Why is the US military so screwed in the head?

Question

Is it because you never got over the beating you took in Vietnam in what was then an unjust war, a bit like Iraq today?

I remember seeing a TV news item about the war. I overheard one "leader" telling his troops, "don't worry, you'll get a Purple Heart for this one". God, it's real life, not a movie.

As for being highly trained.......
What about all of the allies the highly trained US Army have killed in so called "Friendly Fire" incidents? Can't see any of them being prosecuted for murder even though it was as plain as the nose on your face the so called "enemy combatants" were on the same side.

I don't think i'm stupid for having an opinion on this. The stupid ones are those that sit there & say nothing. It seemed from watching that TV article that the US Army guys overheard in it thought they were in a middle eastern version of Full Metal Jacket or something.

I do concede though that at the end of the day it is the civilian administration that is ultimately responsible for sending our brave boys there, just to come back in bodybags.
:(

Answer 1

BUSH started this war, not the military, so don't blame our brave fighting men...they are simply following orders of their commander and chief whose name is BUSH.

Hello!

Answer 2

Be careful in labeling Viet Nam as 'an unjust war' - it was a war that we backed into, and didn't have a clear strategy to end. I don't think the thousands of Vietnamese who came to this country thought it was unjust. I also would like to think the people who died there did so with a purpose. (my uncle is on the first block of the wall, killed in 1963). There was a very deep conflict between democracy and communism then, which is not something today's generation sees, but it was a conflict of values that I think has been vindicated with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the continuing liberalization of China.

As for Iraq - the radical islamics are 'fixed' in the military sense, not coming to the US or Europe in large numbers to blow themselves and you up. The conflict is a much deeper conflict of tribes and religion than perhaps you understand, and has been going on for thousands of years. That behavior can't be stopped over night - it will take generations to erase the memories that fuel it. Most people who immigrate to the US do so as individuals - giving up their tribal affiliations in the process - as individuals we can make choices not to blow up our neighbors for some slight that happened three generations back, but in Iraq, they can't do that - people remember grandfather, or grandmother shot by the 'fill in the blank group' giving themselves permission to return the favor, so it keeps spiraling on - Only by stopping the violence will the conflict stop, and that is a choice the Iraqi people must give themselves permission to make.

Answer 3

The military isn't screwed up in the head. The military is a trained, fighting machine designed to conquer; that's all it's designed to do, be it American, British, French or any country.

It's the leaders that's at fault. After the fighting in Iraq was over, the civilian secretary of defense, His Imperial Arrogance, the Right Dishonorable Rumfield, decided that they didn't need as many troops to secure the country as the generals had advised; he knew better. Rumfield would have made as good a propaganda minister if not better, than Gobbels himself.

After the war, the army wasn't supplied with much needed body armor, ammo or other vital items to sustain an army now on the defense. Some soldiers even searched scrap yards to piece together armor for their vehicles for protection.

It's said that King George II will always be remembered as the last English monarch to personally lead his troops into battle. I wonder if that rule were in style today how many leaders would choose to attack?

America only went into Vietnam after the French failed to hold onto it. Part of the reason was WWII and the collapse of the French government, allowing the communists to take over French Indo-China which the French really never successfully recovered from, or were able to establish a stable envirnoment after the war. One reason was the support of Communist China supplying the enemy.

In Vietnam, the U.S. army wasn't trained for the type of warfare they faced. Many in the armed forces didn't want to go, and some to be sacrificed to the military fled to Canada rather than be drafted.

That was probably a time in which more civilian people in the U.S. were spied upon by their own government and secretly classiffed as dangers to the stability of the ruling government party than at any time in the history of America.

That is, except for today's present government which has largely tossed out any sense and sensibility regarding personal privacy, freedoms and the basic dignity of human rights upon which our founding fathers designed this country.

The famous United States' Bill of Rights has largely been put into the smallest room of the White House for use in the personal pleasure of the president's bowel movements.

The Vietnam war was lost for many reasons. The public lost interest and disapproved of so many of their young sons, nephews and friends coming home in body bags; the country was divided. The cost was another. A surtax was imposed upon the public to pay for it.

It was a war that America should have never gotten into. The excuse to begin that war has largely now been said to have been fabricated. Towards the end, in tape recordings of President Johnson's telephone calls recently released, he admited it was a no-win situation.

In the last poll that I recall, only 36 percent of the U.S. population approved of the actions of our president. This is one of the lowest approval ratings of any president in U.S. history. We live in an elected dictatorship in which the ruling party is above the law, or if the law conflicts with their agenda at hand, they attempt to change the law.

So, please don't blame the military or the American people for going into Iraq. Blame the leaders who sent our young people into a hopeless situation that is totally meritless in the value of human life from any aspect or point of view.

Answer 4

That's a bit unfair, don't you think? Soldiers do what they're told to do by politicians. If you want to blame someone, blame Bush and Blair for incompetence. At the time, Vietnam did not seem like an unjust was; it was the proposed intention to defeat communism. But, again, it was a political decision to send troops there and 60000 did not come back.

Answer 5

Excuse me, the United States Military is doing an outstanding job.

In Vietnam, the south Vietnamese lost to the North Vietnamese in April 1975 when North Vietnam invade South Vietnam in a conventional force invasion.

Answer 6

First of all you don't deserve to live here if you're going to put down the people fighting for YOUR freedom. Obviously you're not man enough to do it, so you must put them down.

If you want to go as far as you did with your little comment, maybe you should be talking about Bush and Congress sending the troops to these places, not the military members themselves. It's not like the people in the service tell the people "above" them where we're going and if we're going to be fighting a war or not!!


Wow... some people.

Go move to Iraq... people like you don't deserve to live here if you're going to talk like that.

Answer 7

I bet you ain't got the balls to go up to a US Soldier and say that to their face. I'd love to see the response if you did. You wouldn't last long. THAT i can promise you.

For those of you reading this who are currently serving, or who have served. I thank you for your service. Even though this person may not be an American, it is because of y'all that people like this who ARE American can say this crap. I don't think they have the slightest clue what you have done for them, and I'm sorry that you have to listen to people like that. Keep up the good work! HOOAH!

Answer 8

I agree, the blame lies with the civilian administration not the forces

Answer 9

The US military, unlike squats like you, are disciplined and do the job they are required to do.

The general public never knows all the detailed information concerning conflicts in foreign lands.

Until you become a political force and have access to that information, I suggest you research and learn the facts before you shoot off your mouth again.

Answer 10

It is amazing how you ungrateful, know nothing civilians are so full of yourselves that you think you know so much about the U.S. Military, when actually you're just talking out of your hind parts.
You've obviously never served and are too much of a coward to even consider serving in the U.S. military, so just sit there on you fat hind parts and shut up, quit parroting other borderline illiterate know nothings, and let the REAL MEN stand up and be counted on to protect our country.
(USN, retired/in-country Viet Nam vet)

Answer 11

Ashley D has it not crossed your mind that maybe he does not live in the US
"Is it because YOU never got over the beating YOU took in Vietnam"
If he is from US would he not have said we