Today I'd like to talk to you about war, warriors, perception, delusion and domination. I'd also like to talk about NRA board member and self-proclaimed "warrior" Jeff Cooper. This is a simple matter to pull together as the latter is a clear demonstrator of the dark aspects of the former.

PERCEPTION
So who is Jeff Cooper? He's a "warrior". I thought I mentioned that. OK. Fair enough, that's not enough to go on. He's the founder of a heap of gun clubs and organisations and leagues and such. As I mentioned, he's on the board of directors of the US National Rifle Association (NRA). He's also a contributor to such weighty tomes as 'Guns & Ammo' and 'Soldier of Fortune' and a retired US Marine Colonel. Did I mention that he's a "warrior"? Now, lest you get some picture of Zulu fighters or big game hunters... oh, wait, he's a big game hunter with five continents under his belt, so he's probably really happy that Bush is pushing to loosen those pesky endangered species protection laws so he can go on safari... anyway, he likes the word warrior and that's fine by me. Warriors make war and that's what ties all of today's topics together. That and it helps if they label themselves so we can keep an eye on them. I have my eye on Jeff Cooper. We all should.

"…the consensus is that no more than five to ten people in a hundred who die by gunfire in Los Angeles are any loss to society. These people fight small wars amongst themselves. It would seem a valid social service to keep them well-supplied with ammunition."

That my friends is something to ponder. Since these people are neither "warriors" nor fighting large wars, they are inconsequential to the real warrior and. therefore, society. The warriors know what's best for society. Just ask them. (Warning: The sarcasm meter is starting to tremble. Be on the lookout for some showers which should clear up by late in the text.)

"One cannot legislate the maniacs off the street... these maniacs can only be shut down by an armed citizenry. Indeed bad things can happen in nations where the citizenry is armed, but not as bad as those which seem to be threatening our disarmed citizenry in this country at this time."

See, the problem isn't that those inconsequential people have guns, it's that not everyone has guns (presumably so they, being new ad hoc warriors, can shoot those annoying inconsequential people and get back to 'Everybody Loves Raymond'). Let's check in with Jeff and see if I've got it right.

"The will to survive is not as important as the will to prevail... the answer to criminal aggression is retaliation."

Note: Prevail = win.

Yep! I'm starting to get my sad non-warrior brain around this whole thing. I can almost feel the recoil from my M-16 (which I will need to be qualified on as any citizen who is not may "not be considered to be a responsible citizen", says Jeff). How have I let myself go so long as part of the "unarmed citizenry". And how have I managed not to get shot at all this time? With all the dangers "which seem to be threatening our disarmed citizenry in this country at this time" the solution to which is that all of us be armed to retaliate, how have I managed to not even witness, much less be in, one solid gun battle! Man, I need to get that gun now. My luck surely can't hold out much longer. Forget video game violence (I'll just let them watch CNN and say it's Battlefield 1942 anyway), there's a war outside my front door I didn't even know about. Guess I'll need to arm the kids soon, too. Fortunately, the NRA has made it simple for me to run down to Wal-Mart or K-Mart and see who has the best prices on guns and ammo. But I'll need to get that M-16 so I can start studying. Hope there's no waiting period. My luck is bound to run out soon!

DELUSION
OK, the Sarcasmometer is settling down. Let's have a little moment of reflection here. Sure, some people like to imagine themselves as The Highlander with a bitchin' sword and ponytail or maybe they dream of The Duke and how awesome it looked to be a balls-to-the-wall soldier fighting the Krauts. Jeff Cooper perceives himself as a noble warrior doing... God's? I don't know... someone's work. His belief is that might makes right and, well, anyone who gets in his way is liable to get fucking shot. Don't take that as a flippant comment. Read his words. He means just that. Yes, I know he was in the Marines. To use one of his own analogies, just because you own a guitar doesn't make you a musician. Being in the Marines does not make him a mythic noble warrior. It makes him a former Marine. War is not noble. It's supposedly just "necessary", but, and heaven knows I'm gonna hear about this statement, the only people telling me this are men and men make war. Sorry. It's a sweeping accusation, but even a first year poli-sci student could pull up the proof in an afternoon at the library. Just like an FBI profiler will tell you that poisoning is mostly a crime attributable to women, I'm saying that men make war. I'd be surprised if there's anyone reading this who has not heard it stated, joked about or pondered that 'if women ran things there'd be no war'. I've seen it in movies, read it in books and magazines, heard it in bar conversations and on television. OK, so I'm done indicting your gender, guys. And for the record, this doesn't mean that all men are war mongers. That's silly and many of my male friends are far from it. But war is an act attributable to and fostered by men, the gender. Men like Jeff Cooper, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld not to mention thousands of others throughout history. And they'll tell you it's inevitable. They'll set you up a nice circular logic map that states that it's necessary because someone else will war and you have to war to stop them and therefore we need to accept it as inevitable and not think so hard about it. Especially not about stopping it. Because it's inevitable.

War is not inevitable. It's historic. I know that just saying it's not inevitable or necessary won't stop it, but I refuse to go on playing into the notion that it is some force that cannot be controlled. Ageing is a force that cannot be controlled... but we're working on that. Throwing up your hands and saying it can't be helped, well hat's just a shirking of responsibility by those who, quite frankly, 'get off' on war.

DOMINATION
War is about domination over others. Jeff Cooper's assertion that diversity should be stifled in favour of assimilation or separatism is a clear example of his need to dominate. Further, his insistence that he is the good guy and should be able to shoot [literally] all the bad guys he wants (based on his personal good/bad assessment) is demonstrative of his desire to be the top dog. He'd piss on their corpses, I'm convinced, if no one was looking. It's animalistic behaviour. And while we may be an animal, we are the only one on this planet who can and does consciously and purposefully modify their innate behaviours based on our ability to reason and improve our destiny.

So what am I getting at? In the end it's this: I don't respect warriors or the 'the warrior ethic'. War needs to be curtailed and eliminated, not have our collective heads shook at it in sighing resignation (and certainly not aggrandised). I don't buy into this notion that we're not strong or smart enough to do so. That's a cop out, warriors. And Jeff Cooper is an alarming example of how to disregard the horror of killing and cop out while hiding behind some self-made ethos of pride and nobility. He likes war and warring and wants to make sure it's around for him to continue to enjoy (although a good safari to shoot large animals and show them whose who probably takes the edge off). It makes him feel special and 'big'. Prideful.

"A man who takes it upon himself to shed blood while concealing his identity is a revolting perversion of the warrior ethic. It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view."

My friends that's pride, right here in River City. And it's my firm belief that it is a false, self-serving man-made pride built out of the need to build a deceitful perception of the self of synthetic pride and nobility. After all, some innate need to dominate and control and maybe even kill is, in the end, far from noble. In fact, personally, I see it as pathetic and weak.

If I am able to leave one idea, one impression, of my choice, it would be this: The NRA, Jeff Cooper and people like him are not out to protect you, they're out to protect themselves and their ability to assert dominance over others (including you). They're out to be warriors, and war is not inevitable no matter what they tell you. And it's never ethical.