Originally posted by Saf85
Then again most real vets would not be posting about there exploits since they are still bound by the military secrecy laws etc. Also why would they
wish for any information that could lead an extreamist back to them? "Oh I served in Somalia in support to the blackhawk down incident" etc, would
just paint a target on you for any Somalian extreamist.
I don't know how it works for other countries, but for the most part US forces are only bound by OPSEC before and during a mission, so as to not give
away troop stregnth and positions to the enemy (they read ATS too).
After the operation is complete, assuming there isn't a related follow-on mission, you can tell all the war stories you want. How do you think all
these books come out? If we were completely and indefinitely bound by military secrecy, we wouldn't know that Somalia even happened, or D-Day for
that matter.
For those of us in the force, its easy to spot a poseur. People who have served are just different. Act different, speak different, write different.
We know our own. If someone wants to fake the funk, he will just find himself ignored.
And if any "extremist" wants to invest the time and money to track me down and come to "get me," he can rest assured that I will make his trip an
interesting one. Hopefully his organization can get a refund on the return ticket. Hell, maybe I could get a good book contract out of the deal.
[edit on 11-10-2008 by WhiteOneActual]