Misguided Loyalties and the Military

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It certainly does not help to have extended deployments and re-deploying troops who are not 100% fit. We are now filling support roles with some troops who are unable to wear body armor because of their existing injuries.
Having commanded a mech infantry company with a broken collar bone and busted ribs, I am fairly knowledgeable about that.😃
Again, I don’t think people have any real clue at just how much is being asked of a very small number of Americans, so it irritates me when people compare their efforts to, say, dinner in Phillie…
No, they don’t – for some reason, the elite in our society shun military service these days. You would think that those to whom much is given would be giving us some payback, leading our troops, rather than sitting back home and griping.
 
During WWII the 36th Division in which my cousin served sustained more than 200 percent. casualties.
I think you are confusing wounded with killed. It is the KIA rate for the “Walking Dead” in Vietnam (about 94%) which is a USMC record.

Again, this is not to diminish the efforts and sacrifices of any other branch or unit. I just was addressing the argument that Vietnam vets faced little statistical risk. If you mean the 36th infantry division you picked a good example for risk and sacrifice. It sustained horrific casualties in the Rapido River action, and my recollection is that it had the Congressional Medal of Honor awarded to members in double digits during WWII (I think 14, but I’d have to dig that up). But even among army divisions, it’s casualty rate was not highest in WW-II (I think it is 9th or 10th). All of which goes to my original point. Risk is not spread evenly in war, so it is misleading to present statistics that act as if it is.
 
Having commanded a mech infantry company with a broken collar bone and busted ribs, I am fairly knowledgeable about that.😃
Someday I’ll have to get the story on that one. In the late 60s the footprint was already pretty large. I was anxious to get back, but my slot certainly wasn’t empty while I was wounded. In the later years, when the footprint was downright enormous, I wouldn’t have imagined any need to deploy wounded. (I’m not questioning your story, I just suspect that the circumstances might have been unusual).
 
Someday I’ll have to get the story on that one. In the late 60s the footprint was already pretty large. I was anxious to get back, but my slot certainly wasn’t empty while I was wounded. In the later years, when the footprint was downright enormous, I wouldn’t have imagined any need to deploy wounded. (I’m not questioning your story, I just suspect that the circumstances might have been unusual).
They were – I was an experienced combat Infantry officer, and they were in short supply in the Fall of '69. When I finally got a replacement, he was killed before I got out of country.
 
Warplans are created by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Nope, as was pointed out. Ya gotta remember, the Joint Chiefs are NOT in the Chain of Command. The Chain goes President, Sec Def Combantant Commanders.

As to the individual that insulted the President of the United States, I feel sorry for you. What is your evidence the President has used a bug?
 
Just watch him when he takes questions from reporters. He mumbles a few words, and then stops. You can see that he is listening to something. He says a few more words, and then stops to listen again.

I never realized it, because I don’t watch TV. When I saw it on a Youtube video, it was obvious. Then, I started watching other press conferences where he takes questions. I have never seen anyone answer a question, and stop in the middle of the answer for a few seconds, and then continue on like this guy.

Check it our for yourself.
 
Nice conspiracy theory…with no evidence to support this RIDICULOUS claim.
 
Yes – the ultimate state will see us all with no freedom, no jobs, no responsibility, and all of us on welfare with a government health-care plan.

But who will** pay** for all those things?:rolleyes:
Whomever can be the most easily bullied into paying. And of course it’s all good.

:rolleyes: 😃
 
I used to have to live that garbage in a past life (well, a couple of past lives).

The ultimate nerd-dom. Getting into heated discussions minutiae that would be unfathomable to 90% of the country’s populace.

(edited to remove an unacceptable term that was previously believed to be in common parlance)
Hey! You and me both, bud. :rotfl:
 
Whomever can be the most easily bullied into paying. And of course it’s all good.

:rolleyes: 😃
As some one said, the problem with capitalism is that people don’t get an equal share of the benefits. The problem with communism is that everyone gets an equal share of the misery.
 
abu kamoon:
…I have never seen anyone answer a question, and stop in the middle of the answer for a few seconds, and then continue on like this guy.
Then you have never seen the very best orators. Bobby Kennedy used to do this all the time. That was back in the days of live news reporting, live interviews.

He would drive producers crazy because he would actually listen to the question, then sit there silent for … well… a long long time, then carefully articulate an answer and then pause and then proceed, pause, proceed. The dead-air time was astonishing.

The thing about Bush is that he stays on point. That frustrates reporters who are trying to trip him up.

In any case, these endless attacks on Bush’s intelligence are no more than ad hominem errors of logic. Obviously folks have nothing substantive to bring to bear against his policies, so they attack his character. And does anyone remember the options given to the American electorate? …ummmm…
 
Is that true though?
Well, the leaders don’t. They get the best of everything – just like kings and queens in the old days. It’s the peasants who get the misery – just like in the old days.😉
 
…That brings to mind some thoughts I have on the morality of maintaining the best warmaking capability in the history of man even in times of relative peace…
I haven’t read the whole thread yet so please forgive me if you expanded on this thought later on…

…the “best warmaking capability in the history of man” would include guidance and delivery systems so refined as to minimize collateral damage while terminating threat in very short order…

…would it not? Is this is a good thing or a bad thing in your view?
 
Well, the leaders don’t. They get the best of everything – just like kings and queens in the old days. It’s the peasants who get the misery – just like in the old days.😉
The peasants at least had their land. Not so the poor and downtrodden handicrafted by the Reformation. (Much of this argument is not about either/or but of proportionality.) 😉
 
The peasants at least had their land. Not so the poor and downtrodden handicrafted by the Reformation. (Much of this argument is not about either/or but of proportionality.) 😉
Actually, the peasants didn’t own land – they held it from their lord, who held it from the King.
 
On 9/11, they did come for us. Nineteen terrorists killed as many Americans on 9/11 as the entire Japanese Navy did at Pearl Harbor…
And “they” came for us in Canada too. Only the “they” were us and we busted them before they could do as much damage.

Coupla years back a dryrun blasted a coffee shop sky high at Yonge & Bloor. A little later, 17 homegrowns were arrested before they could blow the CBC, the Parliament Buildings, an armoury, and a shopping mall in the financial district sky high. And there was the Kadhr family. And then … oh … all the myriad interborder weapons-running, nuclear-material-smuggling.

No, nothing happening there. :rolleyes: 🤷

Oh sheesh, I almost forgot: Bush did it. 😃
 
Actually, the peasants didn’t own land – they held it from their lord, who held it from the King.
Correct. However, the peasants were not ‘turfed off’ and taxed til their back teeth hurt so to speak until the enlightened new thinking of Luther and the magnificent princes.

😃
 
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