Well, our first KIA's

[Lost Cause]

Just coming in off the wires, two Special Forces troops killed by bombs dropped by B-52. Another has been shot in the chest, but is stable. Dozens wounded.

**How committed are you to our mission?

**Can you accept casualities?

**Would you go if asked?

 

[lovetoread]

Very committed


Casualties are a fact of war and must be accepted


And yes I would fight in a heartbeat

 

[Marxist]

My next-to-best friend (middle school, high school, last 2 years of college), "Tom", is a recent Spec. Forces graduate. He had just finished SEER school the week of the attack. He speaks Arabic.

I got an email from him saying that he wouldn't be home for Thanksgiving or Christmas and was sorry if he was out of touch for a while.

I hope to God he makes it home alive for his birthday and mine (we were born 2 days apart).

But no, I have no interest in fighting. Anyone that is actively Excited about war has never had a bullet or grenade come inches from taking their life (unfortunately I have).

I'll accept casualties because that's the price of war. But not gladly in any form.

I'd go IF asked. But this isn't that kind of war. No one's going to ask. This is a truly professional war. The people on the ground in this one are like surgeons or emergency workers, human but totally dispassionate, with little or no thoughts of revenge, just thoughts of accomplishing the mission and getting out.

I keep telling my girlfriend and other college friends to approach this whole thing as another of Tom's adventures. I hope for Tom's sake I'm right.

 

[LakotaMoon]

"That kind of war"

Is there really something like "that kind of war"?

I don't think so.

 

[Lost Cause]

If we get too used to thinking the war will stay away from us, we will have another 9-11.
I have been in harm's way, I have been fired on, I have a piece of shrapnel that caught me in the back of the neck, I still have nightmares, I still have problems socializing and staying in relationships.
I would risk it all again for a just cause.
Those who stay out of the conflict until too late, will just occupy bodybags......

 

[Marxist]

Guys, this isn't Vietnam, where a good number of the people invited to participate were drafted.

This isn't Desert Storm, where a good number of the people invited to participate were Reserves.

This is a totally unique circumstance in recent American history.

Asking if I'd go if called is ludicrous. NO ONE IS GOING TO "CALL." This isn't WW2 and 9-11 isn't Pearl Harbor. Everybody is stuck on this idea that you can run off and enlist and see action tomorrow. "Tom" is almost 30 and has spent the last 8 years training for situations in this realm.

I know it feels good to think that inside every one of us is a warrior seeking revenge but that's not how this thing is going to go down.

So give it a rest. Go give blood and get back to work. Our economy has to be strong if we want to continue in the lifestyle and freedom that our soldiers and marines and airmen are fighting for.

If called upon to perform a life-saving heart bypass could you do it? Nope. Would someone ask you to do it? No.

Give it a rest.

 

[Lost Cause]

It's not a feeling, "Anytime, Anywhere" is not a flashy slogan on a trendy shirt. I and many comrades lived that creed every day. Don't even try to lower me to your view of this world, you will lose. Have a day!

 

[Marxist]

It's not a feeling, "Anytime, Anywhere" is not a flashy slogan on a trendy shirt. I and many comrades lived that creed every day. Don't even try to lower me to your view of this world, you will lose. Have a day!

This isn't a pissing contest. I'm sure your dick is bigger and the sun is brighter on your side of the world.

But facts are facts, no matter how much displeasure you take in hearing them. I'm sure you've seen your share of battles and scrapes, I have too, but you asked a question that was flawed and I'm calling you on it. We've got to stop thinking about this war in simplistic terms and using past war experience to define it.

 

[Lost Cause]

No pissing here, just wondering why all the gas about a question raised? Why interpret something that obviously has no interest with you in the first place, citizen?
live long and perspire.

 

[Marxist]

No pissing here, just wondering why all the gas about a question raised? Why interpret something that obviously has no interest with you in the first place, citizen?
live long and perspire.

citizen?

 

[p_p_man]

Anyone that is actively Excited about war has never had a bullet or grenade come inches from taking their life

You're so right Marxist. I carry a small flesh wound on my thumb where a sniper's bullet missed in 1976. Two knife wounds in my back from knives being welded by two Sudanese soldiers who couldn't quite catch me to plunge the blades fully into my body, (it's true what they say - fear gives you wings) and memories of being absolutely terrified as Lybian jets circled overhead looking for their targets to bomb.

That's not counting the usual run of the mill stuff like being trapped in back streets whilst a full fire war is going on around you in other streets and hoping you won't be noticed. Seeing body parts being dumped in the local mortuary and then covered in blocks of ice to stop them rotting (heads in one corner, arms in another) and giving a place of relative safety to two Arab familes who lived on the top floors of the block of flats I did but whose apartments were in direct line between one side shelling the other side. The building was hit twice but luckily(?) only on one corner and the lift engine room. It stayed relatively intact.

Nowadays I leave all the gung-hoing to those who like a short life or those who haven't experienced life at all yet.

 

[Marxist]

Good God pp!


I don't want to ask what the fuck you were doing in harm's way. OK, I do, but PM me.

I think most people that have lived outside the U.S., especially in the Middle East have seen or been subject to terrorists or separatists doing their thing. I've never fired a gun in anger at anyone or anything in anger, but have been fired upon on numerous occassions. It's no fun.

America has been asleep to this kind of activity for so long or it's had a White face (McVeigh) that people with conventional views of isolationist America are having a hard time adjusting to a new kind of war.

 

[Marxist]

Now I'm pissed. I had to leave before LC answered what "citizen" meant other than it's original context. Is this some new insult the kids are using?

 

[Calamity Jane]

**How committed are you to our mission?

**Can you accept casualities?

**Would you go if asked?

This is not my mission. My 'mission' is to raise my kids, work my ass off, have a life that i'm proud of, and that i can respect myself for.

Yes. I can accept casualties. I can accept the fact that the people over there fighting are there becuase they wanted to join the military, and that they're trained to do a job, but that sometimes shit happens and people die. it's a risk you take when you get in harms way. we accept casualties everyday for far less important matters.

No, I wouldn't go. But I agree with Marxist. No one is going to be asking a nearly thirty year old mother of two to go fight in this war. I have nothing to offer the front. Few of us do. This is a specialized war. It is not a war of numbers, a war of throwing as many people out there as we can. It's a war of specialization, of a few people doing what they're trained to do with as little notice, and as few casualties as possible.

I have friends that are SEALs... they're gone. They're doing their jobs. They may not come home. But the Navy isn't going to start sending kids straight out of boot camp to Afghanistan... it's just not gonna happen.