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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (192943)	7/1/2012 10:10:27 AM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 542109

If I could recommend that post, I certainly would. Extremely well put.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (192943)	7/1/2012 11:25:29 AM
From: Bread Upon The Water	Respond to of 542109

There are, however, a small percentage of soldiers who are very good at fighting. For them it's like playing a game where the stakes are unbelievably high. It makes gambling look anemic and it takes tremendous mental and sometimes athletic skills, especially mental skills. It's addictive as hell because you'll have a hard time getting that adrenalin rush somewhere else and when fighting a war there are times when the rush is there for days or weeks on end. In addition, the sense of belonging and camaraderie among soldiers fighting to stay alive is very powerful. So, that's why someone might want to fight in a war. Yes, the "intensity" rush can be very addicting. Everything else pales besides it. It can be very alluring.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (192943)	7/1/2012 11:35:18 AM
From: bentway	Respond to of 542109

You'd know better than I would, Ed, you've been there and done it, I've only read and seen movies about it. As a young man, I did many dangerous things that could have easily seriously injured or killed me, and they were a rush. But, I never wanted to kill another human being, or be put into a situation where one was trying to kill me. Even though in a war this is "ok" and sanctioned, I never accepted that. One of the books that had a great influence on me was "First Day on the Somme", which covered a WWI battle where 60,000 men died in the first day. It was the first allied attempt to break the stalemate of trench warfare. Almost all of the men were volunteers, and were ordered up out of their trenches and and instructed to march across no man's land into the German machine guns. They did it, and they died. Their command apparently didn't understand that marching upright into machine gun fire wasn't a good plan. amazon.com More than any other, that book let me know that if I heard of a war, I wanted to head the opposite direction.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (192943)	7/1/2012 2:56:34 PM
From: koan	Respond to of 542109

A documentary I saw years ago, narrated by a New Guinea school teacher raised in the jungle addressed the tribal waring. He said when they planned to raid another village it was like Christmas eve they were all so excited to do it they could hardly wait. War is in our DNA. Recently anthropologists have determined that 25% of all deaths over the last 10,000 years were caused by war. Look at guys. The most discussed subject is sports. Sports is just supplanted war. I played sports all my life, but I always wanted to talk about other issues. Like ideas. It was always strictly forbidden. And as a 50 year poker player I have sat at a lot of tables, with a lot of guys.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (192943)	8/10/2012 10:55:53 AM
From: Sam	Respond to of 542109

ISAF: Man in Afghan security uniform kills 3 US troops By Chelsea J. Carter and Masoud Popalzai, CNN updated 3:53 AM EDT, Fri August 10, 2012 STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: A man in an Afghan uniform opened fire Friday on U.S. troops, killing three A suicide bomb attack kills four Americans in Afghanistan's Kunar province Among the dead are senior members of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Also killed is a USAID foreign service officer, the State Department says Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A man in an Afghan military uniform killed three U.S. troops Friday in southern Afghanistan, a day after the United States condemned a suicide bomb attack that left four Americans dead. The man opened fire on the troops in the volatile Helmand province, said Maj. Lori Hodge, a spokeswoman for the International Assistance Security Force. It is the latest in a series of so-called "green on blue" attacks that has seen attackers dressed in Afghan security force uniforms turn their weapons on NATO soldiers. Hodge did not immediately provide details about the attack, one of a handful of attacks in recent weeks to target NATO troops. The developments came a day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned an attack in the eastern Kunar province "that killed USAID Foreign Service Officer Ragaei Abdelfattah, three ISAF service members and an Afghan civilian, and injured a State Department Foreign Service officer." "On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I have sent my deepest condolences to Ragaei's family and to the entire U.S. Mission in Afghanistan," Clinton said in a written statement released late Thursday. The Department of Defense released few details about the attack that occurred Wednesday, saying only that the three American troops died "of wounds suffered when they encountered an insurgent who detonated a suicide vest." The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying two bombers targeted the American soldier near the entrance of the compound of the province council in Asadabad, according to a statement released by spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. The Taliban claimed to have killed 17 soldiers, though the group is known to routinely claim responsibility for attacks and inflate casualty numbers. Mujahid said the attack occurred as the troops were exiting a military vehicle and gathering to enter the compound. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffith Killed in the explosion was Army Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffith, the senior enlisted soldier of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division from Fort Carson, Colorado, the Department of Defense said. Also killed were Army Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, 35, of West Point, New York, and Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray, 38, of Conyers, Georgia, the Defense Department said. Troops were also wounded in the attack, said Major Martyn Crighton, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force Joint Command. Army Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy Crighton would not release the number of injured but said "all the seriously wounded were evacuated to Germany." The attack is the latest in a series of high profile strikes against NATO and Afghan officials, and it comes as the United States is reducing its troop strength ahead of an anticipated 2014 hand over of responsibility to Afghan forces. Kennedy served on the brigade staff, while Gray was a flight commander attached as a liaison to the brigade, according to their respective service records. Griffith, 45, of Laramie, Colorado, was the brigade's senior ranking non-commissioned officer, the Defense Department said. Griffith, who joined the Army in 1988, participated in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to his service records. He deployed twice more to Iraq, once in 2007 and again in 2009. He deployed to Afghanistan in March with a headquarters company of the brigade. Kennedy was commissioned as an officer in 2000. He served two tours in Iraq in 2003 and 2005. According to his service record Kennedy deployed to Afghanistan on July 18. Gray was assigned to the 13th Air Support Operations Squadron at Fort Carson. An Afghan interpreter was also killed, the State Department said.