Afghanistan. Iraq. Somalia. Iran on the list next - who the F* would join up with the military now?

[The Straight Story]

It looks like we will be in Iraq and Afghanistan for a long time. A few attacks now in Somalia. And Iran is looming (and as noted on another thread Edwards and probably other dem candidates seem to back this some).

How the fuck did we go from Y2k to years and years of war and death?

And after having seen all of it and what is to come, who the hell goes down to the recruiting station to sign up for it?

By the end of this decade we will have spent more time at war than at peace (which, we already have I think...or close to it).

To me our soldiers were trained and meant to fight in a different way than they are being used now. Go in, take out the enemy and it's ability to wage a war against us, go home.

We kicked Iraq's ass in short order. Then stayed. They were not a threat to us anymore, Saddam was gone, their war machine blown up, etc and so on. Our soldiers did their job very well - how they were trained.

War still sucks of course, but I believe our folks did their best and stopped the threat that brought on the war (which, as noted elsewhere, was not really a threat in the first fucking place).

But there we sit. We took out the taliban, and we are still pissing around over there too.

And all we have done now is to become stuck in their own civil wars, which were there before we even got there, and became target practice for them.

Insert troops. Kill the bad guys who lead the country. Destroy their war machine. Rinse. Repeat. Leave.

Maybe that is callous, but to me you don't stick around and babysit. You can send money and logistical help for rebuilding things - but then a lot of other countries can bid on that part to help out as well.

You kill with soldiers, you rebuild without guns.

I'd be damned nervous if the chinese were here walking around my hood with guns and tanks and going into people's homes and dragging them off. Damned right I would fight em. It's freakin common sense mr bush.

dumbass president. He can't do anything right. He can't even chew a pretzel without fucking it up.

[Forrest Greene]

1. A Correction

Iraq was NEVER a threat to the U.S.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

2. But they're giving free prizes with enlistment now, like a sports cap or something!!!

:sarcasm:

[Nostradammit]

3. Who would join up? The rapidly increasing destitute youth

who've fallen prey to the corrupt media's depiction of an evil cabal's dark vision.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. and who can't find a decent job to support a family...

it's a twisted world created by Herr Bush.

[Nostradammit]

5. I must be Bush Despiser 13

Let's straighten this world out a little.

[salin]

6. not sure about the "falling prey to the ... dark vision" - how about who have little job/career

opportunities... And the GOP successfully (for now) filibusters the minimum wage bill...

[Nostradammit]

9. I think the media has absolutely been trying to push the agenda

I think if you parse the sentence again you'll see what I was trying to say.

I don't blame anybody for signing up. I blame the toadies in the media who
sell the bullshit that BushInc. shovels into them.

[Porcupine]

7. Stupidity- The only infinate resource. nt.

.

[Avalux]

8. Poverty-stricken kids who are offered a lot of money to sign up.

If you don't have anything, being promised 30-50K to join the military sounds fantastic. It's difficult for someone 18 years old to look past that and understand what he must give in return. Sad.