former gang member takes on terrorists and insurgents.

Originally posted by ADVISOR

Originally posted by Aelita
Looks like his gangsta past added glory to Sgt.Ruiz's image.

You are mistaken. He was not a "wannabe gangsta". He was from the "old streets", at least try to know the difference if you are going to be a "hater"...

I love you. I was almost/pretty much was, in tears of laughter at that. It's genious.

Originally posted by devilwasp

...The scary bit that the officers seem to report to him...

Sometimes things are best left to hands on expert, from what I've heard from people in the military sometimes officers get in the way of real hands on stuff. He's proven himself to handle both him and his men well, besides this especially been in a combat zone who would u follow and trust with your neck Rank or the person with the know how?

Originally posted by Oblivions void
Sometimes things are best left to hands on expert, from what I've heard from people in the military sometimes officers get in the way of real hands on stuff. He's proven himself to handle both him and his men well, besides this especially been in a combat zone who would u follow and trust with your neck Rank or the person with the know how?

Officers are supposed to take charge, I relise that being a senior rate is being in charge but it is kind of worrying that he seemed prepared to ignore the chain of command....

Yes officers are supposed to be incharge but you tend to get completely green officers sometimes who dont even have a 10th of the experience and savy that their underling may have and this is already a deadly enough situation as it is. This tends to happend in a lot of places(not just the army) where the person who is really callign the shots is not the person with the title or the strippes on the shoulders. and they must of gotten rid of the officer he didn't want on more than just his wims, other officers would not buck the entire system on something petty. so let's see a green Military college bookworm or a PROVEN down and dirty ground pounder?

Look all I'm saying is that this guy does seem a bit worrying due to his disregard for the chain of command (well it sure as hell sounded like it)
If a soldier disregards the chain of command you lose control and suddenly have 1 million trained men and women with weapons free to do what they wish with the world.

Chain of command is very important, and your completely right about the disregard he implies, but the whole tuff times call for.... blah blah arguement comes to mind. I Think the whole rigid officer/non-officer is a bit rigid and needs to be looked at. I've know veterans who've been in the military for the last 60 or 70 years between them and most of them agree that officers are sometimes more of a liabilities than anything and this is something that should be studied but I seriously doubt this will be changed, goes too much against the system. Only during hard times with exceptional soldiers would the whole beuracracy be overlooked. But like you said devilswasp chain of comand is very important should be re-enforce no matter what. I was very close to joining the military when I finish high school, took my test and everything I was just missing the physical and signature but I knew I would have trouble bowing down to people easilly, I could follow orders but you have to earn that with me and I knew this would get me into trouble so I just went on to college instead.

Originally posted by devilwasp

Originally posted by Oblivions void
Sometimes things are best left to hands on expert, from what I've heard from people in the military sometimes officers get in the way of real hands on stuff. He's proven himself to handle both him and his men well, besides this especially been in a combat zone who would u follow and trust with your neck Rank or the person with the know how?

Officers are supposed to take charge, I relise that being a senior rate is being in charge but it is kind of worrying that he seemed prepared to ignore the chain of command....

devilwasp, look into the first person accounts of the Korean War and Vietnam War and then re-read your own post. You will find many amazing stories about senior enlisted personnel "disregarding" chain-of-command and ending up saving alot of lives. Believe it or not, The United States Military encourages freedom of thought and, to a certain extent, freedom of action in alot of circumstances. Sometimes that is bad....but most times that is good. Most senior officers and some junior officers can't see what's going on at any particular moment, so they rely on senior enlisted to make the judgement call.

Good on the man....

...sometimes history is exactly that - history. People can and do change...and this dude is willing to sacrifice all to illustrate that change.

Much respect to him.

Sending criminals to fight illegal war. That makes kinda a sense. I especially liked the exploding head part and taking pieces of it as a war trophy. What are they Indians? Why don't they take scalps too?

On thr other hand, maybe you can exploite this to fix the problem of overcrowded prisons.

[edit on 14-4-2005 by yanchek]

Here is an interesting perspective on gang members serving in Iraq

Click here

Sometimes isnt all the time , they are there to do a job, I'm sorry but the way this man implied his willingness to break the command structure shows to me a man who is uncontrollable and probably wont follow orders.
The officer are there to lead the men, it doesnt matter what happened 50 years ago in the military this is now, every soldier/sailor/marine I've met has had the chain of command drilled into them.


