best and the brightest might have our mihtary do to justify thernbillions of dollars it continues to receie in the post-Cold Warrnera, some of which are: security at Olympic and Super Bowlrngames, fire fighting and flood control, security at state and federalrnprisons, animal control and clean-up, road repair, landscaping,rnand substitute teaching. That’s right, “Be All You Can Be”rncould possibly soon mean guarding O.J. on his NordicTrack andrnslinging squirrel skins for the state.rnThis first section of the survey, however, merely softens thernblow of the truly terrifying matter in the second part. Here thernmarines were asked to check off in the appropriate box the extentrnof their agreement or disagreement with such propositionsrnas:rn—”U.S. combat troops should participate in U.N. missionsrnunder U.N. command and control.”rn—”It would make no difference to me to take ordersrnfrom a U.N. compam- commander.”rn—”I feel there is no conflict between my oath of officernand serving as a U.N. soldier.”rn—”I would swear to the following code: ‘I am a UnitedrnNations fighting person. I serve in the forces whichrnmaintain worid peace and every nation’s way of life. I amrnprepared to give my life in their defense.'” (Emphasisrnadded.)rn—”I feel the President of the United States has the authorityrnto pass his responsibilities as Commander-in-rnChief to the U.N. Secretary General.”rn—^And lastly: “If the U.S. government declared a ban onrnthe possession, sale, transportation, and transfer of allrnnonsporting firearms, and if after a 30-day amnesty period,rna number of citizens had still refused to surrenderrntheir firearms, ‘I would fire upon U.S. citizens who refusernor resist confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S.rngovernment.'”rnNone of the above should really surprise us. After all. Vice PresidentrnGore has publicly stated that Americans killed in the PersianrnGulf War died not for their country but “for the UnitedrnNations,” which is true.rnWhen this combat arms survey became public, I phoned arnyoung marine to get his response. He had not taken the survey,rnbut agreed to give his opinion on the above propositions.rnWhen I asked him if he would swear an oath not to his corpsrnand to his country but to the United Nations, if he would supportrna President of the United States who willingly surrenderedrnhis constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief to a ThirdrnVN’orld disciple of Babalou, if he would storm a private residencyrnand murder an American citizen who refused to register orrnsurrender his legally purchased firearm, he replied calmly andrnconfidently: “I would do as I’m told.”rnThough a country certainly needs young men who followrnorders, blind devotion and discipline can be as evil as divine,rnand when I heard the young soldier answer my question withrnnary a second of reflection, I could not help wondering howrnJohn Randolph, Teddy Roosevelt, or Alvin York might havernreplied. Alvin York overcame his pacifist beliefs when he convincedrnhimself that by killing abroad he would help to bring thernbloodshed to a halt. But killing distant Germans duringrnwartime, this is one thing; killing neighboring kin in times ofrnpeace, this is quite another. If ever conscientious objectorsrnwere needed in this country, it would be each and every timernthe Stars and Stripes flies in the shadow of the blue flag ofrntransnationalism.