Heroes or Dupes?
by Laurence M. Vance

Americans love their war heroes. It doesn’t matter where the war was fought,
why it was fought, how it was fought, or what the war cost. Every battlefield
is holy; every cause is just; every soldier is a potential hero. But what is
it that turns an ordinary soldier into a war hero? Since it obviously depends
on the criteria employed, is it possible that American war heroes are not
heroes at all? Could it be that, rather than being heroes, they are instead
dupes?

Democrats who loathe John McCain because he is a Republican and Republicans
who consider him to be a lukewarm conservative are united in their belief
that, whatever his politics, McCain is a genuine war hero because he spent
five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. But one does not have to be
a prisoner of war to be considered a war hero. The Department of Defense
maintains a website that highlights "the military men and women who have gone
above and beyond the call of duty in the Global War on Terror." Every soldier
who died fighting in the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, otherwise known as
Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, is also considered to
be a war hero.

After McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in 1958, he became a naval
aviator. During the Vietnam War he rained down death and destruction on the
people of Vietnam during twenty-three bombing missions...

On Apr 23, 4:00 am, "Dr. James West, Ph.D." nobull.com> wrote:

Already just in the title I can see a false dilemma since "heros OR
dupes" doesn'r exhaust the possibilities nor does it seem prima facie
to "mutally exclude" other possibilities, this since any short time of
thinking reveals that people could be heroes AND dupes, and NIETHER
heros or dupes;

The informal fallacy of false dilemma involves a situation in which
only two alternatives are considered, when in fact there are other
options. This fallacy is also called false dichotomy, the either-or
fallacy, and bifurcation. Closely related are failing to consider a
range of options and the tendency to think in extremes, called black-
and-white thinking. Strictly speaking, the prefix "di" in "dilemma"
means "two". When a list of more than two choices are offered, but
there are other choices not mentioned, then the fallacy is called the
fallacy of false choice.

While I appreciate Immortalist dissection of the argument (something
that he is very adept at doing). I find it hard to read such an
article without primarily seeing it political/social implication.

It seems obvious (at least to me) that Laurence is judging the
mentioned participants (soldiers) by the social connotation with which
he associates the events they participated it.

Putting aside my own view of the value that these participants efforts
afforded our country, I would say the concept of hero is based more
upon the action performed in view of the risk involved and the reward
that was promised.

I.E. Someone who risks their life doing that which they (and society
as a whole) thinks is right with little regard to reward that it
provides is a hero.

By this definition every soldier who served honorably when faced with
the enemy (or the possibility of the enemy) is a hero. Certainly they
do not get paid enough for the risk they take and it can be reasonably
presumed that they took those risk for (and did their duty in the face
of said risks) for some higher purpose - to serve their country and
their fellow soldiers.

"Immortalist" yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2d54d24d-0742-476b-8ce5-1dadda607b5b@f63g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
On Apr 23, 4:00 am, "Dr. James West, Ph.D." nobull.com> wrote:

Uh...Immort...what does your library say about 'red herrings'?
Original was about soldiers being duped...and perhaps leading to a question
of all soldiers everywhere being mindless extensions of their prevailing
national regimes. But all of a sudden, the subject turned to 'logical
fallacies'...you win again by default, hehe.

Ah well...according to Sir, our entire brains are 'logical fallacies' you
know.

Immortalist wrote:

Yep, there is a question mark in the title which has caused you much trauma.

Much sympathy, you poor thing.
;-)

MichaelNJ@gmail.com wrote:

"Dr. James West, Ph.D." nobull.com> wrote in message
news:SqudndSCqr56i5LVnZ2dnUVZ_gudnZ2d@toastnet...

On Apr 23, 3:40 pm, "Dr. James West, Ph.D." nobull.com> wrote:

Actually I don't want to stop the conversation but there are other
alternatives that should also be discussed here, else it would seem
one sided.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eBXal1GAA4A
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fFmhWlsMjjY

On Apr 23, 6:59 pm, "Dr. James West, Ph.D." nobull.com> wrote:

On Apr 23, 9:16 pm, "Sean" bro.org> wrote: