Like a lot of guys on here I served. I volunteered for the Marines back during the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979, because I was pissed that our country was being shit on by "A bunch of ragheads." I was young and dumb and I thought I was going to do something about it. Fortunately for me I got to serve, I trained hard and I was ready, but never had to venture into battle or harm's way.
Lately I've been trying to get through the book "The Guns of August" about the history of WWI. (It's a long detailed read.) Then this week I've been watching the goings on surrounding Trump, Putin and Zelensky trying to work out a peace deal. I see these guys all shaking hands, smiling for the cameras and joking, while two of them are, in one way or another, feeding young men and women into a literal meat grinder.
Hell... In WWI, probably the greatest meat grinder of all, 3 of the main protagonists in the war, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King George V of Great Britain, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, were all 1st cousins. The 3 jackasses all had the same grandmother! Yet they collectively sent 10 million young men to horrible deaths. And over what? What did any of them gain from it? What positive outcome did we accomplish? Nothing! The "reasons" for starting it all were so petty it's surreal.
The land, that Putin has had a million of his own young people killed over, is smaller than the state of Pennsylvania. (It ranks 33rd in the sizes of US states.) Think about that for a minute. Close to 400,000 people dead over a piece of land the size of Pennsylvania. 44,600 square miles. That works out to 9 young people per square mile... Dead. Everything they've ever had and everything they've ever dreamed of having, it's gone.
The romanticizing and glorification of war is bullshit too. They sell this whole thing of honor and glory to young people when in reality, it is a nasty, horrible, deathly business. Yeah, but you get a medal made out of pot metal that you can wear on your uniform unless you receive it posthumously... Then I guess your widowed wife and fatherless kids get to hang it on the wall.
I understand that you have to defend what is yours, your stuff, your land, your people, your country, but war is just a bunch of powerful rich guys wanting more shit than they already have. The human race should be beyond all this crap by now. The Swiss figured this all out in 1815.
May God bless the people who have served, God bless Trump for trying to stop the killing, and may God smite the people who start this shit.
Sorry for the rant. I just needed to get that out of my system this morning.
Last edited by Irishguy; 08/19/2505:43 AM.
"When I say ever thing I mean ever thing." - Frankie
Rich assholes send their people to war to keep their own people from coming after them.
"Never Trust Government" -- Smart people. "The Great thing we should Fear and the Weird Thing we Trust is Elon Musk" -- Me "You can be broke but you cant be poor." -- Ruthie-May Webster
The Guns of August is a great book. I read it and followed up with Dan Clark's Great War podcast.
I was just like you, waving the flag and thumping my chest. I gained so much from the service but I lost a lot as well. Lost some good friends, got a nice case of PTSD to keep me company. It's bullshit like you say. So much wasted.
Thank you for your service. Never had the opportunity to serve myself, but my oldest currently is and thankfully will be out in less than a year. Having "skin in the game" gives a much different perspective on us being the world's police.
You are right IG; when you drill down it's a sickening situation. Here's a statistic that's sobering; the Russians have kidnapped TWENTY THOUSAND CHILDREN. Taken from homes and families against their will (many of there immediate families killed);re-homed and forced to become Russians. thanks for your service, as well.
The Guns of August is a great book. I read it and followed up with Dan Clark's Great War podcast.
I was just like you, waving the flag and thumping my chest. I gained so much from the service but I lost a lot as well. Lost some good friends, got a nice case of PTSD to keep me company. It's bullshit like you say. So much wasted.
I'm going back and forth between it and Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. Mark Twain said it was his best book. I think he researched it for over two years and I think it took him over a year to write it.
"When I say ever thing I mean ever thing." - Frankie
Trump fell into the trap. These peoples won’t stop fighting anymore than the ragheads and jews.
Trump will get frustrated and back Ukraine with weapons just like the Deep State wants, Hillary made that “peace prize” statement moking him.
Trump needs to put sanctions on Russia, make a joking statement that they can keep on killing each other, don’t support with our weapons, and never mention them again….move on to things we care about !
“War is among the greatest horrors known to humanity; it should never be romanticized. The means of war is force, applied in the form of organized violence. It is through the use of violence, or the credible threat of violence, that we compel our enemy to do our will.”
I don’t know the author of this quote, but I read it in a war fighting FM or something back when I was in the Corp. It sticks with me still.
Modern weapons having made killing so efficient. A $100 drone can drop a grenade on two men huddled in a foxhole at 2 AM. I can’t imagine serving under those conditions.
During the revolutionary war it was the politicians that drafted the constitution and then went to war themselves to make it the law of the land Nowadays politicians start wars to gain wealth and then send young men to fight and die while they’re getting rich The point is If politicians had to fight the wars they started there wouldn’t be any wars
When I need expert advice I tend to talk to myself The older I get the better I used to be
I agree. Current wars are just to serve powerful, greedy men's lust for more. The men fighting over there right now probably would sit down over lunch together in normal circumstances. One of my favorite "war stories" is about the Christmas Truce of 1914.
The true mark of a man is not how he conducts himself during times of prosperity, but how he conducts himself during times of adversity.
Wars have been fought over basically anything and everything anyone could possibly ever imagine. Hegemony throughout history has fought mostly over land and titles...but they have been fought over women...animals...potatoes...i mean...when people are in need of a sovereign entity to rule them because they are uneducated and want to feel safe..they will endure tyranny of every shape and do unspeakable thing at the behest of their ruler. The united states is the most successful experiment in modern history and we are the only bastion of freedom left on this rock no matter how much we complain...we are still better off than every country on this planet and the gap between us and second place is vast. With that said, we have our own rulong class that pushes us toward whtever end they see fit..because they know best, we did elect them afterall. I will say, i dont know whats worse the self serving request of a single ruler that governs overall, or many elected ones serving their own individual self intrests. War sucks, but we feed the propaganda...thats mostly what war is anyway..marginal information and oppinions at best made into stone cold truth and whipped up to make us want the blood of whoever we are told to hate at that particular moment.
I wish i could say im smart enough to rise above it...i do believe i know right from wrong...people who believe these things are what we need..but we never hear from them much...and when we do..in war...it seems like all to often they are never heard from again.
Until real change is made throughout our particular system of leadership, we will live in a stagnant loop🤷🏻♂️
Might be wrong but getting tired of being “ The World’s Peace Keeper “, I am ready to take care of home let these people east of us do what they want. Tired of sticking our nose in their business
