeling, introversion, extroversion, bla, bla - but worse, because it somehow forecloses a whole lot of important political attitudes I can't quite think of, but I can feel.

LOL.. After all your trashing of libertarianism I bet you took the test, found out you have a lot of libertarian tendencies and now are ashamed to admit it. It's pretty obvious too that you have taken a Jungian typology test and didn't like the results of that either, you're too familiar with the terminology.

Glenn asked nicely that this ridiculous and mindless arguing stop and yet you anti-libertarians simply are incapable of ceasing your constant red-flag waving toward anyone you perceive as having libertarian leanings.

important political attitudes I can't quite think of, but I can feel.

This last sentence of yours is asinine, you can't think but you can feel? Describes you to a tee, you don't think, you are operating on emotion rather than facts and logic. Emotion is a poor foundation on which to build a philosophy of life.

I engaged with you in good faith and I'm now sorry I did, I won't make that mistake again..

Farewell.

I'm wondering if you have ever taken the Political Compass quiz?

Most of the regulars here have and the majority fall fairly close together on the two dimensional scale..

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

I suspect you might be surprised to find out you have a libertarian streak, most of the regulars here do..

There are songs about that, the first one that comes to mind is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBkrAESUbyI

Sixteen Tons

Some people say a man is made outta mud

A poor man's made outta muscle and blood

Muscle and blood and skin and bones

A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine

I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine

I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal

And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain

Fightin' and trouble are my middle name

I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion

Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside

A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died

One fist of iron, the other of steel

If the right one don't a-get you

Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store.

-Merle Travis