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Screamingeagle,
Excellent post. Although I have my own opinions on the topic of hazing, when trying to assess the pros and cons of hazing, I tend to defer to the opinions of those people that have both directly experienced it, and second, have had some time pass since the hazing to reflect on its relative merits.
With the qualifier that I lack any first hand experience on hazing at the academies, I am concerned that the trend in our academies (and other parts of our military) is to train our military personnel to be more 'civilized' in their approach to warfare against our enemies and to leadership within our military.
Your initial response might be:"How could becoming more civilized be a bad thing?"
It's because of my belief that the use of military force requires an intentional step back from civilized behavior and a step into uncivilized warrior behavior. Most wars come to an end because one side, or both, decide they can't tolerate the pain any longer. Not because they've come to an agreement with their enemy.
While many have expressed concern about our Nation's capacity/willingness to incur pain in pursuit of it's international military missions, I am equally concerned about our nation's capacity and willingness to inflict sufficient pain to force our enemies to capitulate.
Unforturnately, there are still a number of powerful, competing nations are seeking hegemony not harmony. I pray every day that they will behave in a civlized manner in the coming decades. But I'm not hopeful of it happening.
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