Is it just me or will American troops' stupidity never stop?
- Thread starter psico666
- Start date
@ JC175
Wow - the vid is annoying enough (in terms of the US troops being gits to kids), but the comments if you scroll down. Wow - I always thought YouTube just had a problem with an excessive amounts of stupids. Now I see that nearly everyone (that leaves a comment anyway) is so far beyond stupid that I don't think there is a word that would adequately describe the revulsion to some of those comments. Man, am I glad I never made an account there (I'd be too tempted to try and wade in as some sort of paragon of justice and facts-straightening despitre knowing it would be futile - thankfully, instead, I have a job and a life).
But taunting kids with water - water than is totally safe to drink to boot - that's just low. When things like that get spread around (see my earlier post #154) it really does damage the whole "hearts and minds" strategy.
Wow - the vid is annoying enough (in terms of the US troops being gits to kids), but the comments if you scroll down. Wow - I always thought YouTube just had a problem with an excessive amounts of stupids. Now I see that nearly everyone (that leaves a comment anyway) is so far beyond stupid that I don't think there is a word that would adequately describe the revulsion to some of those comments. Man, am I glad I never made an account there (I'd be too tempted to try and wade in as some sort of paragon of justice and facts-straightening despitre knowing it would be futile - thankfully, instead, I have a job and a life).
But taunting kids with water - water than is totally safe to drink to boot - that's just low. When things like that get spread around (see my earlier post #154) it really does damage the whole "hearts and minds" strategy.
See, this is the problem. You're using a fallacious argument, i.e. an appeal to emotion, to direct ire at someone's opinion of the military. The fact that you have 3 friends in the military has nothing to do with anyone else's opinion of the military from a non-personal standpoint. The poster in the above quote is quite rightfully criticising a soldier's actions in allowing a child to come into contact with live ordinance. This in no way reflects upon your friends and nor should your friends mean you excuse such actions.SargentToughie said:
It's plain to see that people find it hard to seperate their anger over an illegal war from the individuals sent into that war. This is made all the harder when images of idiotic things like the video come to light, but not every criticism of the military and American foreign policy (which, lets face it is dire) is a criticism of the American people, or American soldiers. It is my personal view that anyone who earns a living by killing others, for any other reason than self-defense, is a murderer; defense of one's country does not cover invasion of another's. However, my views on this video are that it is irresponsible to play with explosives and that is irrespective of my views on the military, even (or perhaps especially) if I was a supporter of the military, I would think it was irresponsible.
Having said all that, I think that if I was in a war I would probably find small pleasures in irresponsible actions such as are in the video, since I imagine it is very hard to keep your moral compass in check under such conditions. Whether the morality of an American soldier is in check under any conditions is a subject for another debate.
no I don't want a psycho representing my country but this thread wont make a person "not snap" whose halfway around the world getting bombed and shot at. Its just a fucking dog get over it.zombiepandaman said:
And to tell you the truth it pisses me off when everyone here thinks they know what its like being a soldier under combat stress, he probably snapped. You cant just make a blanket statement. If I said all Germans are Nazis the thread would get shut down, or if I said all Russians were Communists or if I said all Black people were ignorant this thread would get shut down. But no, apparently attacking the US is OK along with attacking the entire US military by the acts of a few fucknuts.
I can.
I've been to Bosnia and Iraq. I've been in combat situations. I still suffer sometimes from PTSD. Don't talk to me like I don't know what it's like, sir.
BUT
I can't use that to justify actions that are stupid. Snapping does not clear you of being stupid - it means you need help and should get help, and that you should take into account of the consequences of your actions.
Given, these incidences are small scale. And all it takes is a few chuckleheads trying to be funny to make the rest of us look bad. I'm pretty sure these clowns thought it was funny at the time they did it, and it could have been relatively harmless. But the point is that, for some reason, they thought it would be funnier to share it with the rest of the world.
