Any active soldiers out there??

On my walks after work I try to play out some crazy scenarios in my head to make the trip go faster. During this trip I was thinking about ISIS and how we are going about fighting them, and I wanted to ask some soldiers some questions about how they feel.

1. They always talk about boots on the ground like it is the last thing we will do in a confrontation. My question is, Would soldiers rather be on the ground fighting than doing what we are doing now?(bombing)

2. Lets say we give the army/marines the opportunity to fight these terrorist. And we give the soldiers everything they need to fight with. (air,sea,tanks,weapons,intel,everything) And we let the army/marines fight the battles instead of politicians, how long, do you think it would take to win?

3. To any Army soldiers- would you want to be the first in or would you let the Marines?
3b. To Marines- would you want to be the first in or would you let the Army?

4. Would you fight next to Russian soldiers, if they wanted to help with a ground assault?

5. What other country would you want to help fight with you, if any?

So that was playing out in my head yesterday. I'm no soldier, I tried to but it didn't work out, and I would have stayed for life.
I think that if I'm training to do something and thats what I live for, I would like to get out there and get my hands dirty. But I could be way off. I know in my work its hard for me to sit there and watch someone else screw it up.

Or if you just want to tell me to f off thats cool to.

Thank you and thank you for your service.

a reply to: Kazber

Lets say we give the army/marines the opportunity to fight these terrorist. And we give the soldiers everything they need to fight with. (air,sea,tanks,weapons,intel,everything) And we let the army/marines fight the battles instead of politicians, how long, do you think it would take to win?

Not soldiering but...

they been trying to subjugate several countries for over a decade now. The reality is, Peoples just don't like being occupied by foreign armies.

a reply to: Kazber

Active duty Marine 15 yrs.

It's not our fight. The Middle East countries need to secure their own lands.

But they won't. They've been killing each other for thousands of years and they will continue to do the same.

We spent 10+ years over there with our hands tied behind our backs.

We never had any business over there meddling in other countries affairs. We should not be going back.

I have no interest in going back there.

a reply to: watchitburn

Hey I'm with you on that. I truly believe that we need the time and money that we are spending over there, more over here.

It was a total hypothetical.... My head always goes, I can't shut it off, and when it's left running it goes to dark places. So I play out things in my head and these were the questions that I had, that went with the story.

If you want the story I will surely give it to you. but after work, its to long. It might be good reading.

a reply to: watchitburn

Would you say a lot of your comrades share your views?

a reply to: Kazber

OK.

In my opinion, we (as in Western culture) have gentrified warfare. And the enemy knows it.

I've literally sat and watched talibán guys put bombs in roads and not been authorized to take them out because they weren't "armed".

We have the media crawling all over the battle field and embedded in squads to provide entertainment for the masses.

War is hell and if we ever intend to win another war we need to let warriors be warriors. Because the next one may be in our own backyard.

But sending us around the world and telling us to win hearts and minds is asinine. If they want to sway public opinion send ambassadors and politicians not soldiers and Marines.

a reply to: tweetie

I don't know anyone who wants to go back to the sandbox.

a reply to: watchitburn

That was something I was thinking about. I was thinking that if the Military had there way out there and the goal was to just defeat terrorist. And all decisions were left to the military how would it play out.

Enough with trying to have them love us and just beat enemy ass.

I know everything is a lot more complicated then it is. But My main question I guess would be

"If we put boots on the ground with the goal to defeat the enemy, could we do a better job than we are doing now, and could we do the job? If we left all the decisions up to the military?

And the Russian thing was just a bonus.

a reply to: watchitburn

How can I say what I want to say? I would hope your accrued skills as a Marine will come in handy in a different, better way in the not too distant future.

a reply to: Kazber

I've been out of the army 9 months 25 days, my experience is still very relevant:

1. They always talk about boots on the ground like it is the last thing we will do in a confrontation. My question is, Would soldiers rather be on the ground fighting than doing what we are doing now?(bombing)

Soldiers want clarity, not "what-ifs". A clear role in the mission, and a clear objective. It doesn't matter if we get sent in or not. What matters is commitment, clarity, and objective. Anything less is a dereliction of leadership. Which is what we have now.

2. Lets say we give the army/marines the opportunity to fight these terrorist. And we give the soldiers everything they need to fight with. (air,sea,tanks,weapons,intel,everything) And we let the army/marines fight the battles instead of politicians, how long, do you think it would take to win?

