We've been at war most of my adult life

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Hoober

Diamond Member
Feb 9, 2001
4,372
28
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I remember waking on the morning of Sept. 11 and seeing an abbreviated CNN page when I went to check the news -- America is under attack.

As a country, we've spent hundreds of billions on the longest war in our history. It's a war which continues.

I took my youngest son to swim practice tonight -- he's eleven. And as I watched his team swim laps in the pool, I couldn't help buy ask myself what the fuck is going on? What are we doing as a country? What are we doing as fathers and mothers? What are we doing for future generations?

At least our forefathers had a vision.
 
bbhaag

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,860
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I like to blame the greatest generation. Why? Because they gave us the boomers and what do boomers like to do? They like to spend spend spend. Who runs this country now? Boomers.
 
GagHalfrunt

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
25,284
1,996
126
Get used to it, we're always going to be at war for the rest of your adult life too. They're fighting to destroy us and until/unless we manage to destroy them it's not going to stop. It's not like they're going to change their minds and leave us alone. Either we win or they win and we're not committed to winning, so it's not going to happen.
 
H

Hoober

Diamond Member
Feb 9, 2001
4,372
28
91
GagHalfrunt said:
Get used to it, we're always going to be at war for the rest of your adult life too. They're fighting to destroy us and until/unless we manage to destroy them it's not going to stop. It's not like they're going to change their minds and leave us alone. Either we win or they win and we're not committed to winning, so it's not going to happen.
Click to expand...

I'd rather not get used to it. Kinda sounds like what's fundamentally wrong.

That and the fact it's different world.
 
J

jpiniero

Lifer
Oct 1, 2010
15,069
5,639
136
The US if you think about it has been at war for the most part since it's inception. Varying degrees of course. Probably not going to change.
 
MarkXIX

MarkXIX

Platinum Member
Jan 3, 2010
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We have stopped making radical viewpoints unpalatable through broad, violent action and instead choose to exercise morality against immoral enemies.
 
Blanky

Blanky

Platinum Member
Oct 18, 2014
2,457
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46
GagHalfrunt said:
Get used to it, we're always going to be at war for the rest of your adult life too. They're fighting to destroy us and until/unless we manage to destroy them it's not going to stop. It's not like they're going to change their minds and leave us alone. Either we win or they win and we're not committed to winning, so it's not going to happen.
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Untrue. Leave middle east, done.
 
sportage

sportage

Lifer
Feb 1, 2008
11,492
3,160
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Like I said in another thread, think of it as a home security system.
You never get to the point where you say "well I'm safe now, the security system can go".
Terrorism is only going to get worse, more threatening, more technology savvy, and better funded.
If we hope to maintain our way of life, our very existence, we will always need war of some sorts against terrorism and most likely coming from the middle east.
Drones, bombs, CIA black ops, and from time to time boots on the ground.

That lastly option, boots on the ground, we should avoid as much and as long as possible.
Yet there are many republican candidates, luckily not catching on with the voters, that believe boots on the ground should be the first course of action.

Any future president needs to be extremely smart and wise with keeping is safe while sparing our most valuable resources. American lives.
We don't need another Bush nor war hawk to further screw things up.
And yes, this idea war will or can ever again be some temporary action is nonsense.
War is here to stay. Just like your home security system.
 
Ruptga

Ruptga

Lifer
Aug 3, 2006
10,246
207
106
GagHalfrunt said:
Blanky said:
Untrue. Leave middle east, done.
Click to expand...

What color is the sky in your fantasy world?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Islamist_terrorist_attacks
Click to expand...

It's obviously not as simple as he made it out to be, but if we didn't make it our business to meddle in as many of their regional conflicts as possible then Russia would, and a lot of terrorist aggro would shift to them. They had a blast in Afghanistan, why not let them have at it again, and again?

Of course I'm only half serious, but I think most of us would agree that half measures and counterbalancing one despot with another isn't working awesomely. We have two basic groups of options that boil down to either disengaging until they kill themselves or get their shit together, or going full cowboy and committing genocide until there's no one left to stir shit up. Nobody likes genocide, it's not going to happen, so what's left?
 
balloonshark

balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
6,525
2,968
136
Hoober said:
I remember waking on the morning of Sept. 11 and seeing an abbreviated CNN page when I went to check the news -- America is under attack.

As a country, we've spent hundreds of billions on the longest war in our history. It's a war which continues.

I took my youngest son to swim practice tonight -- he's eleven. And as I watched his team swim laps in the pool, I couldn't help buy ask myself what the fuck is going on? What are we doing as a country? What are we doing as fathers and mothers? What are we doing for future generations?

At least our forefathers had a vision.
Click to expand...
As long as we have finite resources and we keep over populating the planet we will be in a constant state of war. Some of that money you spent on the gas to go to practice funded a person that hates us. War is also very profitable for some very influential people and they do what they can to keep it going.

Once the oil is gone we will be fighting over fresh water. It's a vicious cycle that I'm afraid will keep repeating itself.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,306
12,547
126
www.anyf.ca
The thing is with all the military technology these days, not to mention all the mass surveillance, ISIS could be eliminated in about a day, after a couple months of planing. But we choose to keep the war going because money...and oil, which translates back to money. Wars stimulate the economy.

