Sandy Sandfort wrote: A brilliant mini essay, which most succinctly answers Samuel P. Huntington's long essay in November Foreign Affairs. And recaps the ancient struggle between "public-governmental" in the "public interest" and "private-anti-governmental" in the "private interest." Those who argue that the public needs protection from internal and external enemies -- "national security" -- gloss over that this ideology has a long heritage as a big-time, self-interested business, or racketeer influenced organized crime, to be blunt. Colin Powellism breast-fed on Fight the Day's Devil milk, like two thousand generations of fundamentalist up-and-comers. For governmental and military and priestly careerism is no different that the profit or organizational kinds. Each have religio-philosophical underpinnings backed by shrewd legislative pie-slicing-and-distribution with crucial physical enforcement to fend off those who didn't get a slice and are hungrily pissed at the collusive exclusion. A lot of this smoke is PR machines blowing hard for each of the Big Bands: Gov, Mil, Com, Org, Edu, Etc. Blurring the distinctions, stealing from one another, swapping personnel and programs, doling out contracts, racing to copy the latest ploy, apology, attack, whine, while securing those ancient by-the-rule perks against the ruthless up-and-comers. Mafia, military, crypto shooters -- taking orders for small kisses of blessing/death, climbing the ladder of earthly reward. Still, global anarcho-bands of mercenary bandits, hmm, what's that 411 for International Terrorist Gun Show -- er, military-industrial showcases of megadeath?