If the US military fought a war where its' hands were not tied it would be over quickly and the suffering would be enormous. I am under no illusions as to the amount of hate we can rain down on the enemy. Politicians tend to reign that in and in many cases that is appropriate, at least to the optics of the situation.

One day the world will get the chance to see what the US military can do when the gloves come off. I feel sorry for any belligerent stupid enough to make such a reality possible.

3. To any Army soldiers- would you want to be the first in or would you let the Marines?

SF, ODA, SOAR, and other SOF units would be in before conventional forces made landfall anyway. It would most likely be Army units to go in first.

4. Would you fight next to Russian soldiers, if they wanted to help with a ground assault?

I'd love to have a working relationship with Russians.

5. What other country would you want to help fight with you, if any?

I've worked with SOF units of 7 different countries. I can tell you this: The Italians are the only ones I would NOT work with again. Bunch of undisciplined drunks.

Ok, here is my story.(if I have enough time)

So I'm running for president under a new party called "the peoples party". Americans are so fed up with the politicians that this new party grew fast. The campaign was based around defeating terrorist and making friends with Russia and China. And putting money back into America.

So In a debate where the rules are how I need them to be in this story. I went around to military bases and asked the soldiers how they would go about fighting terrorist. And if they would fight next to Russian soldiers, cuz Russia wants the same thing that I'm going for and they said they would drop troops if we did.

I show the footage at the debate to let the people know how our soldiers feel and the soldiers think that if we were to give the military full run of things over there that they would kick the s#*t out of the terrorist. That the Marines and the Army both want to get in there and use all the toys that we would give them to fight. (Like all that future stuff, and anything that they wanted. Like troops would not be sent out unless they had air support very close and back up troops waiting to help if stuff went sideways)

So I win the election.(of course). And I find out that the war on terror was just a fear campaign started by the US in the first place. And that dropping bombs was what the big secret company's wanted cuz they get paid to make them.

I expose "all dat". And put the CIA on check. And tell the CIA that they now work for the military and that they are to give up any intel that the military needs to fight.

The troops go into the desert and set up a mini city. In the mean time I have been working to make nice with Russia and they set up a mini city. And it was good. start off slow and getting use to working with the Russians in the mean time doing black ops type runs and collecting intel.

And Then when the terrorist think that the "slow" game is how we are gonna fight them. BOOM. Go door to door and kick ass. No Media No PR, WAR.

Troops go out with protection. If we have super suits that were "to expensive" to send on a soldier, they now get them.(Not everyone gets there own, they have to share) And all that batman stuff. EMPs, around the corner guns, drones, touch screens, x-rays, stealth suits, everything!

And We start a new future where the US and Russia are not a force to be messed with. And after we take care of that, The US and Russia set up a world police. (not just the US)

And than I as president start unlocking tech and making it public to walk us in to the real "future". Renewable energy, anti-gravity, and cure for disease.

So thats the stuff I think about when I need to change the tape in my head. And who knows tomorrow It could be anything.

So thats where I got the questions from and thank you for you guys input.

If I were an active or ex soldier, I would probably be wary of threads asking about that on the internet, just my opinion.

a reply to: projectvxn

Awesome!! Now I can add some more depth to the story. And thank you for your service!

The one REAL thing in this is I wish we could have a better relationship with the Russians. I think a team of us and them would be one of the greatest things to happen. "why can't we all just get along?"

The one plot hole I have is letting the US and the Russians go to war without the gloves would be all the funny stuff that would go on. Maybe today on my walk I will try and figure that out. I know war is hell but people can also be real evil.

a reply to: Jonjonj

Why? What's gonna happen?

a reply to: projectvxn

Probably nothing. It just seems to me that a call out for recognition of active status is suspect, given the present political climate.

I am no one to decide, I just felt that it was a relevant warning to give.

No offence.

a reply to: Jonjonj

Did you read my story?

Just chit chat, but now maybe short stories.

a reply to: Jonjonj

Probably nothing. It just seems to me that a call out for recognition of active status is suspect, given the present political climate.

Are we veterans in someone's cross hairs?

I am no one to decide, I just felt that it was a relevant warning to give. No offence.

None taken. But I wonder why you feel such a warning is necessary?

a reply to: Kazber

The one plot hole I have is letting the US and the Russians go to war without the gloves

I would never want this in any scenario. I've worked with a lot of Russians and tend to respect them, their history, and their commitment to duty and country. Not many other nations, save for the US, shares those aspects of national identity.

A war scenario where the political restrictions are off the table would be enormously destructive to the entire world. No one would win.

Ignore everything I said, there is no problem with sharing military status on a social media site.