U.S. Army shoots and kill a Reuter photograph

[Poopie]

I can't help feel for both sides and damnit all to hell, when will it stop... I know, that answer does not exist yet.

I really like this post silver. I know that this has been a heated argument where we both insulted each other, but you're getting the picture... I lost a great many friends to this conflict. It kills me inside to reflect on where they would be today if their lives hadn't been taken. All for what? Lies?... Maybe..., but I'd like to remember them fighting for a cause worth dying for... That's my reality as ignorant as it may seem. I'm not keen on the reasons why we really went there, I just knew what I was told and tried to grasp the reasons why in my day to day.... If I, in my entirety, conducted my mission with the best intentions to liberate a people from tyranny and/or establish a better life for them, than I believe that I did something worth dying for. I signed up to Kill, Kill, Kill, but experience is grounding, and I immediately woke up and smelled the roses of reality and did the best I could.

[J.B.]

I really like this post silver. I know that this has been a heated argument where we both insulted each other, but you're getting the picture... I lost a great many friends to this conflict. It kills me inside to reflect on where they would be today if their lives hadn't been taken. All for what? Lies?... Maybe..., but I'd like to remember them fighting for a cause worth dying for... That's my reality as ignorant as it may seem. I'm not keen on the reasons why we really went there, I just knew what I was told and tried to grasp the reasons why in my day to day.... If I, in my entirety, conducted my mission with the best intentions to liberate a people from tyranny and/or establish a better life for them, than I believe that I did something worth dying for. I signed up to Kill, Kill, Kill, but experience is grounding, and I immediately woke up and smelled the roses of reality and did the best I could.

If this war teaches the lesson that we the People should open our eyes and watch our government's hunger like hawks, whatever they do on the homefront notwithstanding, and it leads to an era where we Americans don't start stupid ****ty wars, it'll have served a greater purpose. So far, every intentional purpose it seems to have had was to feed some corporate wallets and heat things up in the M.E. on behalf of our Israeli allies.

Edited April 21, 2010 by J.B.

[The Silver Thong]

I really like this post silver. I know that this has been a heated argument where we both insulted each other, but you're getting the picture... I lost a great many friends to this conflict. It kills me inside to reflect on where they would be today if their lives hadn't been taken. All for what? Lies?... Maybe..., but I'd like to remember them fighting for a cause worth dying for... That's my reality as ignorant as it may seem. I'm not keen on the reasons why we really went there, I just knew what I was told and tried to grasp the reasons why in my day to day.... If I, in my entirety, conducted my mission with the best intentions to liberate a people from tyranny and/or establish a better life for them, than I believe that I did something worth dying for. I signed up to Kill, Kill, Kill, but experience is grounding, and I immediately woke up and smelled the roses of reality and did the best I could.

Very true and very heated, we didn't pull many punches.

I have to give cudo's to those who have stuck with this thread and for those that came to see where each other come from and why they have there views. I still disagree on why or how this happened and I can't change my mind that this was avoidable, but sadly I do understand it, if that makes sense.

Acid and Gods#1 have very valid points and I was going to post a short vid on how the military recruits in the promise of money,school,business loans and healthcare but I changed my mind. This war is unjust but as you said, you and your lost buddies have to believe in what your doing or are forced to believe it. It doesn't matter it's happening, we have to figure out how to stop it and not let this happen again.

I think come 2012 and the U.S. elects a new or same president might bring an end to the nonsense but thats a pipe dream. We need to take government back, thats the only option in order to stop people from dieing for money. Grunts or big business can't look at war to make a buck.

We need to abolish the U.N. and create a system that votes as a whole not a comity of the elite. Again I hear ya man and I get it but just don't like it.

[Poopie]

I was going to post a short vid on how the military recruits in the promise of money,school,business loans and healthcare but I changed my mind. This war is unjust but as you said, you and your lost buddies have to believe in what your doing or are forced to believe it. It doesn't matter it's happening, we have to figure out how to stop it and not let this happen again.

I agree, they sell it with benefits... If you lack the financial ability to got to college they have a solution... You don't have enough money for health insurance or healthcare they have it... The benefits are tempting, but I hardly joined for those reasons alone... Afterward you realize the reality of those benefits... They become both vice and virtue... Healthcare in and out is shhityy... You're treated like cattle when your in, and like a second class citizen when you're out... Today I called them for a 5th time to schedule me for a mental health visit that was supposed to be scheduled 2 months ago.... I had to go to the patient advocate to get it done, because the admin and staff dropped the ball 4 times... The frustration is borderline insanity.

Education benefits are plentiful and sufficient, but they nickel and dime you to death and a steady reliable income is non-existent.... Just 3 weeks ago I received a debt recoupment form stating that they needed to collect the 3k$ check they cut due to not being prepared to enact this new GI Bill... I was discussing how to break up the repayment with my fiance, and a day later, I got half of my monthly benefit... rent was due... WTF? How are you going to send me a form to find out how much i could afford, and then a day later just take it? There were a number of people that didn't even receive the 3k$ check and were getting half their money taken away... what a mess...

[dsm_luck]

I don't think it destroys your soul (atheist remember) but I do believe it can make you less human. Would you do it again knowing what you know now? I think I could have when I was in my 20's and I did want to join but now i'm glad I did not. I can't help feel for both sides and damnit all to hell, when will it stop... I know, that answer does not exist yet.

I always catch myself, or am caught using old terminology from my religious days. I don't believe in a soul either, more of a zest for life that has waned. Would I do it again? Well I voluntarily got out after my deployment to Iraq. No I do not want to go through that again. Would I knowing what I do now take back my original deployment? No. The reason is because I am partially responsible for saving a friends life when his legs were blown off. If I'm not there he is likely dead. He has a loving wife and two kids and I couldn't imagine that family without him. I was there to look out for my buddies and I cannot honestly say that I would have gone back and changed that no matter the war, the outcome, or my views on this mess.

[Rosewin]

Just saw this. Those jackasses call that a battle? They would have sorely been out of place in WW2.

Oh, related story to this one led me here:

A US military analyst, Bradley Manning, has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified combat video and documents to a whistle-blower website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10254072.stm

Edited June 7, 2010 by Rosewin

[venqax]

I don't know what terrifies me the most. The brutality of the event or people trying to justify it :/

Oh for the love of God.. This is WAR, folks. A series of combat operations. This kind of thing happens all the time in wars. You shoot first, you shoot more, you shoot A LOT, with weapons that shoot very fast, very hard, and are EXTREMELY destructive. In fact, they are made for this very puropse. It's not a community-oriented police response to a domestic disturbance. It is not an investigation or an attempt to discuss things rationally. It is a war. Do you have any idea how many thousands of civilians, many of them innocent, we killed in WW2? Don't hang around with people who look like the enemy, don't carry things that look like guns, or better yet, if you have the CHOICE, mind your own damn business and stay home. It's too bad. That's all. "The brutality of the event"! what a statement of sheer stupidity. War IS brutality. Controlled brutality, but much more of the brutal part than the controlled part.