Imagine this situation.

A team of "assassins" moves through briars and weeds seeking their quarry. As they crawl with obvious reluctance at getting their clothes dirty, they mutter curses each time a briar thorn penetrates their clothing. When they are 100 feet or so from their intended victim, each member of the assassin team urges all the other members to become quieter by hissing "shhhh!" Miraculously, however, this does not alert the prey, as it easily might have.

Onward they creep, managing against all odds to remain reasonably silent as they do so. At the edge of the weeds, where the target's back yard begins, the "assassins" suddenly realize that they have no plan for crossing it unobserved. After a whispered consultation, which again the prey miraculously does not detect, the assassins conclude that their best bet is to wait until their prey turns his back, and then they will all charge as stealthily as they possibly may.

Unfortunately for this plan, one of the assassins finds at this point that he simply must clear his throat. The quarry looks up from his newspaper and spots the motley band of enemies approaching him. He calmly draws his pistol and points it at them. And suddenly a strange thing happens.

Rather than charging, accepting the inevitable bullet wounds, and relying on the prey's running out of bullets before the assassins run out of team members, the assassination squad turns on each other with loud mutual recriminations, each of them pointing fingers toward at least one other and scolding them for "wrecking the mission." By the time the argument cools to the point where the assassins can begin to plan their withdrawal from the danger zone, it is already too late: the quarry has summoned a dozen armed men from among his neighbors to his aid, and the party of assassins is arrested.

All of them are hanged the next day, as they deserve to be.

This is precisely the calibre of most Internet-warriors today. They try to characterize themselves as tough guys with combat experience and leadership skills, whereas in fact they are in fact immature self-seekers who want easy glory and the perks that go with it, such as girls and the right to spend other people's money. They are as venal as most of the politicians in the political mainstream, in that avoiding personal blame for a failure is more important than whether they succeed at their avowed purpose. They would risk their comrades' lives before they would risk their social status.

Not all people who speak of purpose and the need for action are such immature self-seekers. But many of them are, and there is no easy way to identify the really serious and capable leaders from the imitations.

"...obvious reluctance at getting their clothes dirty, they mutter curses each time a briar thorn penetrates their clothing."
No training.

"...each member of the assassin team urges all the other members to become quieter by hissing 'shhhh!'"
No training, no clear leader.

"...suddenly realize that they have no plan for crossing it unobserved."
No attempt to gather intelligence, too many assumptions about mission, no preparatory drill.

"After a whispered consultation..."
Stupidity. Seeking status during a moment of extreme danger. No clear leader.

"...their best bet is to wait until their prey turns his back, and then they will all charge as stealthily as they possibly may."
Stupidity. Inexperience. A charge is not a stealthy action. Again, seeking status: nobody wanted to vote for retreat, lest he lose face.

"...he simply must clear his throat."
A careless failure to take danger seriously, or an immature disregard of danger for the sake of momentary comfort.

"...the assassination squad turns on each other with loud mutual recriminations..."
Stupidity. Immaturity. No clear leader. No one responsible for coordinating the attack.

"...scolding them for 'wrecking the mission.'"
Stupidity. The explicit mention of purpose cost the group any remaining vestige of plausible deniability; for example, they can no longer claim to be a party of lost hunters.

What makes a trained, professional soldier different from the yahoos described above is not only the skills acquired through training, but the habits appropriate to the causes of stealth, attack and defense. One of these habits is a sacrifice of ego to the group's purpose, not being concerned with who the hero is going to be today, or with who will get the rewards, or or with who will most impress the girls back at the "barracks." It also means postponing a fight to redress a slight to one's honor until after the job is done.