[SilverRun]

Originally Posted by Cyrano

...because I believe what the goddamyankee gummint is thinking runs along these lines.
1. In this war, we are dealing with a tribal-culture enemy.
2. Said tribal enemy does not abide by the Geneva Conventions or the Rules of Land Warfare.
3. In tribal cultures, if an enemy hero is captured alive, there is an historic tendancy for the capturers to humiliate at best, and kill by slow torture at worst, captured enemy heroes.
(It is not for nothing that Kipling wrote in his poem "The Young British Soldier," the following stanza:
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.)

4. Therefore, in order to keep our soldiers from such a fate in these days of the internet, where almost anyone can find out almost anything; galling as it may be to us, for the sake of our troops we'd best not publish medal citations in the media.
However, I don't approve of what the goddamyankee government is doing. Yes, there is a risk that a captured Marine or GI would be tortured to death if the tribal Islamists were to capture him. But I submit that risk exists whether or not the citations are published. The terrorists don't even regard Americans as "People of the Book" and therefore entitled to decent treatment; for they give their obedience to the Koran and the Legislations expediently, to rationalize what they are doing rather than to justify it.
Given this state of affairs in the enemy camp, we might as well publish the citations. They'll kill us anyway if they get the chance, so why not give the valorous the glory they have earned, and deserve?

I sorta agree with you on this, but I really don't care for the GD characterization of the US Govt. It is mainly the GD part that bugs me. Everyone has a right to say what they are thinking here -- I agree. But, I am just saying what I am thinking.