[edit on 26/02/2005 by devilwasp]

anything that helps are pro-war stance is published. Anything else is rejected.

Having a gang memember menality is not going to help. Gang memebers and people who get into crime have low iq's, people with high IQ are likely to kill more soilders then people with low IQ's.

[edit on 14-4-2005 by TheTruth123]

Originally posted by LA_Maximus

Originally posted by Aelita
After all, maybe you are right and the NYU and Harvard people should stay home and do something productive for this nation, and leave the shooting to Ruiz.

Thats problem!!!

The NYU and Harvard crowd are actively trying to undermine this nation during a time of war. Im more afraid of a NYU/Harvard educated lawyer than I am of Al Qaeda

Oh my God! I feel for you. Our President actually went to Harvard! You must be shuddering every time he's on TV. The only reprieve you get when they show OBL, because according to you, you are less afraid of Osama than you are of George. Life must be hard for you, Max


On a more serious note, I find your attitude pretty much coming from the Dark Ages. Burn the educated and the enlightened at the stake. Follow the superstition and whatever derives from it.


I'm going, albeit for a moment, to break with my democratic tradition and say that right now, I'm proud to be a well read, well traveled multilingual Ivy League PhD gradute Pro-US Anti-War type of a person who is glad to be different from Sgt. Ruiz, even as the latter is busy blowing up the heads of equally ignorant Iragi insurgents with his super-powerful sniper rifle.


Peace be upon all of you.

Originally posted by Aelita
Oh my God! I feel for you.

~sniff~

Thank You, its nice to know someone cares about little ol Maximu§ in here.

Max

Originally posted by LA_Maximus
Thank You, its nice to know someone cares about little ol Maximu§ in here.

I do care, and you are welcome and thanks for a sensible post.

Originally posted by Aelita

I'm going, albeit for a moment, to break with my democratic tradition and say that right now, I'm proud to be a well read, well traveled multilingual Ivy League PhD gradute Pro-US Anti-War type of a person who is glad to be different from Sgt. Ruiz, even as the latter is busy blowing up the heads of equally ignorant Iragi insurgents with his super-powerful sniper rifle.


Peace be upon all of you.

I assume that by democratic you mean "Believing in or practicing social equality"? You abandon that position in order to elevate yourself above Sgt. Ruiz?

Why? What makes you better than him?

PS: Insert a space between the < and the n, and between the < and the / if you want readers to acknowledge your wit.

PPS. The correct spelling is "graduate", even for an Ivy League PhD . Unless, of course, you were providing us with one of the multilingual spellings?

Originally posted by jsobecky
Why? What makes you better than him?

Nothing at all.

PPS. The correct spelling is "graduate"

I know. Thanks.

Play nice or off to the corner for you.

If you have nothing on topic to say, then please say nothing at all

Hey guys check out this interesting article over at strategypage.com about the new army emphatis on more operational freedom for lower level soldiers bring a interesting new aspect to those who had express concern over IMPLIED lack of respect for the chain of command. it's called special forces go mainstream


www.strategypage.com...

I'm not calling the our troops terrorist and U dont exactly win wars by handing out flowers you know You win by deadly force (RUTHLESS) and fear (TERROR) now I'm not the kind go around whitewashing words. Some one is attacking you you blow their skull appart, we you fight you have to be ruthless and instill fear in your enemy. what ever respect (and/or fear) our militiry inspires in our enemies is not gained through our humanitrian efforts you know.........feel free to exchange Ruthless and Terror with what ever PC words make you feel better.

Thats mostly correct, the only problem I have is that it contradicts some of the principles of urban guerilla warfare. We are trying to create a revolution with our military actions..correct? And it is widely known that the number one ingredient that is needed in a revolution is popular support. Even if we only need the illusion of popular support, such as in the US, we still need a large number of the Iraqi people to be on our side.

People tend to put others into two groups "we" and "them". The goal of the United States is to get the Iraqi people to equate us as helpers / comrades etc. and also for them to see our weapons as protecting them rather than harming them. This can only be done by humanitarian efforts, working with the people to rebuild, going into areas damaged by fighting and giving the people adequate shelter.

If we don't achieve that popular support, or at least a number close to the majority, we will never see stability in the region. On the other hand, when have we seen stability in the region?