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What's your opinion on the military?

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donnie_darko
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22 May 2011, 3:25 am

trappedinhell wrote:
World history shows that military force is not necessary when we have enough trade links.

Look at the USA: does each state have bombs aimed at the other states? No, because there are so many links that bombing your neighbor means you bomb your uncle, your food supplier, your best friend.

This does not require a strong federal government. I live in Europe and for centuries every nation fought every other nation. England and France were notorious enemies. But now we're the biggest trading partners, we own property in each other's country, we intermarry, and going to war would only hurt ourselves. This is not because the European Union has a big army, it's purely because of trade.

This does not require a similar culture either. We may fear China, but they would never go to war with us because they don't need to: trade achieves their objectives more effectively. And we would not go to war with them because we need their trade links too much.

In the long term, economic power is greater than military power because it does not rely on periodically destroying your asset base. Trade means you cannot kill your enemy without killing yourself.

The existence of a military is a temporary step, a sign that we have not yet grown up.


Absolutely!! !! Penn and Teller's World Peace episode talked about what you said and it's totally true. I do not get why most people in this day and age still believe war is necessary. I think it's because of the propaganda (ooooh my Grandpa fought in the war, he is such a good man!! ! This is the greatest nation on Earth!! !) and all the pomp that makes it seem so nice, when really it's the ugliest thing on this planet.

Look, I'm not totally idealist and naive, I know we can't get rid of the military overnight. And I know we have a few enemies yes, but none of them require a trillion dollars a year to stand up against. But if we ever wanna get rid of war, we have to stop worshiping soldiers and glorifying the institution. And that way we can truly work towards global disarmament.



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22 May 2011, 10:24 am

We need one. I'm sure there are an awful lot of countries that would love the land that Canada provides.



USMCnBNSFdude
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22 May 2011, 1:55 pm

donnie_darko wrote:
As for North Korea, I think what we and Japan should do is encourage them to overthrow Kim Jong Il, by refusing to support him anymore.

...

If you did the research, you would know that the North Korean population has very little, in fact, NO contact with the outside world.



Last edited by USMCnBNSFdude on 23 May 2011, 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

JPanzer
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23 May 2011, 7:04 am

War, although people seem to like calling them conflicts nowadays for some reason, is an evil thats necessary.
I doubt without war the Internet or mobile phones would reach the level they have today. War helps and hinders, forces technological advances, changes borders and politics, stops population growth... Plus girls look cute in DPM.

Peace is an aspiration that will never come to bear, because humans are evil, manipulative bastards.

I'll leave my reservations about the way the United States of America uses its armed forces at the door.


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23 May 2011, 7:44 am

Even though I dont believe the act of war I still really love the show Coming Home. Its great to see the love between the soldier coming home and the person who hasnt seen that soldier for a long time. And when did a year become standard. Sad state of affairs when soldiers are away from their families for a year or more.



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23 May 2011, 8:19 am

That I'd like to throw Jenny McCarthy into the Army and see how she does. :twisted:


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MDD123
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23 May 2011, 1:32 pm

donnie_darko wrote:
MDD123 wrote:
Where do you get this stuff?


because it's the government that always lets down the troops after the troops have served them.


Actually, I was talking about the part where troops are ordered by the military to slaughter "brown children" All US troops recieve hours of training to minimize civilian deaths and any troops who are caught killing innocent civilians are prosecuted. I think your statement is innacurate.



MONKEY
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23 May 2011, 2:01 pm

CockneyRebel wrote:
That I'd like to throw Jenny McCarthy into the Army and see how she does. :twisted:

That's nice of you.


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23 May 2011, 2:09 pm

MONKEY wrote:
CockneyRebel wrote:
That I'd like to throw Jenny McCarthy into the Army and see how she does. :twisted:

That's nice of you.


It might be a funny reality show (and by funny, I mean, I hate reality tv)


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USMCnBNSFdude
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23 May 2011, 2:22 pm

CockneyRebel wrote:
That I'd like to throw Jenny McCarthy into the Army and see how she does. :twisted:

Really? The Army is a joke. If you can make your bed, shine your shoes, and yell really loud you'll survive. The word you're looking for is the Marines.



MONKEY
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23 May 2011, 2:25 pm

Vigilans wrote:
MONKEY wrote:
CockneyRebel wrote:
That I'd like to throw Jenny McCarthy into the Army and see how she does. :twisted:

That's nice of you.


It might be a funny reality show (and by funny, I mean, I hate reality tv)


It could be one of those sh***y VH1/MTV reality shows where everything's play acted for the camera, and McCarthy stays in a comfy hotel between filming.


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MDD123
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23 May 2011, 2:39 pm

USMCnBNSFdude wrote:
CockneyRebel wrote:
That I'd like to throw Jenny McCarthy into the Army and see how she does. :twisted:

Really? The Army is a joke. If you can make your bed, shine your shoes, and yell really loud you'll survive. The word you're looking for is the Marines.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... fdY0NMDqYQ



Moog
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23 May 2011, 2:41 pm

I think it's a bunch of armed guys (and gals, these days).


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Vigilans
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23 May 2011, 2:43 pm

MONKEY wrote:
Vigilans wrote:
MONKEY wrote:
CockneyRebel wrote:
That I'd like to throw Jenny McCarthy into the Army and see how she does. :twisted:

That's nice of you.


It might be a funny reality show (and by funny, I mean, I hate reality tv)


It could be one of those sh***y VH1/MTV reality shows where everything's play acted for the camera, and McCarthy stays in a comfy hotel between filming.


We're gonna be rich!! ! :lol: (Its sad in that we probably aren't brainstorming a reality tv series much differently than the people who are paid to do it)


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USMCnBNSFdude
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23 May 2011, 2:53 pm

MDD123 wrote:
USMCnBNSFdude wrote:
CockneyRebel wrote:
That I'd like to throw Jenny McCarthy into the Army and see how she does. :twisted:

Really? The Army is a joke. If you can make your bed, shine your shoes, and yell really loud you'll survive. The word you're looking for is the Marines.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... fdY0NMDqYQ

Hey, I've always treated the Rangers and Green Berets like separate branches. >:(

Army Mentality: "Here, take this gun, run through that field, and get blown up. Hoo-uh".

Marines Mentality: "Get stomped, sat, and s**t on for ten weeks, then take this gun, go spend 1000 rounds on foreigner's for one kill, and then get blown up. OO-RAH!"



MrLoony
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23 May 2011, 5:07 pm

donnie_darko wrote:
As for North Korea, I think what we and Japan should do is encourage them to overthrow Kim Jong Il, by refusing to support him anymore. Violence is not always the answer. Of course I care more about the whole world than about just America. It's the military nuts who only care about "number one".


Really? Cause everything you say says otherwise. First, do you honestly think that there could be a peaceful revolution in North Korea?

Your anti-Iraq war stance fails to take into account a number of things, most obvious of which is Abu Ghraib.

http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/a ... hraib.html

Quick question: Do you think that America managed to become its own nation by peaceful protests? Do you think we threw off Britain's rule by ourselves? It would have been impossible for us, a nation half a world away, to defeat Great Britain without the French. If we had to deal with Great Britain's full military force, there would have been no way to win. Saddam was not popular in Iraq. In fact, in 1991, Bush (the first one) had essentially said, "If you revolt, I'll support you." I think you can guess what happened.

Allies are very important in warfare, especially in revolts.

How about this: Read The Art of War before you start bashing the military. You have no understanding of how necessary a functional military is to the welfare of a country.


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