Presently I’m reading...

The Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. The subtitle bills it as “An epic novel of the Spartans at Thermopylae”. The author has a real ability to describe events in such vivid detail that you almost feel a part of the action. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read to be sure.

The Spartans were an interesting people. They devoted their entire lives to training for war. In fact their whole culture was based on a warrior ethos that has never been duplicated before or since. I hear that the US Marines now have a recommended reading list for its officer and NCO corps - and Gates of Fire is on it. Methinks it’s a good idea to attempt to incalculate the warrior virtues into the men charged with “manning the wall”, but alas the warrior class will be no good to the nation if the nation has lost the will to defend itself.

We train our children in school to not fight back. And when one does, he’s expelled or suspended right along with the aggressor. We’ve vilified guns and gunowners in this country to the extent that they are almost a sub-class that it is perfectly okay to denigrate. The rights that our Constitution supposedly guarantees are under daily assault, and I believe it’s only a matter of time before they are stripped from us completely. I saw a news article about a man down on the US/Mexican border who is being sued by the very illegal aliens he was trying to prevent from crossing his land and destroying his property. These are all signs of a loss of national will. I voted for Bush twice but eventually became very cynical about the man. He ordered American servicemen halfway around the world to fight terrorism (which I’m perfectly fine with) but couldn’t muster the will to close the borders – even slightly!

Without the will to use it, no warrior and no weapon will be worth a bucket of warm spit. And that, my friends, is where America stands today.