I fuck girls man. Sorry, but I don’t like sloppy fifty-seconds.
[quote]Sikkario wrote:
I fuck girls man. [/quote]
That says more about you than I think you even realize.
But most little boys do fuck little girls. Yu and lixy should hit it off real well.
[quote]Mikeyali wrote:
This is an interesting post. Here’s to hoping I can help out a little bit. EDIT: This post became much longer than I’d intended, I am not going to proof this thing.
My old man was in the air force - 20 years. I got to live around military types my whole life. I remember my dad talking about how much he loved Reagan. I remember being in Iceland and having people freak out when Russian planes invaded our airspace. I remember sitting down with my dad and how happy he was watching the Berlin Wall come down. I grew up watching GI Joe and He-man. I was a Hulkamaniac. Very early in my life I decided I was going to join the military. Part of it was the adventure and part of it was youthful patriotism, and another was the desire to be one of the “good guys”.
I was a teenager living on an Air Force base during Waco and Ruby Ridge. I thought we were the good guys then too. We were fighting cultists and nazis. I’d never shot a gun except for once during scout camp. When I was 17 I started the “Stew Smith Navy Seal workout”. My nerd days ended and I got strong cranking out 30 pullups but still skinny as shit. My dad tried to talk me out of it and wouldn’t sign the papers, so when I had to wait until I was 18 to join the Corps with a guaranteed infantry contract. The summer before bootcamp I had to shoot a dog. Some lady didn’t teach her dog not to chase cars. I’d never killed anything and I cried like a bitch when I shot it.
When I got to boot camp, the fantasy vanished. I realized how military life was more tedium than I could have imagined. A few years in I thought I had it figured out. I loved being in the field, cold, wet, sleep deprived, starving and miserable. I loved it. The Marines under me loved me. At garrison, I hated the Corps. I had a whole crop of guys come under me after 9/11 and I remember feeling really bad for them as they were picking up cigarette butts around the company office.
Things changed post-9/11. I spent about 5 months in the Philippines fighting the Abu-Sayef terrorist group. I slept on the hood of a humvee for 4 months. I had never been happier in my life before or since. I confess I did get that bloodlust once. I remember watching a home video of an Abu-Sayef ambush with a bunch of Filipino airmen in their E-club. It ended in the systematic beheading of each man. I won’t go into details, but it still bugs me. The guy next to me looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "That guy (the last one) was my friend.) That night I swore to myself I wouldn’t be happy until I killed one of them.
A few months later I’m in a convoy that has stopped. I’m in the command vehicle and I look over and a guy is about to throw a molotov at my truck. I grab my pistol from the cupholder, breaking it and stick it out the window. The guy drops it and runs. The major, sitting next to me tells me that I should have killed him. It was my hesitancy that gave the guy the chance to put down the molotov.
That evening it hit me hard. I realized how close I was to taking this guy’s life. I cried like a 5 year old girl. It was quite pathetic actually, but I had to have that talk with myself and as far as I saw it I had to come to terms with taking a life. For years I would be concerned that I was a coward and I hesitated out of fear rather than compassion and a desire to make sure I did the right thing.
Those were the happiest 5 months of my life. I liked war. I honestly did. I liked it because it was real. During the first weeks we were there the locals were afraid to make eye contact with us for fear of reprisal. By the time I left they treated us as rock stars, running a hundred hards out of their huts simply to wave to us. The amount of good we did was incredible. It was also scary. But that fear was a rush. I made it out alive and it felt good.
I ended my enlistment and went to school. During my entire freshman year I looked for reserve units to join that were going to Iraq. I sat at an E-club in Okinawa drinking beer watching the push and it ate me up inside. I hated not being there. That’s why I got out. I was really angry at the Corps for not sending me. I finally found an artillery unit that was going. They needed someone to train them to be infantrymen before heading out to Iraq to serve provisional riflemen. It was a calling and I jumped at it. This was after the WMD’s were found out to be nonexistent. I went back because I believed in the war. I am a scholar of the American Revolution. I believed in the universality of human rights and Saddam was a bad bad man.
I volunteered for that tour and on a convoy killed a man who I think was in a VBIED and charging us. No hesitancy. I didn’t shed a tear afterward. I didn’t enjoy it, but I think after my talk with myself in the Philippines I had resolved myself for what needed to be done. I wish I had seen more action, but figured I would do so after I graduated college and returned as an officer.
Less than 2 months since I’d returned from Iraq, my friend from the fleet died in Iraq. He had done the same thing I did volunteering with a local reserve unit, this time in New York. Another year later I find out another friend whom I thought had disappeared to keep from getting pulled out of the IRR had joined the army so he could get to Iraq. He left the Corps because he didn’t think they’d send him. He ended up getting caught in an ambush in Sadr City. Those two were no different than I was. And let me tell you, an Allah-guided bullet from a shitty AK-47 or an IED daisy chain abortion from 155mm shells will kill you just as readily as a laser guided JDAM dropped from an F-18.
