(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Remember the video of the pair of US Marines throwing a puppy off a cliff? How it looked somewhat fake, and people were thinking it was just horrible propaganda?

It wasn't. And the soldiers involved have been "disciplined".

Comments

[bambamkam.livejournal.com]

you know, that's how serial killers start. killing and hurting little helpless baby animals.

i hope there is a special place in hell for people that throw puppies off cliffs.

bastards.

[unknownpoltroon.livejournal.com]

there is. they have to lick up the puppy remains

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Maybe they're getting better, then. I knew a couple guys in the Army who joined, as one put it, "so I could kill people without gettin' in trouble". Going from people down to puppies has to be a good step, right?

Off Topic

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has created steampunk pistols and I thought you might enjoy taking a look at the pictures. I think they're pretty cool, though I wish there was more detail in the photos.

[faolan-phe0nix.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. Stars. I can't even express how sick this makes my heart.

[elffin.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

Tell me again how military service shapes character and makes one a model citizen.

[hollowpoint.livejournal.com]

Robert Heinlein clicks his heels together three times and makes a wish?

[zastrazzi.livejournal.com]

Hey, I turned out ok.

Course, that was the Canadian military :)

[neobitch.livejournal.com]

These weren't quite fully-shaped characters yet, see. A proper model citizen wouldn't have filmed this happening.

Or something. :P

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think I'm doing ok, but I actually listened to the part about core values and things like that....

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I think that proves you were okay *before* you served, not that serving made you okay.

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

I was going to say something about pre-existing antisocial conditions, but I thought that was a given with Marines.

Military Service can be the right choice for the right type.

[raie.livejournal.com]

Before this current administration it wasn't so easy for people of this caliber to get into a branch of Military. Yes, it still happened, but not as much. And yes, often, the very nature of the military scenario might push those subconscious buttons in even the most sedate and calm individual. Some people, however, do improve by service in the military. We cannot ignore that MANY countries have MANDATORY inclusion into the Military for a number of years, which means they are not filtering out the crazies like the US once did. (I don't know if this kind of rubbish happens in those places.)

But lets take a deeper look into how things like this happen:
Step One: (Cut a hole in a box) Drop the standards on who does and does not apply for service. (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/11/MNG03JT3ER1.DTL)
Step Two: Send soldiers into a violent, bloody guerrilla-like warfare with a country for no particular reason or purpose. (http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/04/0510war.html) bonus points if you insure that they are Poorly/under supplied (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nationworld/stories/082807dnintmilitary.37f74fd.html) with Shitty Equipment (like poorly armored Humvees)
Step Three: Keep them away from there homes and families in a stressed out combat environment for an over-extended period of time. (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/11/military.stay/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)

Odds are, they'll "flip out" and kill innocent civilians, intentionally blow up religious gatherings, and throw puppies off cliffs. But hey, collateral damage amirite? They're just doing it for the Lulz.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

Maybe the military could start applying these standards to war crimes as well.

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

no. Just puppies. Not brown people.

Brown people aren't people like puppies are people.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

Getting kicked out is actually kind of a big deal.


In other news:
http://pics.livejournal.com/forte_i_piano/pic/000zp7ya

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Only because the US is so desperate for troops that it let those guys in in the first place.

Any person who *wasn't* above the law in the USA would have gotten 90 days in jail and $1000 fine. Being discharged instead of sent to Iraq? That's not a slap on the wrist, that's a REWARD.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

1.He just got back from Iraq so he probably isn't due for more than a year...which he probably doesn't have left on his contract.
2.He VOLUNTEERED for this war. There is not a single person currently in uniform(outside of myself and my fellow involuntary recalls) that didn't either enlist or re-enlist POST Iraq invasion.
3.He was fined $2000 dollars and given 45 days restriction and 45 days punitive duty(ie the maximum penalty under NJP).

And lets not even get started on the bad juju that a BCD(bad conduct discharge) does to employment prospects down the road.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

2.He VOLUNTEERED for this war. There is not a single person currently in uniform(outside of myself and my fellow involuntary recalls) that didn't either enlist or re-enlist POST Iraq invasion.

Not always. As my unit was leaving Iraq, the retention dickheads put signs up everywhere saying that if you were coming up on PCS or ETS and didn't reenlist to stay in the unit, you'd be sent somewhere that would deploying within six months and stoplossed. This is a big deal for guys who have families; they can't take the risk of either getting deployed again and killed, or maybe being able to get out, maybe finding somewhere to live on the outside, maybe finding a civilian job that uses their kick-down-doors skills and pays as much as the military with the COLA and free (though shitty) housing right off the bat. It's not always as easy as "they CHOSE this!"

The kicker was that all these poor saps reenlisted for our unit, but four months after we got back the entire battalion was deactivated, with everyone being sent their different ways anyway. Fuck the Army, like the Army fucked me - and them.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

The fear mongering, lies and overall cockbiting tendencies of the average retention specialist are a known quantity. Hell, the Pentagon supports their strategies(as evidenced by it's recent fight to kill the new GI Bill).

But whether it was a smart choice, the right choice or a choice made out of fear...they still chose to be here.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

And the guy whose wife and kids were kidnapped so he would plant that bomb... or the mom who was laid off in Flint and had to do tricks to feed her kids... yeah, all choices. Choices under duress, sure, but choices nonetheless.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

Exactly.