TexasCHLforum.com

RHenriksen and VMI77,

You guys both bring something important to the table. Very well thought-out analysis. Thanks for your input on this. Stuff we all need to hear.

Skiprr wrote:

tool4daman wrote:Since WWII--a relatively short period, historically speaking--we've seen societies previously imbued in firearm culture turn into capitulating, defenseless drones. Think Canada, Australia, England.

I'm going to go even further back and say that this phenomenon has been prevalent since WWI. I honestly believe that, as a result of the deaths of an entire generation at the hands of firearms, the British Commonwealth stepped back from guns as a mainstay of their freedoms, because of the carnage of battles like The Somme and Ypres. Thus breed the likes of Neville Chamberlain, pacifists who refuse to take up arms regardless of the consequences. Remember, the greater majority of Britons felt the same way he did at the moment (Peace in our time, etc.). It took someone like Winston Churchill to get the country to reluctantly once again take up arms and save their nation and culture. Once the war was over, the British basically gave up on weapons and self-defense, gave up its empire and promptly forgot what one of the underlying foundations of its freedoms sprang from - the ability to say "We're armed and we won't take sh*t from you. We are masters of our own fate. We will never submit to you."

Israel may trace the loss of its self-defense mentality to the recent accords with neighboring Arab states. The final nail would be its war with Lebanon a few years ago. The world had come to the conclusion, for good or ill, that even a few deaths in the defense of one's country is a few too many. When When the Israelis heard a couple of dozen of its countrymen had been killed in it's conflict, they almost rebelled, calling for an end to the conflict because of the relatively "high price" in casualties. Israel has learned to compromise its core values - for security. Values for which they had willingly upheld and fought for to gain independence and a continued sovereignty many decades ago.

So may, one day, go the USA. Once our nation finds that a "few casualties" is too high a price to pay for our freedoms, we will slowly decline, fearing to defend ourselves from those who would seek to harm us, because of the cost. The US should never fear to sacrifice or shed blood in order to protect our nation. If we do, we will follow the once-great British Empire into the abyss.

Sorry to go on for so long on this issue. I know it started as something as simple as a change in Israeli self-defense motivation. But it serves as a stark reminder of what will happen if we for one moment, one second, relax our vigilance.