When I got back and I started to learn more I started to realize I can’t go back in. Not because of the military - it’s perhaps the only good group of guys in government - but because I started to learn how our freedoms are eroding at home. I learned the truth or Waco and Ruby Ridge. I was dealt with unjudicously by the police and I watched our politicians (I’m looking at you McCain) take away our freedom and rub our noses in it.
I’m off topic on an already too long post. My point is that the majority of us do join for the right reasons. I had the honor of leading some fine men in combat and I knew who they were and what they stood for. Let there be no confusion. War is a rush. Too many military guys try to play this, “I hate war and you’re sick for wanting to go” game. They are being dishonest. It’s okay to like war. It’s just not okay to join simply to kill…that’s sick. It’s also rare. Before my guys left for their second tour in Iraq, one of my former corporals got one weeded out. He kept talking about wanting to kill for the joy of it. The Corps sent him home. I miss war. I miss the rush of it. But most of all, I miss the direct way in which I got to do good and defend those that could never defend themselves.
As for the hero stuff. There’s nothing humbler than being in. When I was younger I thought it’d be cool to be a hero. But everytime someone pats me on the back I get embarrassed. I know men that did way more than I that got no credit. I got a NAM (medal) for training those guys on how to be grunts. I know guys who got them for singlehandedly charging machine gun nests. How much pride do you think I have in THAT medal? And for those that think it’s cute to make light of guys that join to play hero, consider yourself. Have you never fantasized about running into a burning orphanage and pulling a bunch of babies out?
mike[/quote]
Great post
Semper Fi and OORAH Marine
To think that war is a blast is to show ignorance, war is awful and brutal. It does have it’s appeals, such as when you roll through a town and people cheer, when you are allowed to show courage in extreme situations, and when you devop the brotherhood of arms with those around you. These things still do not make it a blast they just become your silver linings on a very very dark cloud.
Those that are in for the joy of killing are minimal and the military does it best to keep these people out. you are correct in believing that one aspect of it is about the competition, we are competitive, we do strive to be the best at what we do, the recruiting ads play to this nature. Yes it is also for the adventure, that said the things we say when we leave for war are true in our hearts we believe in what they tell us we are fighting for we are young, idealist, and proud. We have grandeur dreams of being warrior Spartans, of fighting thousands of men for the freedom of our country, but to think we possess a bloodlust is incorrect we hate the killing as much as you do. We all want to play in the big game, some of us even thought we wanted to spray hot lead into our enemies not because we wanted to kill, but thats what you do in war, let me tell you that the first time you point a machine gun at another individual and don’t have to pull the trigger is the happiest moment of your life, you will realize that you never want to kill anyone or anything ever, hell i stopped watching war movies for a couple years it bothered me so much. The first time someone points a machine gun at you though and you get him first will be your next happiest moment cause you get to go home that day. It is harsh but true.
Our reasons for joining are so varied it would make your head spin. I have seen homeless teens join for a place that will feed and clothe them, rich kids who wanted to rebel, a engineer with a doctrate who felt that he should serve a country that accepted his immgrant parents, clueless college kids tired of wasting their parents cash partying, the list can go for days. My father was a recruiter for the Marines I have heard all of the reasons, and each one believes their reason. You call it the beast, and you may be right but it would probably take some deep delving to get them to say thats why, they believe their reasons and stand on them. As for my reason I knew that I wouldn’t want to die knowing that I didn’t join to protect my country, and that was in a time of peace.
Why so many here, even women(!) try to embellish what is the ugly, bloodied, grinning hydra we call war?
[/quote]
Your actual question that has been sadly forgotten through the pages of this topic. They don’t want to embellish or glorify it, but to be a part of it. I personally believe that it is ingrained in our nature to respect the warrior, for he is strong and a symbol of what we believe in. They cheer for these men and women because they don’t get to be warriors, they are sick, to young, old, have other duties, (police fire ect.), have already performed their service, or sadly cowardly and glad someone else takes their place. These that cannot go can feel that they are like the warrior if they believe in the warrior, somewhat similar to the wearing of sports themed clothing, you wear your teams jersey despite not being on the team, you do it cause you believe they are the best.
My apologies for being longwinded but I feel strongly about this and do not wish to be percieved as a bloodthirsty beast.
This is just a weak bump.
Chushin and others, you’ll get your answers and replies.
But a thoughtful and honest answer might take more time then I have now, so you will have to wait till I come back from my short vacation.
Froehliche Ostern, Happy Easter!
and to you!