Maybe Their Job is to Look Cute in Uniform

An English TV interviewer (not BBC) asked me last week if Americans were not getting angry about U.S. troops staying so long in Iraq. I noted that we still have troops in Bosnia, South Korea -- even Japan and Germany more than half a century after World War II.

He replied rather testily: "Yes, Mr. May, but in those places they are not being shot at!"

Is that any different from suggesting that while it’s nice for a community to have firemen, it would be grossly unfair to send them into burning buildings?

Is that not like saying that for the sake of safety we should keep the police out of high-crime areas?