Wes, I actually found his comment to be rather enilightening, but not for the reasons you might think.

Having served in the US Army as an officer from 1984 to 1990, attached to a Pershing II Missile Battery in W. Germany under Reagan, I can understand (to some extent, anyway) McCain's thought process here. Please allow me to explain, citing some experiences I had during this period in the Cold War.

What many people do not know about the Pershings in Western Europe was that they were deployed the morning after ABC aired the TV movie, "The Day After". Of course, it is no secret that ABC's decision to air that particular movie, at that particular time, was something of a political statement. I've no axe to grind there, because to be honest, it scared the hell out of me. However, seeing as how I was only able to attend college with an ROTC scholarship, I understood I could very well end up in uniform should the unthinkable circumstances in that film ever occur.

In any event, less than a year after that film aired, I found myself at Ft. Sill, OK as a young 2nd lieutenant, learning everything there was to know about the weapon referred to as "The Last Argument of Kings," and by Christmas, had learned I would be stationed in Schwaebisch Gmeund, W. Germany, with the 56th FA Brigade. Two weeks before I arrived there, however, a very tragic accident occurred when one of the explosive charges used to seperate the weapon in-flight exploded, killing several enlisted personnel. The very dry and harsh German winter that year apparently created a static charge capable of detonating the seperation charge. Needless to say, what Winston sometimes refers to as a "sh*tstorm" got underway, with everyone from the White House to the Pentagon to the German Parliament to the Red Army Faction to the peace movement having something to say about our presence there.

As for me, I understood that I had an obligation to fulfill, but when I eventually arrived at my unit, I learned that the President had ordered us to covertly replace the live warheads on each of the missiles throughout NATO with non-working replicas. Furthermore, each unit was instructed to carry out it's orders as though each missile was still capable of delivering it's message, so to speak. ON TOP OF THIS, mind you, each of our combat alert status (CAS) sites, where the missiles were actually "armed" and waiting for the appropriate launch orders, were flown over by US fighters. These fly-overs included the orders to destroy the CAS sites, should radio checks made by us not be received after a certain period of time. Basically, we found ourselves locked onto by our own pilots, guarding warheads that could not be detonated.

I think it was James Earl Jones in the film "Gardens of Stone," who referred to his unit as the "Kabuki theatre of the profession of arms." LOL

In between all of this gamesmanship, which I now completely understand (we WERE trying to win the Cold War, after all), I found myself ordering the men in my platoon to forcibly remove protesters from roads leading to our CAS sites and bases. I don't think I have to tell you how trying that was, not only for me, but for my men as well. It isn't pleasant bringing violence down upon anybody, but as a soldier, it was incumbent upon me to ensure the security of my men, my equipment, and our mission.

All of this caused a great deal of stress for everyone concerned, especially for a young, early-20's, inexperienced officer. While on the surface, I understood why certain decisions were made, and while I constantly strove to internalize that, it was, indeed, most difficult having to convince the enlisted men serving under me why they were there, and the fact that not 100 miles to our east, stood battalions of East German forces with similar weapons pointed directly at us.

I guess my point is this, Wes: McCain, to my belief, may (and is expected to, almost) occasionally disagree with the orders of his superior officers. Further, it is also inevitable that a particular order may carry disastrous consequences. It is, at those times, very difficult to answer the question posed to Sen. McCain. However, having taken that oath in my life, I believe all officers and enlisted personnel understand that while we may be in the armed forces, we retain our humanity. As such, only a sociopath has the luxury of disregarding his feelings.

Hail, fellow; well met! Upon my enlistment, my original MOS was 12E (Atomic Demolitions Munitions Technician). While I was never engaged in geopolitical theatrics of the sort you endured--and I use the word "endured" quite specifically--I have a visceral understanding of your comments about agreement with one's orders; I prayed, more than once, that I'd never be ordered to perform the tasks for which I was trained.

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I would hope that the combination of McCain's remarks and the recent controversy over Michelle Obama's "first time...really proud" remark give us a departure point from which to discuss what "pride in our country" and "love of country" really mean, and how they change throughout our life. Thanks again for kicking us off as you did.