30,000 more troops

[Smagmuck_]

I just found out yesterday that my elder brother is being shipped out to Afghanistan in July as part of the 30,000 troop surge. He made Lance Corporal December first. He's part of Lagistics Regement 35, 3rd Supply Division, Equipment Supply Company...

For the fallowing number remove the number of people you know being shipped out as part of the 30,000 troop surge...

29,999...

 

[Simalacrum]

I don't know anyone, fortunately.

I hate it when stupid old fat politicians send off young men and women to die in an illegal war that should never have happened.

 

[SonicKoala]

Soldiers are fuckers.

Are you going to justify that bullshit with anything intelligent?

 

[Mr. Grey]

"I promised change! Instead of Iraq, it's now Afghanistan!"

I don't know anyone being shipped out and I wish your brother the greatest of luck to come back home safely.

 

[Soigieoto]

... the title made me think it was a thread on the tf2 WAR update.

30,000 is about how much demos lost by.

Ot: Don't know anyone. Sorry that he must go

 

[The Cheezy One]

I don't know anyone, fortunately.

I hate it when stupid old fat politicians send off young men and women to die in an illegal war that should never have happened.

this song has never been so relevant
sorry, i am lucky enough to say i dont know anyone that has to go there
God bless all the troops there, and the 30,000 going out

 

[SonicKoala]

Soldiers are fuckers.

Are you going to justify that bullshit with anything intelligent?

Since you ask, yes. I have had many of my relatives killed by British soldiers, I have a person in my family paralyzed by a British soldier breaking their neck by hitting them in the face with a rifle.
I have spoken to friends of mine who joined the BA, rational people beforehand, coming back from tours and looking down on me because I'm a 'civvie' and bragging about how many people they killed.
I'm not anti-war, it's just that every soldier I've come into contact with (except Irish soldiers, oddly enough) has been a xenophobic, unimaginative fuckhead.

Well, considering your experiences, I can see where you're coming from. In my case, the majority of soldiers I've met have been honest, respectable people who do what they do out of a love for their country, so I think labelling all soldiers "fuckers" is unfair. Even you said that the Irish soldiers weren't that bad.

 

[Knight Templar]

I don't knowm any, I live in Australia. Your brother is in logistics, so with any luck he shouldn't be in much danger, considering where he is going anyway.

Logistics and supply, the math of war.

snip

Maybe thats just the British army, or just the few you've met, because I've met a few Australian soldiers and they were normal people, oddly polite however.

 

[jonnosferatu]

I don't know anyone, fortunately.

I hate it when stupid old fat politicians send off young men and women to die in an illegal war that should never have happened.

How is it illegal?

I would also posit that the Afghan War is reasonably well-justified, given the strength of connection between 9/11 and groups such as Al Quaeda. It's a separate conflict from the fiasco Bush started in 2003.

The Iraq War was completely stupid - there's a very significant chance that the reason Cheney (and by extension Rumsfeld) were so obsessed with getting in was that they were afraid of Saddam getting nuclear weapons and either re-arranging the power structure of the middle east or attacking us with it. Both of these are completely moronic because Saddam both liked us and was afraid of the possibility of our retaliating against any problems; there is literally no chance that he ever would have used such a weapon or set up a successor who didn't share his sentiments, and the reorganization of middle east structure would likely have gone in our favor if he'd wound up at the top of it, because he ran a secular state and knew the merits of secularizing it further.*

*Yes, I am aware that a large body of people who have not done any research on this subject are convinced that we're in the middle east because of oil. It would be very short-sighted to say that there is no oil aspect to the motivations, but it would be even more short-sighted to assume that this is the only or even main reason for U.S. actions.

 

[ToxinArrow]

Soldiers are fuckers.

Are you going to justify that bullshit with anything intelligent?

Since you ask, yes. I have had many of my relatives killed by British soldiers, I have a person in my family paralyzed by a British soldier breaking their neck by hitting them in the face with a rifle.
I have spoken to friends of mine who joined the BA, rational people beforehand, coming back from tours and looking down on me because I'm a 'civvie' and bragging about how many people they killed.
I'm not anti-war, it's just that every soldier I've come into contact with (except Irish soldiers, oddly enough) has been a xenophobic, unimaginative fuckhead.

