You’re pretty obviously not capable of having an argument in good faith. You just dodge questions and hand wave them away as unimportant or beneath you because any answer will trap you into having to defend uncomfortable truths about yourself you’d rather not have to have to account for. By insisting on continuing to take a very specific and narrow topic and broadening it to include things that pretty much everyone already agrees on (war is bad, people are scared, no one wants to die blah blah…) is really fucking annoying quality. I’m sure you’re a real nightmare on social media feeds who garners lots of rolleyes from acquaintances and relatives.
So since you’d rather fight the fight you want with me instead of fighting the fight you have I’m going to bow out of this. I’ll just assume you’re a “drop the hose and run” guy/gal since you gave me nothing else to work with. Have a nice life dude.
You do realize that Afghanistan and Pakistan weren’t always bastions of hardcore Islamism, right? The CIA basically supported the overthrow of the Bhutto regime in Pakistan, and then a year or two later started supporting Islamic radicals in Afghanistan. We had a lot to do with bringing that warped version of Islamic culture there. What you confronted personally in Afghanistan were the consequences of decisions that our policy wonks made and tax dollars funded. It could be argued we have a moral obligation to help Afghanistan rid itself of radical Islam, though as a practical matter, that is not tenable.
So would you say you’re going to “drop the hose and run”?
You’re just another one of those assholes that goes around shit-talking the people who have to live their lives in the ruins of the countries we have bombed and occupied, and probably go around saying “I’m not a hero just because I’m in the military,” on the one hand, but expect people to buzz with approval at just how “humble” you are for saying that on the other. No doubt it is a horrendous shock to you to find that not everyone will either “thank you for your service” and your “unique perspective” as a veteran or even just implicitly endorse, through silence, the hateful, bigoted bullshit you spew about the various oppressed populations you have elected to turn your back on and castigate before unquestioning admirers.
It’s not why I joined the military, but a side benefit of joining the military was so I could tell bigoted assholes like you that you are bigoted assholes, and being a veteran shouldn’t give you license to go on being a bigoted asshole.
But of course mileage varies on that point, and apparently @What_Exit either has a problem with my tone, or just happens to think that it’s not so bad to be a bigoted asshole, as long as it’s behind the backs of the people you’re shit-talking, and not in a forum that they are likely to access.
You took the side of a bigot. I will stop @'ing you, but know that you took the side of a bigot. So you can call me an asshole all you want for choosing to highlight that, forcefully, but… you took the side of a bigot.
the other problem is they’re known for wide-scale desertation when it appeared the Taliban was losing during the initial invasion once it was surmised they were on the losing side something like 30-40 percent of the defending forces just vanished over a 2 to 3 day period …and it wasn’t the first time …
Dude, why the fuck are bringing up all the veteran shit? I haven’t mentioned being a veteran once in either of the threads beyond establishing that yes, I have been to the country and interacted with the population in the first post to establish that I’m not simply reacting to what I see on the internet. And your rant is confusing me, first you’re focusing on me being a veteran but then accusing me of being humble about it so I can get props or whatever? Am I supposed to wave a flag or not because I can’t tell what is ok with you. WTF are you on?
I keep seeing notifications on this goddamn thread. I’m not used to be name dropped so much. Jesus Christ.
I’m going to use this thread for a bit of catharsis now (or, I suppose, keep on using it for a bit of catharsis). I just remember leaving Iraq 10 years ago (okay, 9 years and 11 months), and realizing even then how utterly hopeless the situation was. By no means predicting the rise of ISIS, but more generally just being well aware that things were only going to get worse after we left, and for that matter too things weren’t like to get better if we stayed, particularly as they clearly did not want us there. It was, then, an absolute horror to see the civil war playout from afar, and to see Isis cutting heads off reporters, burning downed pilots, and mass murdering captured recruits in high definition. Particularly having spent my time in Iraq as an advisor, working day in and day out with officers of their military and, yes, even teaching a class (with the aid of a local translator) on introductory engineering to some naval recruits. I still don’t quite know how to parse it. Having that experience, perhaps watching it unfold again, I can only conclude that one must surely be the asshole of all assholes to witness what is going on now in Afghanistan and think “Gosh, those men running away from being mass murdered and dumped in a shallow pit must surely be cowards. Anyone but a coward would just take a stand already and then come home to air conditioning, a steak dinner, and cable TV and post about the experience on the internet like a real fucking hero. I can’t think of any other explanation, other than cowardice, without going to the internet to cast aspersions and ask for help.”
So I say again, fuck you Cubsfan. And Fuck you too, What_Exit?, for siding with him (as a member of this board, electing to post in the pit in that capacity, not as a mod of course) as if what he said was totally cool or just a veteran expressing himself (as opposed to a bigoted asshole who happens to be a veteran expressing himself).
OK, but the thread title seemed to indicate you thought the US armed forces were being labelled as cowards for withdrawing from Afghanistan. If your real beef is against the veterans who came back and posted about their experiences without showing proper remorse, you could have made that more clear.
Nobody wants to discount the plight of the Afghanis, but the US has done all it can do. Forget it Jake, it’s Afghanistan.
