[ I'm so wrong for continuing this ... ] Sam Drinkard <sam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > How about Zulu time :-) That still works for me, and > everybody else who has had dealings with the armed forces > or U.S. Gov't (aside the politicians) The US military is completely different than US legislative, executive and other civilian leadership, contractors and support. Anyone who knows the first thing about the US knows this. It's a complete irony of how the US operates. God knows we have the most inefficient configuration of any modern Democratic-Republic -- most other nations choose their executive from the ruling legislative party. We have not in the majority of our years (2002+ has been one of the rare exceptions in our history). Our founding fathers did this for a reason, purposely preventing many things -- the checks'n balances continue through today (and they are quite alive and well, even if one party gains control for awhile, it changes back, things can be repealed that aren't desired, etc...). The US military is lean, mean and efficient. Everything the US military is allowed to do is precise and effective, in the context of its abilities. Compare any civilian contractor or R&D design to any invention the military has come up with directly (the F-15 v. F-4 comes to mind, let alone the fixed wing Gunship, just in the last half century). From military specifications after interpretation by civilian contractors to civilian interpretation of military situations, the best way to really screw things up is to introduce the non-sense. Anything designed directly by the military -- with no oversight, no review, no non-sense, just damn works efficiently. Of course, to keep the US from becoming a 2-bit military dictatorship, the US military answers to its civilians who are elected by its people. And that's where all the non-sense comes in. In fact, one would say it's the natural law of the US entity -- because if our military wanted to take over our nation, it would be no contest. Thank God every American officer knows that there is a reason why they will always obey the civilian leadership, without question, without comment. And they will expense everything -- beyond just their life, but even their name -- to ensure they never cross that line. Don't confuse those who make the least money, and have the least benefits, to the ones that complain about not getting enough money, and getting the most benefits (so-called public servants ;-). -- Bryan "clearly an opinionated US Libertarian" Smith P.S. These statements are in regard to the entire US history. Do not infere them to be made solely towards the current US leadership in any branch. Quite the opposite, it's our history. -- Bryan J. Smith | Sent from Yahoo Mail mailto:b.j.smith@xxxxxxxx | (please excuse any http://thebs413.blogspot.com/ | missing headers)