[quote]tmay11 wrote:
… It’s quite obvious that he meant that it’s good in the sense that the suicides show that people are retaining their humanity. Ie. You put people in a horrible situation and they react in a way which shows they are severely negatively effected.
They are not turning the way of the “get some” helicopter pilot in Full Metal Jacket. This is a good thing.
He wasn’t saying the suicides themselves are a good thing. [/quote]
Kind of like women commuting suicide after having an abortion? I think I get it now.
I think i can help provide some clarity here. I think the reason he told you to shut the fuck up is because the people who always demand more fighting and bloodshed are the ones who will never fight for anything except a good parking spot in front of walmart.
[/quote]
He’s a big boy. Let him speak for himself. And why are you suggesting I’m “always demand[ing] more fighting and bloodshed?” That’s bullshit. I said as a matter of foreign policy I don’t think we should just abandon the theatre. Additionally, I was against the Libyan war.
Terrorism affects many. A friend of our family was fucking maimed in Bali.
I think there’s a disconnect here. “Have to deal with that?” There is no conscription right? They’re volunteers right? Also, the Pakistan comment was in response to someone asking what I meant by a strategic withdrawal.
I think i can help provide some clarity here. I think the reason he told you to shut the fuck up is because the people who always demand more fighting and bloodshed are the ones who will never fight for anything except a good parking spot in front of walmart.
[/quote]
He’s a big boy. Let him speak for himself. And why are you suggesting I’m “always demand[ing] more fighting and bloodshed?” That’s bullshit. I said as a matter of foreign policy I don’t think we should just abandon the theatre. Additionally, I was against the Libyan war.
Terrorism affects many. A friend of our family was fucking maimed in Bali.
I think there’s a disconnect here. “Have to deal with that?” There is no conscription right? They’re volunteers right? Also, the Pakistan comment was in response to someone asking what I meant by a strategic withdrawal.[/quote]
No, there is no conscription but that said only a small percentage of americans meet the requirements for service (cant find the exact percentage right now) So some have to. Yes i know hes a big boy but i hold a similar opinion of couch commandos. Your gross underestimate of our “stone age” enemy caught my eye more than anything there is nothing stone age about rpg’s, PKM’s, hand grenades, and IEDs. Im sorry about your friend, I guesss i could sum up my thoughts by saying no one wants peace more than soldiers.
I’m not a “couch commando” - merely someone with an interest in foreign policy. And I am well aware of the fighting prowess of the Pathans. Perhaps “stone age” was a poor choice of words and is more suited to their ideology and social structure.
IDK about that, I’ve met naive ‘gung ho’ recruits about to be deployed who can’t
wait to serve, playing paintball on the weekends, having zero clue of the Psychological
casualties they may be about to experience, the Young seem to focus on the PHYSICAL aspects
of War… Fitness, Agility, Shooting Skills, General Tactics, etc., but what they DO NOT have the
protection from, and what they absolutely cannot prepare for, is the Psychological damage…They think they
are immune from it, and The Recruiters that sign them up for duty speak with Forked Tongues.
[quote]Karado wrote:
…“no one wants peace more than soldiers.”
IDK about that, I’ve met naive ‘gung ho’ recruits about to be deployed who can’t
wait to serve, playing paintball on the weekends, having zero clue of the Psychological
casualties they may be about to experience, the Young seem to focus on the PHYSICAL aspects
of War… Fitness, Agility, Shooting Skills, General Tactics, etc., but what they DO NOT have the
protection from, and what they absolutely cannot prepare for, is the Psychological damage…They think they
are immune from it, and The Recruiters that sign them up for duty speak with Forked Tongues.
[/quote]
Agree i was the same before my first deployment but some things have to be learned first hand i suppose. Every FNG out there cant wait to go be a hooah soldier, most of the guys i deployed with wanna be done with it all now including myself
Yeah, I empathize with ya on that one, I’m no ‘PeaceNik’ nor some Hippie Type “No War” activist,
but Dammit Man there’s gotta be line drawn here after all this time.
Being a Soldier in War one can only imagine…mostly boring deployments, followed by unexpected moments of Hellish Shootouts is what does the collective damage, not
to mention dealing with people of another culture where logic and reason are completely Alien
to their Psyche, compared to our Western Type of thought processes.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight: US troops committing suicide is a good thing. Americans are wimps who can’t even play dodge ball. Military recruitment officers are snakes. The Taliban are invincible and we should surrender. And anyone who disagrees is a “couch commando” and should “shut the fuck up.” Did I get that about right? Good Lord!
Okay, for reference, we are at war IN Afghanistan not WITH Afghanistan. We are not trying to destroy the country’s military and take them over, we are fighting with people whom we consider terrorists in the country, many of whom are not Afghans.
I hate when people use this imminent threat of impending terrorist attacks coming and destroying our entire country. There were 2,996 people killed in the september 11 attacks. There have been approx. 161,000 murders and negligent homicides throughout the united states since then. I’m in no way minimizing the attacks but I think we have some other serious issues having to do with human life that do not involve terrorism.
