What part of the military life do you like best? Killing or taking orders? Or is it the ribbons and medals? I'm guessing, in your case, it's the ribbons. Or is it just the truck? Thank you for your service.
so, i guess you still haven't achieved the 9th grade reading level yet, eh? none of the above and that was painfully obvious had you read any of the prior posts. (or rather, had you been able to comprehend them) not only do i never wear my copious ribbons or medals, but i don't have a single award, achievement, or any other thing posted or hanging in my house other than a single picture in uniform next to my father, also in uniform, which most people can't tell apart care to try again?
Ok... I see... yes it does make a big difference to your opening post: try this amended version: "Why do some people consider everyone in the military to be a "hero" and why do we "thank them for their service"? It's a job. They get a paycheck and since WWII what military conflict has improved anything?" but even then there is a few problems....but let them slide as trivial..... Think about the old granny sitting in her little apartment terrified of Soviet invasion with out realizing that the official cold war ended ages ago. To her any one employed to keep her safe is a hero... I often see on social media people posting those irritating army photos declaring "Like and Share if you think they are heroes" and it bugs the hell out of me as it diminishes the value of the heroism I mentioned earlier. ( I have a number of mature age FB Friends in the USA...and note my Australian Friends NEVER post that sort of excessive patriot flavored spam) Most of the time they seem to be attempting to drum up support for vagrant and psychologically challenged war veterans sleeping rough because they feel guilty about the outcome of political hysterics/immorality. It is annoying granted but are they not entitled to view any person prepared to risk life and limb to save their butt, to be a hero? ( whether that person did or not is unable to be determined by them)
They are entitled to view it any way they like as am I. It's the chest pumping and flag waving aspect that is annoying as it's so stupid in origin. It takes the place of thinking.."love it or leave it" and that kind of nonsense.
these are the type of people who trust explicitly anything the Government of the day decides to do ( all conflicts are just and right)... They will wave that flag no matter what...because that is all they can do. Welcome to the USA!
The chat is usually "Go U.S.A, Go U.S.A.!" Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! This is the same type that largely populates our military however. Who else would be attracted to a career in the military? Certainly not anyone able to think rather than take orders. Manhattan was purchased from the Indians for trinkets and trinkets are how the military keeps people as well. Full their "dress uniform" up with ribbons and then send them back in for another tour. Make them "Captain" of a Truck and they'll risk their lives for "Merica".
Gosh ... I could tell you a few stories in response but shall refrain as it's too wordy an effort... Australian Military is considerably smaller but highly specialized (a generalization) with a completely different culture to that of the USA so perhaps it is not appropriate for me to comment. The elite soldiers of the USA Military are not all that interested in flag waving either is my bet. Tough job, tough people.. no time for BS.
The elite soldiers have to be super patriots. We have a large military and most are much less than elite. There are a lot of Truck Captains out there. I'm pretty sure that our Truck Captain isn't even an officer. By and large, the officers aren't the problem.
Officers! Elite! oh I see... oh no I am not talking about elite in those terms... SAS corporal is Elite certainly no officer... Navy seal of any rank same deal... and other less uhm known elites as well..... what problem are you referring to?
Chest beating, flap waving problem. Yes, Navy Seal is an elite unit. Those units make up very little of the military however. What exactly does the military do in Australia? Protect Australia from a New Zealand invasion? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Consider how much money is being spent unproductively in this world on the military. It isn't producing anything and the money would be better spent doing just about anything else such as building roads and bridges. You guys spend $26 billion and we spend almost $600 billion on the military. We spend as much as the next top 10 countries spend combined.
