“The kid obviously hasn't thought through the logic of his atheistic choices.”
I bet your actual problem is that he has, but hasn’t started with your premises.
"Why the need to "fight terrorism"?”
We don’t need to be guided by gods to decide that limiting harm so that the minimum number of people are harmed is a good thing for our gene pool.
“What makes him think any of the fighting he does is worth anything noble beyond the atheistic Darwinian view of the survival of the fittest?”
You do realize that ‘survival of the fittest’ refers to gene pools, right? To the species?
Protecting the humanity we find common cause with is the best thing for our survival, ‘noble’ or not.
“If the kid wants to be worm food let him be the suicide bomber for our side and be the martyr for some nebulous cause.”
There’s a TEENSY difference between risking our lives and throwing them away. And you not being sympathetic to a cause is not the same as being a nebulous cause.
"Might as well take a few of the terrorists out while you're at it instead of hiding behind Plexiglas.”
As Patton pointed out, the goal in war is not dying for your cause but making the other fucker die for his cause.
“It's people like this who shouldn't be in the military.”
As a 20 year vet, can i please invite you to fuck off and shut the fuck up?
“Their confused philosophies lead to indecision.”
No, they do not. We just don’t need to be sure our actions glorify an invisible friend in the sky.
"Self preservation is an innate human drive, but there are reasons people override it, and he's clueless.”
As Patton also pointed out, or at least as George C. Scott attributed it to him, we don’t die for causes. We die for the other members of our squad. We also kill for them. Ideally, we kill lost of the fuckers.