Remember, blanket statements are always the way to go. They make you look intelligent and NOT like a complete fuck head.

 

[_zuul]

it's just that every soldier I've come into contact with (except Irish soldiers, oddly enough) has been a xenophobic, unimaginative fuckhead.

that's why they're soldiers in the first place.

 

[Jekken6]

I thought this was gonna be a MW2 thread.

OT: Good luck to those soldiers. Even though I don't know any, come back in one piece.

 

[hotdogoctopus]

29,999.

Soldiers are generally fuckers.

Hey. You. Take it Easy. You don't know ALL of us.

Btw, I'll be going back with that whole shenanigan. I'm excited.

You should all check this movie, yes, it makes my job look boring, but it's a pretty decent film on the way this war on a feeling goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxSDZc8etg

I do love my job though.

 

[Smokeydubbs]

Eh, this may be the wrong place but I don't like the fact that 30,000 are going. General McCrystal asked for 40,000 to actually win the war. 30,000 seems to be just to slide by to appease both sides. My opinion is without the recommended amount we are just sending in a force that is liable to have more casualties than if there was the full amount. Either go all the way, or don't go at all. Pull out or make sure we can "win".

Personally, I think we should pull out of that mess. Everyone of priority to find is in Pakistan so why don't we stop kissing the asses of the leaders who hate us and do what we need to do?

 

[BGH122]

I don't know anyone, fortunately.

I hate it when stupid old fat politicians send off young men and women to die in an illegal war that should never have happened.

If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath
I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You'd see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. "Poor young chap,"
I'd say -- "I used to know his father well;
Yes, we've lost heavily in this last scrap."
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I'd toddle safely home and die -- in bed.

Sorry, just had to throw a little Sassoon your way.

I don't know any soldiers and I'm not American, so don't count me.

 

[BGH122]

Soldiers are fuckers.

Are you going to justify that bullshit with anything intelligent?

Since you ask, yes. I have had many of my relatives killed by British soldiers, I have a person in my family paralyzed by a British soldier breaking their neck by hitting them in the face with a rifle.
I have spoken to friends of mine who joined the BA, rational people beforehand, coming back from tours and looking down on me because I'm a 'civvie' and bragging about how many people they killed.
I'm not anti-war, it's just that every soldier I've come into contact with (except Irish soldiers, oddly enough) has been a xenophobic, unimaginative fuckhead.

Not only is that a silly generalisation based upon a (presumably) tiny sample, but it's contradicted by your own experiences with the Irish. I myself have known a few soldiers, three from Krav Maga and two who lead my Scouts troop as a child/teen. All five were lovely people: sensitive, intelligent and kind. It's just plain stupid to label an entire group 'fuckers' based upon one's own experience with the group. It's prudent to form stereotypes, heuristics for behaviour, based upon one's own experience as long as the stereotyper realises that their heuristics are just that: devices aimed to discover the truth about situations before they've occurred and in no way infallible.

 

[hotdogoctopus]

Soldiers are fuckers.

Are you going to justify that bullshit with anything intelligent?

Since you ask, yes. I have had many of my relatives killed by British soldiers, I have a person in my family paralyzed by a British soldier breaking their neck by hitting them in the face with a rifle.
I have spoken to friends of mine who joined the BA, rational people beforehand, coming back from tours and looking down on me because I'm a 'civvie' and bragging about how many people they killed.
I'm not anti-war, it's just that every soldier I've come into contact with (except Irish soldiers, oddly enough) has been a xenophobic, unimaginative fuckhead.

Not only is that a silly generalisation based upon a (presumably) tiny sample, but it's contradicted by your own experiences with the Irish. I myself have known a few soldiers, three from Krav Maga and two who lead my Scouts troop as a child/teen. All five were lovely people: sensitive, intelligent and kind. It's just plain stupid to label an entire group 'fuckers' based upon one's own experience with the group. It's prudent to form stereotypes, heuristics for behaviour, based upon one's own experience as long as the stereotyper realises that their heuristics are just that: devices aimed to discover the truth about situations before they've occurred and in no way infallible.

For once, it seems like someone on the escapist read through an entire point, and then came back with an intelligent response. Bravo Sir.

~btw, I'm not taking a side. Merely praising that which rarely is seen.