Are u.s marines getting too crazy?

[Friendly Lich]

btw I'am a u.s citizen.

lately I've been seeing things like. Marines peeing on dead people, flying the german SS flag, and other crazy stuff.

I regret to say I'm kind of embarrassed by this conduct. NOT saying all marines are bad.

what do you think?

 

[tippy2k2]

No they are not.

Like "Cop shoots unarmed person" and "12 murdered by someone who was near a video game at one point in their life", 99% of the people being represented are normal people. However, normal people don't make the news so all we get to see are the crazies.

How many people are in the Marines? According to Wikipedia, there are currently 200,000 active duty Marines. Now...how many of these guys have gone on a crazy trip? With that in mind, how many of them didn't go on a crazy trip (or the crazy trip was a misunderstanding, like the SS flag thing)?

 

[Suicidejim]

No, not from what I can see. The people who are crazy are the ones who look at the acts of some of these marines and then sit there and justify what happened. I stopped looking at comments on the urinating incident after seeing far too many along the lines of "Those dirty Muslims deserved it anyway, I'd do it too if I had a chance."

 

[Matthew Kjonaas]

Crazy people stand out on the news! and I am not sure how easy it is for someone to fake not being crazy to join the military.

 

[isometry]

In general the marines are not as well funded as the army, navy, and air force; they are the modern equivalent of shock troops. They face a lot more danger in our recent conflicts than the other branches of the armed forces, because of the nature of their missions and equipment. The basic stereotype is that what marines lack in education and aptitude for book-learning, they make up through mental and physical toughness.

 

[Rawne1980]

Here's a better question....

I know myself and a few others here are ex and currently serving British military, I also know a couple are ex and currently serving US military and a few from other countries.

Now, considering most of us that serve(d) joined up in infantry/specialist infantry knowing full well we'd be going into combat and maybe not make it back for a smoked kipper breakfast........

How many of us do you think are actually fracking sane?

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Here's a better question....

I know myself and a few others here are ex and currently serving British military, I also know a couple are ex and currently serving US military and a few from other countries.

Now, considering most of us that serve(d) joined up in infantry/specialist infantry knowing full well we'd be going into combat and maybe not make it back for a smoked kipper breakfast........

How many of us do you think are actually fracking sane?

I'd say most of you are, if you can make that honest assessment of your situation and still move forward.


Honestly I only have a problem with that I don't see (though there undoubtedly is) visible consequences to the stupid shit they do. I can honestly say though that I find myself confident that every time Lance Corporal Shit-for-Brains does something dumb and gets caught, his commanding officer will tear strips off him for his trouble.

Also, legal proceedings take time, and as I understand it Military Courts don't get the same sort of outside the courthouse media coverage that civil cases do. So we rarely hear about the follow up; regardless of the eventual outcome.

In short no, the US Marines are no crazier today than they were when they began.

 

[Woodsey]

Pissing on Al Qaeda/Taliban corpses isn't crazy in comparison as to what those jihadi raghead scumbags do to non-muslims and U.S Troops cadavers. It's highly unproffessional though.

You might want to keep the racist pejoratives out of your posts.

OT: The crazies are the only ones who get reported on. I mean, I can't imagine they're the most sane people in the world if they're willing to shoot people and be shot at, but it'd be very difficult to measure it in any way.

I mean, crazier since when? Vietnam?

 

[Jadak]

Their job is to kill people and get killed, I'd say crazy is expected. Don't really care what they do, they exist to fill a role determined by those higher up, my only concern is with whether or not they're filling that role and how crazy those higher up are.

 

[Woodsey]

Pissing on Al Qaeda/Taliban corpses isn't crazy in comparison as to what those jihadi raghead scumbags do to non-muslims and U.S Troops cadavers. It's highly unproffessional though.

You might want to keep the racist pejoratives out of your posts.

OT: The crazies are the only ones who get reported on. I mean, I can't imagine they're the most sane people in the world if they're willing to shoot people and be shot at, but it'd be very difficult to measure it in any way.

I mean, crazier since when? Vietnam?

Didn't think much about it when I wrote it. And most guys in Vietnam were drafted were they not? So most weren't really there by choice.

