On 60 Minutes tonight...

[SHRED]

...a boy was shot, accidentally, through the chest by a Green Beret.

Everyone should see it.

The Quiet Professionals
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6160161n&tag=contentMain

What the FUCK are we doing there?

Training who?

Isn't our training there a bit like training the San Diego Life Guards to take on the San Diego County Sheriffs Department and the SD Police?

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[EmeraldCityGrl]

1. When asked what his prior job was...

the green Beret said he was a car parker. Impressive.

[SHRED]

2. From parking cars to...

...that.

Holy shit.


---

[BeFree]

3. Hey!!

It might have been an accident!!

Sure, the bullet leaving the gun was intentional, but hitting the boy right in the chest and his lung being punctured, might have been an accident.
_____________________/sarcasm

We need to get the hell out of there. Staying there is an accident waiting to happen.

[SHRED]

4. If we were them...

...and had a foreign country here, in our cities and towns, what would we do?


---

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Shoot at them.

I rememeber as a kid being turned around on Vietnam by hearing the journalist Pete Hamill explain why VN was a losing proposition for the US.

To paraphrase: if you are the Viet Cong , you walk up to 15 year old kid, offer him a rifle and say, "let's get these foreigners out of our country". It is not a hard sell.

We *never* learn.

[KeepItReal]

16. They made a movie about that: Red Dawn

I watched it last night for the Nth time.

[Fumesucker]

5. I don't blame the grunts on the ground for the fuckups..

It is entirely the fault of the policymakers who put the troops in harms way somewhere they shouldn't be in the first place.

Does *anyone* recall the Powell Doctrine? It certainly seems that the Powers That Be and the M$M don't.

The Powell Doctrine states that a list of questions all have to be answered affirmatively before military action is taken by the United States:
Is a vital national security interest threatened?
Do we have a clear attainable objective?
Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
Is the action supported by the American people?
Do we have genuine broad international support?

[SHRED]

6. Since it is a voluntary force...

...then I waiver about what you are saying as related to Afghanistan and especially the Special Forces.

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[Fumesucker]

9. Statistically there are always going to be some who join the military..

Where the military goes and what they do are under the control of the policy makers, there are always going to be soldiers if one person doesn't become one another one will.

[SHRED]

10. I know but...

...my concern is with those soldiers who enjoy this.


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[Fumesucker]

12. Again it's a matter of statistics..

Some do enjoy it, most don't. In fact so many don't enjoy it so much that it ends up driving them mad to a greater or lesser extent.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

11. The voluntary force is a front for privatization.

There are currently more contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan than there are troops.
In five years, the wars will be fought by contractors on bonus systems. If anything the
troops are pool to train and eventually hire from...at taxpayers expense of course.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. AMEN!

Its so easy to blame the boots on the ground.

The issue rests with the fucking bootmakers.

[applegrove]

13. You see the Green Beret fire two warning shot on the ground. You aren't prepared

to find the shots bounced off the ground and hit two kids. Both kids lived though.

[northofdenali]

14. My. God. Goddess. Higher Power. Occupant.

We love our guns up here. We use them to eat, to maintain our areas (wolves, bears) but mostly to eat.

What a disgusting mess this whole GWB-incited/Cheney-owned/Bush Senior-devised/money-money-power-power MESS.

[LatteLibertine]

15. I get what you mean

about some folks who "enjoy" it. You do have bullies like this among the police as well.

I have zero problems with firearms. I do have a problem with hard-hearted thugs who take them up to kill on behalf of the most wealthy on some profiteering expedition.

It's actually good duty for a sociopath who doesn't give a damn.