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[Strife26]

Chesty Puller is one of the patron saints of Badassitude.

Yeah, slow-ass Pay-computer, paying 18 cents a minute to look at this video . . .

But, in general, there is something to be said for the sheer ungodly POWER of combined-arms-warfare. In the words of many a tanker, "if one doesn't get a hard-on after firing <insert heavy weapon here> there's something wrong with you.


I don't see much wrong with the song. There's pride in being an effective soldier, what does one expect? Do I take pride in the fact that I'm trained to kill stuff? Of course I do. Armies exist to fight, I'm glad that I'm part of the best Army in the world.

Out of the people in this Day room with me, we've got two people who like it (one being me), three who don't, and one who doesn't like the chantyness.

Pride in combat isn't a good or evil thing, hell I'm reading Panzer Armies,  by one of the German Staff Officers of WWII. Give an Army a job, and it'll do the best job that it can. That's why we have civillian control of the military so deeply ingrained in the US government.

[GTM]

Our robot vegetarian great grandchildren are going to find this YouTube video on the darkest corners of the Internet and laugh their ass off at us.

Hell, I'm laughing at that crappy 1999-era music-and-slideshow now...

[fqllve]

I am offended that you would call that music, sir.

I have heard ICP songs more musically interesting.

[Realmfighter]

I have heard ICP songs more musically interesting.

Fucking Rainbows.

[Zangi]

You are not 'The man who arranges the tanks.'

Ah, if only war was that clean.  Perhaps in another's dream.

[Vattic]

There is a certain amount of glamour in the military and in warfare; Lots of money is spent, power held, heritage to live up to, world wide coverage etc. The first video is an example of this glamour draped in the US flag. As the second video highlights there is glamour on all sides of any conflict. I don't know if it's wrong that there is this glamour and the public opinion of conflicts can vary.

Edit: I don't think this glamour is either right or wrong but simply part of the beast. It will remain glamorous so long as arms hold such sway. This glamour can be broken in the minds of the public when they perceive their military to be fighting the wrong fight. With some exceptions the public still respect the individual service men despite the actions of the military as a whole.

[Nilocy]

Definately not propagand, or facism. No idea why people care about this in the slightest, we've got genuine war memorial days to think about more.

[Zangi]

They never willingly show dead people.  Just very clean people who don't have dirt or anything of the likes on them.

[RedKing]

Meh. There's a certain amount of self-aggrandizement that goes with being in the military, regardless of combat status.

Take my brother, for instance. He has a bumper sticker that says, "God judges the enemy. I arrange the meeting." along with some various other hoo-rah paraphenalia.

But in practice, he's one of the least confrontational folks I know. And, he's not combat infantry or a sniper or anything, he's EOD. Granted, he's a qualified sharpshooter and he's been in some nasty bits of combat, but killing the enemy is not his primary occupation.

I think from a psychological standpoint, there's an armouring effect to buying into the "baddassery" / machismo that goes with the military, that keeps you from shitting your pants every time someone shoots in your general direction.

 

[Nikov]

EOD has far more to do with the "whack-a-tali" game than he's let on then, since they tie in pretty closely with military intelligence for hunting down the bombmakers. He's like the CSI of high explosives.

[RedKing]

Yes and no. He's done all three tours in Iraq, not Afghanistan. SOP seemed to be that they'd go out for a sweep and he'd pilot a Grizzly up to detonate anything suspicious. Sometimes the "suspicious object" was a trap, and they'd come under small-arms and RPG fire from nearby buildings. At which point the convoy of Bradleys shadowing them popped out and sprung their own trap on the attackers. So his job was half bomb disposal and half "being bait". They didn't do a lot of return fire, as the SOP was to hunker down inside the armor and/or get the hell out of Dodge and let the Bradleys do the talking.

His next tour, he's probably going to have to learn a whole new bag of tricks since he'll be headed to Afghanistan. At least he's got a year of downtime to look forward to before the shit hits THAT fan. 

[Tsarwash]

I love the attitude of some people, (youtube not here) which generally goes, 'agree with me, we are the mightiest and can subdue any nation in the world, and if you do not agree with this then you are a commie bastard and you would be deported to Canada, if it were up to me. '

Mentalists.

That bumper sticker is pretty terrible on so many levels. Does his car get scratched by keys often ?

[Nikov]

RedKing, lets say I'll neither confirm nor deny the notion he'll be learning new tricks in Afghanistan.

[RedKing]

That bumper sticker is pretty terrible on so many levels. Does his car get scratched by keys often ?

Considering that he lives on one of the largest military installations in the Western Hemisphere? No. And frankly, that's pretty mild compared to many other options that I'm sure were on sale.

RedKing, lets say I'll neither confirm nor deny the notion he'll be learning new tricks in Afghanistan.

My biggest worry is that he'll get there and they won't be learning new tricks. And using tactics honed by years of urban combat in a decidedly non-urban environment against a different enemy. That would be stupid, but it would also be a textbook example of military rigidity. Luckily, we'll have been ramped up in Afghanistan for over a year by then, so they should have learned from their mistakes by then. (For one thing, they're already figuring out that slow big-ass MRAPs don't work so well in the Mountains when your attackers are on motorcycles and Toyota Tacomas.)

[Nikov]

They have lighter ones. Although I swear, when it comes to light trucks, if its agile civilians bitch it isn't armored, and if its armored soldiers bitch it isn't agile. And yes, there's entirely different tactics and the changes are largely to our favor. Broad valleys and mountains with sparce population, an enemy who's small arms are notoriously inaccurate past 200 m, and copious well-coordinated air support work well to our favor.

Also you have the Polish in Hind helicopters. My cousin went on leave and while visiting told the full story. Apparently Polish helicopters don't bother with either radios, or shooting. They just show up and invoke PTSD in old mujahideen.