Sunday, March 27, 2011

  1. That was incredibly uncomfortable. I get that people kill people in war, but I don’t like that they like it.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 27, 2011 at 2147 hrs


  2. Wendy, ‘‘I have to agree with you. Even though I a, a vet, I also was not comfortable with the way that the voices reacted to the mission as it unfolded. Yes, part of it is machismo and mob mentality, but I kept thinking about how much the profession of killing has just become a video game.  As we take the risk out of killing, through remote viewing and UAVs, (although that wasn’t the weapon system in this case), I have to wonder if we will forget the horror that war truly is.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 27, 2011 at 2323 hrs


  3. It’s as if it’s just a video game to them.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 0720 hrs


  4. You guys understand that they were attempting to place an IED that the purpose of was to kill our guys.  It is not a video game and I don’t think they are treating it as such.  If we are going to be there at all, we should be all in.  Any one of those guys speaking could have been in a truck when the IED was exploded…they know that.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 0722 hrs


  5. I do understand exactly what they were doing, and I have no problem at all with them being killed.

    I’m not sure I’m even bugged by their video-game playing banter either. Just pointing out that it’s the exact same talk you hear when guys are playing video games and joking around.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 0731 hrs


  6. It’s as if it’s just a video game to them.

    Ironic you mention that. I retired over 10 years ago, following a 26-year career that took me to Vietnam for a couple of tours. Toward the end of my years I was a CPO, and the military was changing from “iron men in wooden ships,” to some sort of plastic paradise. Many of the young people I supervised had little understanding of what it takes to shoot someone in the face, since they seldom saw the enemy from those distances. They could watch cartoons all day long, and they had no idea what coffe was, opting instead to drink something we called “bug juice” - essentially the government version of Kool Aid. I saw the military transition from stalwart patriots, risking life and limb, enduring pain, hardship and discomfort, to a social experiment intended to be “inclusive” of all genders and lifestyles. We seemed to be determined to make is easier for the weak to kill the weaker.

    A few years ago I happened upon a still-serving fellow Chief at a reunion of my old organization. After I lamented to him about, “...what the military is coming to…,” he told me, “Yeah, but you put these kids on a joystick and you’d be surprised what they can do.”

    As I watch what our military is becoming; as I watch how our youth navigate current political waters, and as I see the direction spineless political hacks take our country, more than once I’ve taken solace in the fact that I won’t have to live to see the end result.

    I think I’ll go get a cup of coffee now and consider a time when the world was a courageous place, where patriotism and heroism were indistinguishable, and usually won the day.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 0753 hrs


  7. I wholly agree with Wendy’s take on the uncomfortable feeling it gives to watch this type of scenario.  Killing is killing, regardless of reason.  However, I believe the “joy” and the “thrill” we witnessed were simply coping mechanisms.  Duke, I get that the military was different in your day, as it was in mine, but these young men are still out there protecting our country.  They are giving their time and their service and getting the job done.  I am grateful.  (Whether they are eating C-rats, MREs or Mommy’s cookies shipped via APO.)

    Posted by GAMazy on March 28, 2011 at 0857 hrs


  8. And now, for my next impression, Jesse Ownes.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 0921 hrs


  9. Owens

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 0921 hrs


  10. Well, would you look at that…“it’s the pleats.” That was good, I want to be a soldier.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 1108 hrs


  11. Yeah Duke, damn those women and gays for ruining our military.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 1122 hrs


  12. I wonder what the reaction and “banter” of those Taliban operatives would have been if they were successful in blowing up several American servicemen. 

    I guess we’ll never know.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 1246 hrs


  13. I find it interesting that you consider it necessary to provide a language warning, but sent me to view the killing of another human being without so much as a word. Priorities.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 1552 hrs


  14. Yeah Duke, damn those women and gays for ruining our military.

    They weren’t the ones - it was the aforementioned political hacks that did it.

    They’re almost as bad as liberal trolls.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 1924 hrs


  15. I am not going to watch or listen, based on what I’m reading here.  But I’m not about to condemn anyone for what anyone hears as glee or gladness.  They’re doing a horrible job, under horrible circumstances, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to criticize them for whatever coping mechanism gets them through the day.  If any of you have ever sat down with a police officer or firefighter or EMT for an after-shift beer (or 5), you may know what I mean.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 28, 2011 at 2119 hrs


  16. I would like to reiterate, I am a vet, I served in the front lines in the first Gulf War. I have been there, walked the walk, talked the talk, and yes, pulled the trigger. I understand that part of what was going on was coping, part of it was going along with the rest of the guys. I understand all of that.  But I also understand that, at least in this case, those service-members will not have to get up close and personal with the aftermath of what was going on. They are simply voyeurs in this case. Yes, the targets were bad guys, out to kill Americans, and they would not have hesitated to celebrate had they been successful. But then again, we aren’t them are we? Except for whoever was actually coordinating the spotting for the firing aircraft, everyone you heard on that video was extraneous.  Their mission did not require that they observe and comment on what was occurring.  The mission certainly didn’t require that they crack wise. 

    The point I am trying to make is this:  if we as civilians watch this video and DON’‘T have a negative reaction to how our servicemen acted, at least deep down in our stomachs, then it becomes too easy to accept killing for whatever reason, good bad or indifferent.  I guess the biggest think that scares me is that some of us, far removed from the threat of danger and immediacy and need to cope with the stress, found it so easy to crack jokes. Maybe it is those of us who didn’t react negatively that saw this as just a video-game….

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 29, 2011 at 1212 hrs


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