It's ridiculous. The military budget used to go down as wars and conflicts ended and went up when the military was at a bare bones level. Now it never goes down. There is never going to be peace with a military as large as ours. The first Gulf War was just an excuse to try out our stealth technology. The Republicans like to think they are for limited government but that's not the case at all. They just don't like any money going to those at the bottom of our society. It's all fear based. They worry about immigrants taking jobs, crime, the needy but there is no limit on military spending. They also don't seem to realize that we cause much of the terrorism that is directed toward us by our foreign military actions. Children grow up to hate the military that killed their fathers. We could cut our military by 2/3's and we would still have the world's largest military and there would still be no one attacking us. That would save $400 billion a year! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
A popular idea here is that all youth should have compulsory military training... 2years. What this would do is a number of things. The most important is that it significantly reduces the unemployment stats. It means that what the gov would be paying in Unemployment benefits it pays to train youth into a more disciplined life style. Win win ... Another is more about social conditioning and management. Fortunately we don't have such a big unemployment problem to warrant it. So the USA spends $x Billion on soldiers means the unemployment rate is lower and the young people are learning something useful. Thus artificially propping up perceptions of the health of the economy and improving education outcomes. So Trump pledges to increase the size of the military, thus creating jobs paid for by the defense budget so he can brag about how good his job creation policies have been. Pretty standard strategy... Shift the dollar burden from welfare to defense... have a war or two and bingo you get re-elected...
Very important point and add unconscionable economic action as well, ie. Sanctions, hyper aggressive capitalism etc After all the World Trade center was a target was it not?...Osama had every hope that they would cripple USA economically by taking out the key financial institutions. IMO If it wasn't for extensive remote back up systems he would probably have succeeded
It's a ridiculous use of money in reality though. You spend $600,000,000,000 on a jobs program for less than 2,000,000 people (even including civilians) and that's spending $300,000 for each job that you are paying people $30k to $60k and nothing is produced and everything is used up (exploded).
Taking any building out isn't going to cripple the U.S. economically directly. However, he did cost us a tremendous amount of money due to the fear and all the money we are spending because of that fear. They hijacked a few airliners (no cost to them) and we started multi-year wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as beefed up security in the U.S. That one event caused us to spend probably a trillion dollars. The Soviet Union, in part, disintegrated because their military, economically, couldn't keep up with our military. They never were a "super-power" in any sense other than a military one. That doesn't work unless you are an economic super-power as well to pay for everything.
so, you want intellectual discourse, but not if it means you actually have to utilise your intellect? gotcha! sounds more like you're here to troll people and attempt to seek validation for your beliefs... wrong: most of the people i knew were there to either pay for college or to establish a working experience in a career (like law enforcement, medical or fire department) so that they could find better jobs. i know some were the "chest thumpers", but most were simple normal people wanting a regular paycheck and seeing a potential for establishing a career in a field trolling comment intended to bait into a flame war, eh? obviously you know jack sh*t about the military as you think that all orders must be immediately acted upon. the military even teaches inductee's that they only have to act upon lawful orders. but i see that you are the chest thumper here seeking validation for your prejudice against anyone who makes you afraid, hence your denigration of military. do they make you feel inferior? or were you rejected by them? or did you make it in the service but found yourself incapable of actually using your tiny pea-brain to function because you didn't like people with experience telling you what to do, so you got the big chicken dinner or dishonorable? I would put money on all of it. obviously you feel rejected because of your inferiority complex, therefore you choose to denigrate any service member who demonstrates superior intellect by saying they're not able to think, etc... one does not get made a "truck captain", one earns the rank of "Truck Captain". even a cursory check of the fire department should show you that one, but i guess actually checking facts is far too strenuous for you. no, they don't. they have to be focused and driven to succeed despite all odds. i know a few "elite soldiers" who are absolutely anti-government. (SEAL's, Green Berets, etc) yup called it on the nose: you don't know jack sh*t about the military. thanks for confirming that one. and yes, there are a lot of Truck Captains out there. 1- never said i was an officer in the military. there are NO military officer ranks in the fire department. i am, however, an officer in the Fire Department and have the IFSAC and IAFF certifications to demonstrate said officer rank. 2- Truck Captain is a rank designation in the Fire Department denoting a specialised training program for Truck Companies 3- officers in the military tend to be far worse depending on the field and branch of service. you simply think enlisted are worse because of their numbers, but you don't consider that most college educated people are making a huge sacrifice in pay and more to enter military service as an officer. yeah... you were rejected by them so now you hate them
