From: "W. J. Liles" <wliles@xxxxxxxxx>
Jan Steinman wrote:
> I find these views curiously hypocritical, coming as they do from
> someone with ".mil" in their address...
I find this remark more than a little hypocritical and a bit offensive.
Please, you quote me out of context. I have great respect for the
many conscientious people in the military. Indeed, although I was
never actually "in" the military, I served with them as a tech rep
over four years on several foreign bases -- some where bullets were
flying.
My point was not that the military is bad. My point was that it is
hypocritical to criticize environmental and social spending as "big
government" while being paid by what is arguably the biggest consumer
of federal money. Perhaps the EPA budget should be smaller, but being
in the military and calling the EPA "big government" is simply the
pot calling the kettle black.
Just because a person is in the military does not mean he has given up
the right to think...
And I have no problem with someone in the military criticizing other
government programs on their merits. But to put it bluntly, when
you're at the federal feed trough, you've lost your credibility to
criticize others for also being there -- you are in competition for
those federal funds, and therefore have a conflict of interest.
I apologize to any in or out of uniform who took my comments as a
personal affront; they were not intended as such.
: Jan Steinman <mailto:Jan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
: Bytesmiths <http://www.bytesmiths.com>
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