The speech, inside a hangar, sports the crowd on one side and a sleek jet fighter plane on the other.

Most people, President Biden opines, have no idea of the extent of all the wonderful work the Military does.

He clearly views American soldiery as a collegial club, "the greatest fighting force the world has ever known."

Yes, he repeats that foolish line of his from the Obama administration while declaring, "That's not hyperbole," but eschews any attempt to support it.

Most if not all nations have had armies and participated in war.

At some point, usually sooner than later, the country's top leader will praise its Military if for no other reason than to keep their knees from knocking together.

And how about the fighting force at Thermopylae-- was it any good?

Biden's idea of Military collegiality is intertwined with affection for his late son Beau, a Military man and cancer victim.

"People say I shouldn't talk so much about my son but I won't apologize."

Fair enough, Joe.  But do you ever speak of the American Military in any other context than "greatest fighting force in world history" (a contention which sadly I just had to say is untrue)?

Does Joe Biden discuss gender and rape problems?  Surely not when standing next to a fighter jet and thanking Military personnel for their service.

One could think there's nothing wrong with all this.  And when playing tennis, I'm glad to have a doubles partner who has served (and can serve).

But Joe Biden's wife, Jill, needs to have a reading session with him in which they study together books that explicitly discuss all the bullshit associated with war such as THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE.

Joe needs to bring to the White House anti-war activists like Medea Benjamin and Chris Hedges.

Hedges recently stated, "All we really make are weapons."

I would and do argue that the best soldiers are those most aware of the horror of what they are doing and keep the dark side foremost in their mind.

Not to the extent that they are too paralyzed with fear to function but enough so that they never submit to Military cant.

One World War II veteran I knew, a good candidate for Tom Brokaw's rose-spectacled classification of "the greatest generation" could have held forth about what fun it was to work in Cherbourg press headquarters in an old bordello but was more likely to describe how a child on the beach started playing with a land mine before anyone could stop him.