It's a joke that these redactedare still around.






You never appeared to be one to post racist posts.

Plus, you actually went to defeat the censor by posting what you did in place of the n-word.

I am very disappointed and unhappy that you would think that this actually is OK to post here.




esquared
Anandtech Forum Director
 
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luv2liv

luv2liv

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
3,498
94
91
war will never end because there is way too much money to be made. so if it's not iraq, it will be afghan, nigeria, somalia, maybe china one day.
 
U

unokitty

Diamond Member
Jan 5, 2012
3,346
1
0
26976c8968e5560f66e3e3d6a19270f5.jpg

Who will fight the next war?
Failures in Iraq and Afghanistan have widened the gulf between most Americans and the armed forces
“I find it remarkable,” says the commander of army recruiting, Major-General Jeffrey Snow. “That we have been in two protracted land campaigns and we have an American public that thinks very highly of the military, yet the vast majority has lost touch with it. Less than 1% of Americans are willing and able to serve.”

... military experience has been steadily fading from American life. In 1990, 40% of young Americans had at least one parent who had served in the forces; by 2014, only 16% had, and the measure continues to fall. Among American leaders, the decline is similarly pronounced. In 1981, 64% of congressmen were veterans; now around 18% are...

This leaves the army, the least-favoured of the four services, having either to drop its standards or entice those not minded to serve with generous perks. After it failed to meet its recruiting target in 2005, a time of high employment and bad news from Baghdad, it employed both strategies zealously. To sustain what was, by historical standards, only a modest surge in Iraq, around 2% of army recruits were accepted despite having failed to meet academic and other criteria; “We accepted a risk on quality,” grimaces General Snow, an Iraq veteran. Meanwhile the cost of the army’s signing-on bonuses ballooned unsustainably, to $860m in 2008 alone...
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Given the present lack of political leadership, it doesn't seem unreasonable to ask, "Who will fight the next war?"

Given the current lack of political leadership, I'll guarantee that it won't be me. Nor, will it be anyone from my immediate family.

Just the opinion of one old dog soldier that is tired of politicians that think that its fine to send people like me, and my family, to war, while they, and their families, never miss a golf date or their next gourmet meal...

Uno
Sentry Dog Handler
US Army 69-71
 
GagHalfrunt

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
25,284
1,996
126
Ruptga said:
It's obviously not as simple as he made it out to be, but if we didn't make it our business to meddle in as many of their regional conflicts as possible then Russia would, and a lot of terrorist aggro would shift to them. They had a blast in Afghanistan, why not let them have at it again, and again?

Of course I'm only half serious, but I think most of us would agree that half measures and counterbalancing one despot with another isn't working awesomely. We have two basic groups of options that boil down to either disengaging until they kill themselves or get their shit together, or going full cowboy and committing genocide until there's no one left to stir shit up. Nobody likes genocide, it's not going to happen, so what's left?
Click to expand...

France doesn't really meddle in the middle-east like we do, how did it work out for them last night?

We're long long long past the point of simply pulling out and hoping that they'll find somebody new to fight. You don't think that we can wage war against terrorism without wiping out every follower of Islam? There are a whole host of measures between going home and resorting to full-blown genocide
 
glenn1

glenn1

Lifer
Sep 6, 2000
25,383
1,013
126
Red Squirrel said:
The thing is with all the military technology these days, not to mention all the mass surveillance, ISIS could be eliminated in about a day, after a couple months of planing. But we choose to keep the war going because money...and oil, which translates back to money. Wars stimulate the economy.

It's a joke that these redactedare still around.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure ethnic slurs are still unacceptable here.
 
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TwiceOver

TwiceOver

Lifer
Dec 20, 2002
13,544
44
91
It sounds like I'm older than you and we've been at one war or another my entire life. So...
 
1sikbITCH

1sikbITCH

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2001
4,194
574
126
Hoober said:
I remember waking on the morning of Sept. 11 and seeing an abbreviated CNN page when I went to check the news -- America is under attack.

As a country, we've spent hundreds of billions on the longest war in our history. It's a war which continues.

I took my youngest son to swim practice tonight -- he's eleven. And as I watched his team swim laps in the pool, I couldn't help buy ask myself what the fuck is going on? What are we doing as a country? What are we doing as fathers and mothers? What are we doing for future generations?

At least our forefathers had a vision.
Click to expand...

Our forefathers had visions because they hadn't started the War on Drugs yet (The longest running war in America's history - a war on it's own people).

Since you only mentioned money, the Cold War cost way more than this and lasted from the 50's to the 80s right after WWII. Vietnam, Korea, Panama, Nicaragua, Somalia, even Grenada. We're scrappy and yes we've been fighting whoever we could find since I've been alive too.

And we're not doing anything different now than we were doing then, except that the internet is allowing us to complain louder now.

Also - when 9/11 happened, we'd already been pissing those people off for decades. We just didn't notice but they did.
 
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