I Don't Want To

Want died.  That is what my mom used to tell me when we kids would say we wanted something ridiculous.  Someone should introduce that concept back into the Army.  Want is something we just don't have.  There are needs, there are shortages, and then there are wants.  The needs are what keep you moving.  The shortages are the things you need on hand but can do without in the short term.  Wants are like "What the fuck do you need that for?"  We have some of that going around right now.  The Army I joined didn't believe in something that you didn't use to shoot, move, communicate, or kill with.  Unless it fit into one of those things, you didn't need it.  And I still think you don't.  What we have now is permission to shoot, permission to move, permission to communicate, and permission to kill.  We want you to only shoot this way, or only shoot a person who does this.  We want you to stay there or move here.  Want died.  This is a fight, you do what you have to do to win.  Do not mistake me, I am not referring to actions that are unethical.  All I'm saying is your want is interfering with my need to kill the bad guy.  You want to spend time reviewing an ongoing operation from your armchair so you can give permission for us to walk up a mountain, hang out for awhile, wait for the bad guys to show up and then kill them.  Seems like a flawed system to me.  In either case, both forces agree, native and coalition: we need to be able to action on our own in order to be effective.  Want is what is wrong with each aspect of our operations, and you can notice these problems with want as a key word.  It is the same with my team.  I want to do this, I want to do that.  Want died, they aren't coming back.  The kind of selflessness that existed in generations prior is so rare now that want seems to rule everything.  There is only one thing I really want, to make sure the enemy is dead and we all go home.