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Originally posted by thermopolis
They are routinely made to stand for long periods in uncomfortable positions. They are made to walk for hours while wearing heavy loads on their backs. They are bullied by martinets who get in their faces and yell insults at them. They are hit and often knocked down with clubs known as pugil sticks. They are denied sleep for more than a day at a time. They are forced to inhale tear gas. They are prevented from seeing friends or family. Some are traumatized by this treatment. Others are injured. A few even die."
Originally posted by Shaker
Torture in Boot Camp? Not really... If you want to know how it is through there, just ask someone that's been. That goes for any service. I do admit most of my time in the Air Force boot camp of 99 was boring. The hardest part was pushing myself to do more and more pushups, situps, and lowering my time on the running.
Odd thing is, when you ask people about it, you're informed of the conditions there, yet volunteer to go anyway?
Originally posted by twitchy
There's a real big difference between volunteering for military training and being arrested and tortured by a foreign entity.
Originally posted by snafu7700
Originally posted by twitchy
There's a real big difference between volunteering for military training and being arrested and tortured by a foreign entity.
after volunteering to fight against the american military. how convenient that you leave that part out.
Originally posted by howmuchisthedoggy
it doesn't matter which way you cut it,
TORTURE IS WRONG
Comparing it to Boot Camp? Come on! Do detainees get paid and helped with their college education? Do detainees have a choice in the matter?
Never mind that, do they strip you naked and humiliate you with sexually perverse acts in front of your families or peers?
Comparing being stolen away from your family and native country to a far away secret prison.
Recruits know they can wash out. Detainees don't even know if they will live to see another day, never mind live to see their families and friends again.
Comparing a few weeks of character building and exhausting physical and mental exertion to being kidnapped and tortured by a foreign entity is just plain naive.
Nothing, and I mean nothing justifies torturing and inflicting mental and physical anguish on a fellow human being.
Originally posted by snafu7700
after volunteering to fight against the american military. how convenient that you leave that part out.
Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
When I went through Marine Boot Camp at MCRD, San Diego, in 1967, "torture" was widely employed. Not the kind that one would compare to a enemy prison camp, but the infliction of pain was a common form of punishment. Hanging off a wall locker by one's elbows for extended periods, supporting oneself in one's elbows and toes for extended periods, blows to the head and solar plexus, doing push ups on one's fists on pebbled blacktop for extended periods, lean at rest on concrete for extended periods, doing calisthenics in a cloud of dust so thick that breathing is next to impossible for extended periods, holding a rifle out in front of one's body with elbows locked for extended periods are just a few of the methods employed by Drill Instructors in my day.
Clearly, lethal force was not used, as the goal was for us to survive so we could go overseas to face lethal force. I broke my left fibula during one period of extensive calisthenics and was out of training for about a month. Some recruits have "nervous breakdowns" because of the emotional and psychological stress.
It was a very tough twelve weeks, but having endured all those and more, I wouldn't trade that experience for any other experience in all the world.