‘Good morning; good morning!’ the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ’em dead,
And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
‘He’s a cheery old card, grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
………………………………………..
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

Siegfried Sassoon

Americans treat their military as heroic.  Period.  The truth is that the politicians only bear part of the responsibility for the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What is not said in most of the cringing right wing media, owing to the activities of the ‘patriotic’ thought police, is that the generals have  got it consistently wrong, and there has been no accountability.

We are not here to talk about military strategy and tactics, but we are here to talk about conformism and herd behavior, and how Epicureans think things out for themselves and do not simply follow the throng and admire what they are told to admire.  They are able to call a mistake a mistake and be out on a limb from time to time. 

If you are to be a conformist, aping what you are told to ape from the pulpit of your mega-church, you are little better than the Holstein cow you see in a field.