Lastly, someone who is “merely someone with an interest in foreign policy” would never say that we should leave Afghanistan by way of invading Pakistan. Stop looking for more wars that we can throw kids into and actually look at ways that we can work together with other cultures to stop hating and destroying each other.
Oh, and as far as having a family friend maimed in Bali, that sucks and I’m sorry. So far I’ve had five people I would call personal friends killed in Afghanistan, the oldest of them being 27. I understand how much it sucks to lose friends in horrible ways.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Let me see if I’ve got this straight: US troops committing suicide is a good thing. Americans are wimps who can’t even play dodge ball. Military recruitment officers are snakes. The Taliban are invincible and we should surrender. And anyone who disagrees is a “couch commando” and should “shut the fuck up.” Did I get that about right? Good Lord![/quote]
No, and we actually do quite a bit to try and prevent it. Ted Turner is neither a philosopher nor a great orator. He’s a businessman who excels at making people make money for him, don’t expect him to come off as an amazingly deep thinker philosophically.
No, we just typically choose not to kill enormous amounts of innocent people which makes a war like the current one exceedingly difficult.
Many of them, yes.
Not what anyone said, just that they are extremely good at using opportunities they are given and are not held by the same restraints of conscience which we seem to be.
It’s not that you are disagreeing. It’s that you are advocating creating more wars why you are being called a couch commando. Once people you love start being killed in wars your frame of reference starts to change pretty significantly. Try going to the memorial of a soldier killed from a post near where you live, watch their family and see how you feel about it afterwards. When we don’t have face to face contact with the human cost of war it’s very easy to advocate more wars.
Well said…I mean, if it’s all about saving American LIVES, how about the 4000 Abortions
the day PRIOR To 9-11, helpless Bodies that were Dismembered by AMERICANS, and ‘SexMachine’ didn’t bat an eye,
If it’s about PREVENTING DEATH, we should look in the mirror and fix our own society first before tell people ln other Countries how to fix theirs.
It’s not that you are disagreeing. It’s that you are advocating creating more wars why you are being called a couch commando. Once people you love start being killed in wars your frame of reference starts to change pretty significantly. Try going to the memorial of a soldier killed from a post near where you live, watch their family and see how you feel about it afterwards. When we don’t have face to face contact with the human cost of war it’s very easy to advocate more wars. [/quote]
Your response is fair and I understand where you’re coming from. Let me just say that I don’t advocate ‘more wars.’ As I said I was against Libya. The way I see it we’re in a world war already and I advocate winning it as quickly as possible and with the least loss of life. Rather than fight out proxy wars across the ME and Central/South Asia I think we should go after the countries backing them - Iran, Pakistan and the Arab petro-regimes.
[quote]Karado wrote:
…if it’s all about saving American LIVES, how about the 4000 Abortions
the day PRIOR To 9-11, helpless Bodies that were Dismembered by AMERICANS, and ‘SexMachine’ didn’t bat an eye,
[/quote]
Where the hell does that come from? I’m as pro-life as you can get and often speak out against abortion including regularly on this forum!
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Let me see if I’ve got this straight: US troops committing suicide is a good thing. Americans are wimps who can’t even play dodge ball. Military recruitment officers are snakes. The Taliban are invincible and we should surrender. And anyone who disagrees is a “couch commando” and should “shut the fuck up.” Did I get that about right? Good Lord![/quote]
wow ummm…ill just address what you got right americans are wimps who cant play dodge ball, yes a significant percent not all. yes recruiters are snakes I know a few they are good guys but when an autistic/anti-social disorder 18yo kid shows up at your unit ready to fight a war? really? not sure where you pulled the rest from. Taliban die just like every human on this planet except they cry out to a different god to save them. A couch commando would be an individual who advocates more war or how one should be fought without shouldering any burden except a tax increase. suicide is good? umm no. Surrender what? Taliban is an ideology its kinda hard to kill an idea. Its not just pashtun taliban firing shots anymore dari, farsi, azura its everyone who like the idea. EDIT
not sure the proper name but locals called the afghan-chinese azura or asura (i think it was a derogitory name)
[quote]SHREDTODEATH wrote:
A couch commando would be an individual who advocates more war or how one should be fought without shouldering any burden except a tax increase.
[/quote]
Whatever you think, I advocate how the war should be fought because I don’t like seeing needless casualties resulting from an incoherent foreign policy and because I truly believe that to abandon the theatre would ultimately cost more lives, prolong the war and cede strategic advantages to the enemy. I don’t talk tactics because I’m not a military man. However grand strategy falls within the field within which I have some experience and training.
[quote]SHREDTODEATH wrote:
[ Its not just pashtun taliban firing shots anymore dari, farsi…[/quote]
AFAIK, Farsi is a language, not a people.[/quote]
I’m guessing he means the Hazari and Farsi speaking Baluch.[/quote]
had to google for reference, im guessing our terps were under the assumption that we would know exactly where one was from based on dialect. We had a guy who tracked demographics i didnt pay much attention except they always had a good laugh about afghan-chinese or “azura”