Well, [a
href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mai_lai]My Lai[/a] was in 1968 and as far as I'm aware, major drafting wasn't underway until 1969 (although I could be wrong - that's certainly when they started the lottery system though).

Oh, and they [a
href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse]didn't just piss on people[/a] in Iraq.

 

[Woodsey]

Pissing on Al Qaeda/Taliban corpses isn't crazy in comparison as to what those jihadi raghead scumbags do to non-muslims and U.S Troops cadavers. It's highly unproffessional though.

You might want to keep the racist pejoratives out of your posts.

OT: The crazies are the only ones who get reported on. I mean, I can't imagine they're the most sane people in the world if they're willing to shoot people and be shot at, but it'd be very difficult to measure it in any way.

I mean, crazier since when? Vietnam?

I dont see why, with the way those creatures act they are deserving of no respect or consideration given to what people call them.

Because you start off by calling them towelies, ragheads and sand niggers, and before you know it, the entire region, not just the combatants ('the baddies'), are all towelies, ragheads and sand niggers.

It promotes ignorance and blind-support of your own side (and it is not a simple matter of goodies and baddies, and it shouldn't be made into one), and people should be embarrassed that the words are coming out of their mouths.

A somewhat similar issue happened with ethnically Japanese Americans in the States after Pearl Harbour - never mind that many of them had been Americans for at least several generations, suddenly all the slanty-eyed Japs were out to get at America from within, and many were sent to internment camps.

Same goes for Vietnam and calling the Vietnamese gooks.

It's a very basic (and effective) way to dehumanise the enemy for people, and it should not be encouraged or condoned.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I'm tellin' ya, it's all that Call of Duty Modern Warfare they're playing. It's givin them ideas.

 

[juyunseen]

Well one thing's for certain. One group will never get so crazy that they go beyond their initial set of values, and that's the Tunnel Snakes! Tunnel Snakes rule!


In all seriousness, I doubt it. It's probably just a few crazies among many.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I think youre seeing more assholes in it as more and more people are able to show them actually being assholes.

Though being from a military family,a nd with all due repsect to the men and women fighting for the country and giving their lives for it, my uncle always said that Marines never were all there. But thena gain he was Army and still had respect for the marine branch.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I remember seeing an article talking about how this sort of stuff (peeing on corpses of the enemy) happened all the time in warfare. It's one of the ways soldiers cope with the fact that they are murdering other people who are sons, brothers, maybe fathers etc. by dehumanising them. Look at how people often stole the wallets and valuables of dead enemies, even down to their gold teeth! This happens all the time in war, it's just never reported on.
There's a reason the phrase "War is Hell" exists. It's not just like a COD level, or an extended trip to the firing ranges. War will mess you up. It can and has sent men insane due to the emotional, psychological and physical trauma people experience, and many have to go to some extreme lengths to keep their sanity, if that means dehumanising the enemy to the lengths that you feel nothing when defecating on their corpses, or searching their lifeless skulls for gold fillings, then I am in no place to judge them. Every force in history has been guilty of pretty much the same behaviour, and many did a lot, lot, worse.

 

[IrateDonnie]

I think you have to be at least a little insane to join the Marine Corps. Everyone I know that was in the marine corps are nuts.

 

[Biodeamon]

oh no. they're fine. they're tottally not commiting almst as horrendous things that they're enemies are.

 

[Friendly Lich]

Pissing on Al Qaeda/Taliban corpses isn't crazy in comparison as to what those jihadi scumbags do to non-muslims and U.S Troops cadavers. It's highly unproffessional though.

To be honest the marines should not be there. They are trained warriors not peacekeepers. They are mentally and skillwise unfit for the task of occupation. They are meant to fuck shit up and destroy. Not to hold hands and act diplomats.

I like your answer the best.

 

[Shock and Awe]

While Marines tend to be more......enthusiastic then those of other branches, they aren't crazy.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Not in the way you mean, no.

But, on the other hand, there have been two long wars going on at the same time, and the demand for soldiers means US troops aren't getting taken off for psychological problems, and are being made to serve too many tours too quickly.

So, yeah, sorta, it's causing increasing mental strain, which is sorta what you mean.