I submit to the Forum that just about any post here offends someone. If someone recommends a Boker knife, somebody will be upset because it's German... Cold Steel because it's Japanese. I'm sure snare wire and fish hook discussions are the bane of PETA's existence and are considered extremely political to them. The ability to please the masses is impossible and ANYTHING can be turned into a political battle.

What Mr. Ritter did was post something that had the ability to make a lot of service personnel in an extremely harsh environment more comfortable. I don't remember a heading on the post saying "CLICK ME" or else. The heading was "Support our Troops". If you do not desire to support our troops, then don't click on the link. I fully appreciate anyones right to support/not support. In fact, I've spent over 21 years in the Marine Corps, in part to ensure that the "non-silent minority" could snivel at will.

If ONE service person doesn't get a care package because we had to cater to the feelings of .001% of the masses, then the cost was too high. Some members (me included) go straight to the Forum from the front page daily. We rely on posts from Doug when the front page has been updated with new information. Removing that post ensures that some members will never see that info, or they will see it too late. I highly recommend that the entire thread be re-posted.

If it turns out that I am in the .001% group and that 99.9% of the Forum agrees with the non-silent minority, then so be it. If you disagree with a post, say so... but not at the expense of others. Don't rob a service person of something that makes his crappy life a little better, just so you can feel at peace with yourself.

Another point: I think most of us (of course not all), would agree that ETS is unmatched in the amount of information, suggestions, tips, etc. pertaining to survival issues. That information and the Forum are completely free of charge to all who desire to access it. In addition to the support of our troops overseas, we need to financially support the staff of ETS, so they can continue to provide this cutting edge information.

Nothing is free; someone is footing the bill to keep this site going. Don't be surprised when you get out of bed one day to check the Forum, or research an item and it's no longer there. Then we can go to 100 different sites to get our scoop... like we used to do. Loosen up the purse strings and donate some money to ETS. They sure as hell deserve it!

Sorry... I'm not usually a "soap-box" kinda guy, but this one raised my blood pressure a notch or two.

Take care, George