Thread started: Jul 20 2007, 3:32 AM EDT
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Guys, I am costarican, we have more than 50 years with no army, maybe you know. I have only seen them in TV shows and CNN.
In the first grades our school teachers always say -and it is generalized idea-, that Costa Rica is different in central america (place of guerrillas, poverty and political corruption) because we had no army. So basically we fear soldiers, wars and armies. It is said that the public inversion went directly to health and education and we avoid some of the political problems the rest had.
Costaricans usually hate wars, and of course we don't see with good eyes soldiers. I have to say that in some way, my perspective of soldiers has changed favorably following the show, or at least it has questioned my believes. There is something extremely valuable in a soldiers career: the sacrifice for others.
This sacrifice of young good people needs to be for a really important cause. In the show the cause is the survival of the human specie but I am sure that wars do not always have such great cause to be fought..
Just IMHO,
Thanks!
Michael.
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RE: are soldiers good?
By: ,
Aug 14 2010, 3:39 PM EDT
I'm an American and I'd like to point out the paradox you've made. It's great thing for Costa Rica not to have an army, but one must understand the strategic situation that is so favorable. You - don't need an Army. Frankly, your neighbors don't have the ability to project force in a way that threatens you - however, that's not to say that threats don't or can't exist. Any power that could threaten Costa Rica, either directly or through a surrogate (i.e. Nicaragua in the 1980s) is so powerful that Costa Rica couldn't defend against it - thus you have an interesting, and favorable strategic situation. Finally, any power that could threaten Costa Rica, will be confronted by the United States - either for altruistic or selfish reasons (probably both) - and this regardless whether Costa Rica seeks or wants this assistance. Again, a very favorable position.
I'm glad for you that you have this situation, but don't ever forget that it's favorable, without requiring any "fair" sacrifice on your part - and the power that does defend you - at least deserves that recognition. Over the horizon - that aircraft carrier battlegroup, that rapid deployment force's very existence - undergirds the free enterprise and the self-determination of many, many peoples. Regardless of the controversies generated, and the outright dishonesty of the anti-war crowd; it's without question that the United States has liberated 42 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan - who now have something they didn't have before - the freedom to determine their own futures - even if it's not a democratic path we would recognize.
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