Good-Bye....Forever!!!

That's the stupidest goddamn thing I ever heard.

 

I agree, chunky should shut up and do whatever anyone tells him to, he should shoot, bomb, and mame for his country otherwise how would we know hes a patriot? We all know what the opposite of patriot is don't we kids? Thats right! A TERRORIST!

 

That's not what I meant, twat. Believing you would be forced to do something against your morals is a grossly exagerated myth of what military life is like. If you have a problem with something your ordered to do, the bleeding heart liberal faction of my country ensures you can take a piss in your commanding officer's boots and receive an award while ignoring said order. Sad but true.

Britney Spears is super hot.

 

For several reasons, the American Armed Forces can be botht the most and least rewarding of all first world armies.

Pluses? More tech, good pay and benefits, Amrican university is expensive, and the GI bill helps, and if you like to kill, you'll likely have the chance.

Minuses? Higher chance of having to do something you don't want to than everywhere except Israel. America has this pesky habit of having an at times morally questionable foreign policy. In Norway or other non-British Euro-armies, you basically just "defend" your borders, take care of natural disaster relief, or participate in UN missions. All good stuff. The American army actually fights. Also, the U.S. Army is voluntary. This seems good, except that it means that the vast majority (though not all, surely) of people are undereducated and provincialistic folks just looking for a good job. This does not make them bad people, but it would make it hard for someone like, oh, me, to get along with for three years.

By the way, Swedes, is it true that over 50% of Swedes now use the English "s" to denote plural when speaking Swedish? Si this true of Norwegians, too?

 

I don't think it's true, maybe when using newly imported English words, but not when speaking Swedish.

But what do I know? :-?

 

I read it in a book on comparative linguitics. They said there was a Swedish university study done in the early 90s that showed it to be the case. Basically, since Swedes as a people speak such good English and since Swedish has three endings for plurals (I assume they're gender-based, but I don't know Swedish, so that's just talking out of my ass) and English only has one, a lot of people just started doing it in slang out of laziness and it caught on. Maybe it's a Stockholm thing or something. Or maybe the study is wrong.

 

I've (luckily) never heard anyone speak like that, not even people from other countries. Sometimes they use the wrong ending, but I've never heard "s"es, I think.

 

I'm sure your Fjalljagare are better than the Marines. That's because 15 of our reservists proved better than 150 marines who were Iraq veterans. I've never heard of more incompetency in an armed force (for those interested, yes, it was a friend of a friend who told the tale, but I was there at the time, so I did hear it with my own ears, and yes, he was one of the reservists).

The story is too long and complicated to repeat here, but these are some of the bigger blunders:

1. Sending their tanks about 300m ahead of the infantry, single file, up the road, on the hill they were supposed to be taking, surrounded by bush. Can you say ambush?

2. Said infantry charging up the hilltop into machine gun fire, and not getting a single kill while getting most of their force wiped out in return.

3. Scouts walking together down a road, talking loudly to each other. One then turned around and walked back about 150m and didn't notice the other one hadn't followed him.

 

Not that I'm some great apologist for the US armed forces, but the purpose of the marines is not to be America's elite fighting force, though they might like to say it is so. They are the "go-kill-em" brute force guys, the ones for whom giving their life for god and coutry is more important than other subtleties like military strategy and NOT getting killed for god and country. America's elite are hte Seals, Green Berets, and Rangers. Last I heard, only the Israeli Special Forces could outdo the Seals, though the Brits came close. They actually have a competition for this shit.

 

heh... i thought america was the ultimate military power it seems i was wrong. Aren't the Green Berets the british elite armed forces? and what about rangers what do they do in the army?

 

I can't remember anytime in recent history where a U.S. force of that size, damn near a company, was wiped out in a single blundering attack. I think vietnam was the last time something like that would have occured Do you have any documentation to back your story Jar? Also, why would those marines suicide attack a fortified enemy position when they have all the air support anybody could ever ask for? I'm gonna have to call bullshit on this one. The rest might be true, jarheads aren't known for there tremendous mental capacity.


Oh, and Chunk, don't kid yourself. The U.S. has the most powerful military in the world.

 

I meant most, not all. It was also a training exercise, so naturally you wouldn't hear about it.

Nope, sorry.

They weren't fortified, they were just troops in bushland on higher ground with Steyr's. The air support came in later, but due the rather dense bush, were nowhere near as effective as they could have been.

I also gather it was a 'race' to get to that hill, and the reservists got there first. To be fair, all involved had gone without sleep for roughly five days, but the marines still outnumbered the reservists 10 to 1.

I wasn't there myself to verify the story, so maybe a grain of salt could be taken with it, but I'd say the majority of it was true.

The Australian SAS is pretty damn hardcore, and I'd back them against any other force in the world. Of course, that's my patriotism speaking there, I have no idea how well they currently rank against other special forces units, but I'd say they're up there. Not losing a single trooper in Iraq when they're operating behind enemy lines for over a month is a pretty impressive feat though.

 

The Green Berets are the American Army Special Forces Unit. The Brits, like the Aussies, are SAS. They also wear berets. I don't know if they are green, though. The Rangers are an Airborne army division that isn't officially special forces, I think, (I could be wrong) but works like one.

 

First of all no one should ever badmouth their military. Damn near all the liberties and "basic rights" we here at HoL choose to use and abuse were fought for by military. Blood was spilt, and lives given for the freedoms we enjoy. Those men and women died or got wounded for a reason (I am not saying that the politicians have been or are always right, but they do keep our rights/freedoms). We are only able to badmouth our militaries and governments because some guy you dont know died believing in something most of choose to criticize!

AIGHT, NOW LETS SET A FEW THINGS STRAIGHT HERE:

Darkwalker......and entire battalion is much larger than 150 marines/soldiers So far as I remember there were 60 men in my platoon during basic training, and 4 platoons in my company. When I got to AIT (read job training) there were about 25-30 soldiers in my platoon. I do know that different branches, and different jobs within each branch group their fighters differently. If'n I remember this correctly the smallest groups are squads, then platoons, then company, then division, then battalion.

Lab........The Army Rangers are much more than just

They are much like Green Berets, Reconassiance Marines, Halos or any other specially trained force. They are trained for specific purposes, and airborne training or jump school just happens to be a prerequisite for many of them. They each vary slightly in that they are more trained in one thing than the others-hence their specific deployment purposes. There are so many different special training options out there that one could literally spend half there career or more in training!!!


Lets hope that makes things some what clearer for ya'll. I have siblings still in the military, and I have uncles that are retired, some cousins that have and are still serving. I do not think that my information is incorrect, but if u can show proof it being incorrect please post it. (btw good luck finding me wrong! :lol: )[/quote]

 

I won't bad mouth the philosophical ramifications of maintaining a military, but I'll bad mouth the individuals in the military as much as i damn well please. I have nothing against your siblings, but I do have some grudges against individual marine ass holes, and the whole macho elitist mentality that they train into these young men and women is a real bummer as well. Esrpis de corps is why soldiers rarely question orders in my opinion.

 

and they can summon animal companions

 

Maybe they don't question orders because they are paid not to. The people above them may be just as brutal, but they are definitely more intelligent. I highly doubt that they give illegal orders that need to be disobeyed as a matter of course.

 

Thank you for correcting my ignorance, let's call it damn near a company then.

Jar, so by training exercise you mean nobody was killed? It was all simulated casualties?


Evanescence is a most excellent band.