Nice review.

Joe: The skills you mention are exactly that - skills that pd people need to master. There are others too. I never said they were not valuable - indeed I think they are all indispensable skills. Some take more time than others to master. I agree - these skills can and should be taught in the academy and/or at FSI. What I most object to is jargon laden theoretical classes taught by academics who have never set foot at a post overseas that are so far divorced from the real world as to be of questionable utility.

You're both right - but Alice is more so because the holiday is now designated to honor all war dead not just the military and certainly not just civil war soldiers as was its original and short-lived intent. That was over a century ago, this is now. My point, as Alice says, is that Memorial Day has become part of the war ethos - that military might is the solution to any problem. Not only is it unfortunate but its also a mistake.