I don't like second guessing. To me, Teddy Roosevelt's take on what critics do, is an accurate reflection of what goes on in the real world:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

However, what really infuriates me is nowadays, it is the precisely the critic who counts! In case you haven't heard, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated that the war in Iraq is lost. What amazed me about his statement is that he talked as if it was a great triumph. He went up to the big bad President who has the audacity to believe we can actually succeed as Americans and informed him that we, the men and women in the military, are worthless failures...YEAH! And the crowds rejoiced. Unfortunately, a lot of people have rejoiced at this news. CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW IS THIS GOOD NEWS? As a person who wears the uniform on a regular basis, this pisses me off more than I have ever been pissed off in my life. He lied every time he opened his mouth and said he supported the troops. When he says that there are NO military options to winning this war, what is he saying? The military did such a great job, we can take it from here? NO! He is saying that we failed, he is saying that I failed! Nathan, why are you so upset, you ask? Because I now know that my little girls are going to learn from these idiots that their dad did nothing of importance or significance the 18 months he spent deployed away from them. The Christmas that they spent with their daddy on a webcam meant nothing. I missed their birthdays because I had nothing better to do. I missed first sentences, crawling, potty training, and such...for what...according to this pompous blowhard...nothing! BUT he is the critic, to the media, his words are the truth, an accurate assessment. The media will play this up as a breakthrough because they are critics as well. They haven't been in the arena, they have spilt no blood, they have lost no friends, they have missed no part of their lives, they have sacrificed nothing, and yet, they have the audacity of failure. They have NO right to count, yet they do. The biggest fear of mine, the realistic fear, is that history will remember and record only their tale and I will fade away in a bastion of unimportance, not as a human being, but as a Soldier. How did America ever let them get the power to destroy the legacy I FOUGHT FOR! Shame on any of you who are responsible.