When that circles back around to your command - man, you better be prepared to get your ass re-arranged and to lose a possible stripe and pay over it. Because no matter what the intention -
It reflects back on the people in uniform, and if it can be mistaken for malice, carelessness or stupidity, chances are it will be. Acting honorably means not taping yourself throwing animals off cliffs, making kids chase after bottles of water for a half mile or showing the world that you are coating your ammo in pork fat so the enemy will "go directly to Hell." That's disgraceful and cheap, and only makes the rest of the military appear to be uncaring, undisciplined soldiers.
The part with the kid and the dead grenade - okay, that wasn't really bad, but still should have never made it to the Internet. That's the kind of thing that the media loves to twist to make a story.
There have always been stupid people, these people happen to be soldiers. In their time off the surely want to relax by doing something not so smart. They just happen to have cameras with them!
Oh and hte marine throwing the puppy should be stung up by his buster browns.
Oh and hte marine throwing the puppy should be stung up by his buster browns.
Wow, you just sound like you've had a really shitty life. And now you want everyone else to suffer too.Lyiat said:
Just because you were treated like crap and turned out "okay" does not mean that everyone else needs to go through the same level of shit that you did.
While the running for water one isn't correct, the hand grenade one the OP posted is fine.
Listen. The men over there have to have some sort of humor. They get their humor from their stuation. If it means offering a kid a hand grenade, which scares him, but harms no one, then it's not that big a deal.
Listen. The men over there have to have some sort of humor. They get their humor from their stuation. If it means offering a kid a hand grenade, which scares him, but harms no one, then it's not that big a deal.
And that's why it seems so much more prevalent. The time from camera to the Net is so fast that you'll see it almost immediately after it happens. So now you have to be even more careful of when and how you act around civilians in other countries.RetiarySword said:
Problem is that some of these yahoos think that putting stupidly planned behavior they filmed over there onto YouTube is a great idea. And then seem stunned when they get busted in the rank for it. I can tell by some of the responses on here that some people don't understand the far-reaching implications of acting out publicly has on the military at large.
Not everyone in the military is a chucklehead, but the more visible the chuckleheads, the more people believe everyone in the military is one.
Granted. See above response. Not everyone sees the humor in the situation the way we do, and the backlash isn't worth the five minutes of laughs.
And most commanding officers have a zero-tolerance policy on making a public spectacle of yourself and damaging the reputation of the unit.
Again, if there is any doubt to how the public will react to a possible public course of action, then don't do it. We tell our people that constantly.
And most commanding officers have a zero-tolerance policy on making a public spectacle of yourself and damaging the reputation of the unit.
Again, if there is any doubt to how the public will react to a possible public course of action, then don't do it. We tell our people that constantly.
I'm still mad about what happened in Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay. Much worse than killing one puppy in my opinion.zombiepandaman said:
You know, arguments like this are what prevent me from calling myself a liberal. I agree with all of the political opinions of liberals, such as gay marriage, freedom of speech, etc. They all make sense to me. Liberals, however, sometimes get a bit misguided.MaxTheReaper said:
Max...
It's a puppy. An animal.
This poor dude is stuck in Iraq, constantly facing the threat of being blown to smithereens at any second. Unless you've gone through that, you can't possibly judge this man's life as worth less than an animal's. You can't know that you wouldn't crack under that pressure.
Yeah, it's sad. He probably should be expelled from the marines, before his actions cause another generation of Iraqis to think of Americans as assholes. However, his life is still worth more than the life of a puppy.
You can't displace your anger over this war onto this misguided guy.
These men and women joined the military to protect America and its freedoms. At the same time, conservatives, you can't say that the military is dying for our freedom...because they're not, not right now. They're dying for nothing. I agree that they do deserve our respect, however. They best way to respect them is to recognize that their lives are worth more than proving that your political party was right about Iraq, and therefore call them back. We're not going to fix the middle east.
They can have all the training in the world, they're still going to be 19 year-old kids, with weapons, bored out of their minds.fix-the-spade said:
Besides, there's no way in hell they would've let him take it. Not if they didn't want to get reamed on equipment-check upon returning to base, and reduced to cleaning toilets for the rest of his deployment. The military is dead serious about accountability of equipment.