If you think America can cope with another war, read this and weep, page 2

Originally posted by DaFunk13
I pay taxes because I also like my money to pave roads and build schools.

Ok great, but you're also funding the war. So by your rationale, if some bad is going to be part of the package with greater good, and is unavoidable, you just do the best you can, right? Well, the gents who are not in the military are making more money and paying more taxes to fund more schools and roads. Some of them, as a matter of fact, are actually doing the work to build them, teaching in them, etc. So poof, there goes your contention that they must be cowards, unless you're willing to welcome the application of the principle to yourself as well.

The programmed marine line is fact.

The purple elephant line is a fact too.
Saying it doesn't making it so. Facts can be demonstrated with evidence. Where is yours? You're up against the testimony of a first hand witness and all you can say is "it's a fact".

The MC wants soldiers, not political scientists, and not activists. They want your brain following orders and your heart beating...nothing more.

At no point did I observe anything in the USMC that represented an attempt to taint a Marine's critical thinking process. Nobody asked about or tried to influence my political views. I often talked with my fellow Marines about my view on the strategic aspects of the War on Terror; how it was basically just a revisitation of the Great Game and had many motives beyond 9/11- nobody gave me any trouble about it, because it wasn't stopping me from following orders.

The only expectation was that I follow my orders when push came to shove, and if you ask me, that is the most democratic thing about the Marine Corps, because in a democracy it is not the place of one man with a rifle to veto the decisions of the elected government.

If you agree with the war then what is your justification for that?

1. Strategic positioning vital to the maintenance of the relative security Americans have enjoyed for so long.
2. The elimination of the potential for an avowed enemy to ever become a significant threat.
3. Removing a source of support for groups whos actions undermine the diplomatic and economic interests of the United States.

I already said how I feel about able bodied not fighting, especially a former marine that wouldn't waste so much of my tax money learning to kill people more efficiently.

Get your story straight general. I enlisted specifically to fight this war and I ASKED to be an infantryman; that's how I became a Marine. I sustained a back injury in training or I'd be over there with my friends, where I wanted to be.

Do you honestly believe that they are "Jealous of our Freedom?"
You seem way smarter than that.

I am smarter than that; you put those words in my mouth, which you seem too smart for.
Every war, just or otherwise, sees its share of propaganda, and the "jealous of our freedom" bit is exactly that.
The average person is does not have the historical or strategic understanding to appreciate the justifications for the war itself, not even to mention the utter lack of justification for the length of this occupation, hence the propaganda.

In a nut shell, Iraq was a threat of debatable severity, and certainly not an imminent one, but beyond their direct actions, they were in the way of our strategic positioning relative to other, more dangerous rivals.

Think of it in terms of a chess board; some times you've gotta go out of your way to rub out a pawn; not because that pawn is going to checkmate you, but because something more important is being protected or obstructed by that pawn.

And I'll save you the trouble of having to accuse me; yes I'm cold, calculating nationalist. Just keep in mind that this doesn't mean I like the idea of hurting people; if you have that impression you should really talk to me about the state of things in East Africa. I've got some well-hidden morals somewhere.