Ya'll have heard me talk/rant about this before....

[freyasman]

You know I sure as hell would have responded, had I seen it.

This is pretty much the only place I get to talk about the military; when the subject comes up IRL, I shut it down..... it gets me all pissed off and depressed. When somebody makes me for a vet, and wants to talk about it, I always walk away as politely as I can (which isn't polite at all, sometimes), and my wife knows better than to bring it up. She actually told me last night, that she wishes we could talk about it more, like reminisce and such, but every time she mentions it, I start getting agitated. It pisses her off that she can't talk about it with me..... she says it's like 2 decades of our lives are off-limits.
So I come here and rant..... at least here, no matter how heated the argument gets, I won't end up putting someone's head through a car window.

 

[Wahbooz]

This is pretty much the only place I get to talk about the military; when the subject comes up IRL, I shut it down..... it gets me all pissed off and depressed. When somebody makes me for a vet, and wants to talk about it, I always walk away as politely as I can (which isn't polite at all, sometimes), and my wife knows better than to bring it up. She actually told me last night, that she wishes we could talk about it more, like reminisce and such, but every time she mentions it, I start getting agitated. It pisses her off that she can't talk about it with me..... she says it's like 2 decades of our lives are off-limits.
So I come here and rant..... at least here, no matter how heated the argument gets, I won't end up putting someone's head through a car window.

Venting is good for the soul.

It's really difficult to talk to people who really have no comprehension of war, except for some movie they saw on tv. On War Stories, there were those who tried to get us to actually tell war stories so they would comprehend what it was like. I bowed out of that, and hoped they rented We Were Soldiers for just the view of blood flying.

 

[Wahbooz]

A peoples struggle against oppression is not a War - it is a struggle. And the reasons given for 'The War of Independence' are not entirely honest, as the victors never are. It was not only about money but also about your own peoples Land. All those who came and come to the US came and come for acquisitional reasons and as now abroad it was then too the indigenous who suffer.

Of course, but even massacres like Wounded Knee was a war to them, while Greasy Grass (Little Bighorn to them) is always characterized as a massacre. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

[BitterPill]

Can it be changed. Frey is referring to an 'organization' that anymore is geared to making a certain aspect of the economy rich. Remember, Ike warned Americans about the 'Military Industrial complex'. Maj/Gen Smedley Butler, U.S. Marines and winner of two MOH's, wrote a book in 1935 titled War Is a Racket. Take Vietnam, for example. There was no objective, no winning and keeping land. This war was all about numbers, KIA, MIA, WIA, structures destroyed, and unfortunately a lot of those numbers were American kids. All the hills that were taken, at one hell of a cost, and were promptly returned. Wars are for making a profit for corporations.

I think the objective in Vietnam was summed-up by the now debunked Domino Theory, but I like the rest of your post.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

I think no one talks because they don't fully understand the problem.
I don't know why we even attempt to fight a war with the rules of engagement. We send guys into battle, but they have to obey rules of engagement or get legal permission to fire. When you have your life on the line and someone shoots at you, but you can't shoot back until you see the gun or if said party tosses the gun and walks away you can't kill him if he isn't carrying a gun.
You go into a town with insurgents and you call in the jets for a strike, but they dump the bombs near by to scare them, to bomb a building might have collateral damage.
You go on a night patrol against suspected terrorists and you have local army regulars with you. You get close to the location and one of the local soldiers fires his gun by mistake, oops. You get there and the enemy is gone.
We now fight everything in a political manner, that makes no sense. Army's are built and trained to destroy, but tying a hand behind their backs before they start is insanity. It makes so you never win, your troops die and the troops live under very high stress conditions.

Yes, we have a dysfunctional war that if the big battles came we have forgotten how to win. I fear any big engagements we will get our asses kicked.

Don't Be Chickenfeed for Chickenhawks. Let Preppies Die Because of ROE.

The people with the power to change anything in the military will only do so if we draft their sons and force the spoiled cowards to go through what every GI has to put up with from incompetent CYA officers.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

WWII was won by common, everyday people who volunteered or were drafted to do a specific job; win the war. When that was done, nearly all over them went back to their lives. People who dedicate their lives and careers to a corrupt organization are not to be trusted, plain and simple. Most folks who join nowadays are perceptive enough to realize what type of organization the Army has become, and they get the hell out of it at their first opportunity. Some folks (me, for instance) are simply naïve in the beginning, and stubborn and pigheaded towards the end. Integrity and accountability need to make a comeback in the military.... soon.

In the 50s, I was brought up on films glorifying war. But they also glorified the working-class GIs. This disgusted the rich brats, so they demonstrated against the war with the slant that working-class Americans are baby-killers. It had nothing to do with anti-war feelings but was all about class snobbery. That, of course, also goes for scumbag rich pukes like Bush. Even though he didn't participate in anti-war media spectacles, he was the greatest traitor of all.

He knew he was a worthless coward, too. That's what drove him into being an escapist drunk for the next ten years.

 

[Jen]

This is pretty much the only place I get to talk about the military; when the subject comes up IRL, I shut it down..... it gets me all pissed off and depressed. When somebody makes me for a vet, and wants to talk about it, I always walk away as politely as I can (which isn't polite at all, sometimes), and my wife knows better than to bring it up. She actually told me last night, that she wishes we could talk about it more, like reminisce and such, but every time she mentions it, I start getting agitated. It pisses her off that she can't talk about it with me..... she says it's like 2 decades of our lives are off-limits.
So I come here and rant..... at least here, no matter how heated the argument gets, I won't end up putting someone's head through a car window.

When you need the rant, it's good you have a place to do it where you feel safe to do it.
And it's good you realize it's not a good thing to discuss IRL.
It all makes sense to me.
I wish you well.

 

[Fast Eddy]

Don't Be Chickenfeed for Chickenhawks. Let Preppies Die Because of ROE.

The people with the power to change anything in the military will only do so if we draft their sons and force the spoiled cowards to go through what every GI has to put up with from incompetent CYA officers.

I think most of the Military ineptness and stupid rules comes from the non military side. The White House and State Department don't want to offend.

 

[Dawg]

we don't have a Patton