"I'm disappointed he feels that way because I think that somebody that did 20 years in the Army ought to be able to recognize that there's a greater good than the individual...I wish we didn't have a situation that required us to have this level of sacrifice, but we do."

-Army Chief of Staff General Pete Schoomaker

I cannot think of a single political issue, contemporary or not, that does not revolve around the two basic choices we have to make. Either you stand for the individual sacrificing himself, his property, and his values to a collective or you don't. This is a binary, black and white choice. It cannot be avoided.

The collectivist spectrum is vast and allows them to infinitely dance and shift among "nuanced" positions; positions different only in degree from their neighbors, unfortunately leading so many to believe there are substantial variations in the philosophies of Socialists, Greens, Progressive Democrats, Moderates, Conservative Republicans, and Limited-Government Constitutionalists. There aren't. The differences consist of disagreements over what parts of society to run and how hard to run them into the ground.

The elevation of the collective above the individual remains the greatest poison to liberty and General Schoomaker and his type are the malignancy's peddlers.