Nmil-ek said:
Captain Blackout said:
About f'ing time. I'm deeply anti-military however one of the reasons I am is because we never do enough to outfit the frontline troops. Iraq war could've been a whole different ballgame with better equipped troops and appropriate strategies.
No offence but do people armed with pre coldwar weaponary and tanks really match up to the u.s. military I mean its sad you lost troops and all but seriously look at the iraq death count by comparioson that really wasnt much of a war.
Ack. The #1 reason I didn't vote for McCain was because he believed we needed a troop surge in Iraq. This, after our country voted down better body armor. We need to approach military matters with surgical precision and the only f'ing solutions we almost ever come up with involve using our forces as a sledge hammer.
A better outfitted frontline with appropriate strategies means we can do the same jobs with fewer troops. Fewer troops means not only fewer losses to our own forces but far less "collateral" damage. The Iraq war was a disaster from the moment it started because:
A) We keep throwing people into the meat grinder in an attempt to gain ground, whether political or actual. This means not only more combat casualties but more problems when troops return home. We were having (and may still be having) an incredibly stupid problem dealing with mental health issues with our troops. None of this even begins to touch on the damage we've done to Iraq, much of it needless.
B) We under equipped our forces. Repeatedly. We pretty much guaranteed things were going to be a mess no matter how many troops we sent over. F'ing brilliant. Under equipped forces not only suffer casualties and ongoing problems after the fact but they can cause needless extra damage to the territory they're in as they attempt to improvise to deal with their shortcomings.
I desperately want to see a completely different mentality in our military, something more like the concepts used by Section 9 from "Ghost in the Shell" (shoot me if I got my section wrong.) If we're seriously considering powered armor then maybe we'll develop the strategies to use the technology to it's fullest potential. Then, hopefully, the next time a stupid president considers a political war then at least it can be fought properly rather than, "Sure, we'll be out of there shortly. Exit strategy? What's an exit strategy?"
I was attempting for a quick thought with my first post rather than the short dissertation I've got here. Don't read more into people's posts than what's there unless you want the wall-o-text when posts get explained.