A Perception of American Soldiers

A Perception of American Soldiers December 3, 2008

Posted by composmentis in Heroes.
trackback

This is pretty cool.

Comments

1. Michael - December 3, 2008: Aw, man, do I have to like the French now?
2. BrewFan - December 3, 2008: Aw, man, do I have to like the French now?

No. I’m thinking this falls into the ‘even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile’ category. Hate away.
3. skinbad - December 3, 2008: Some good slogan potential in there:

Uncle Sam wants YOU–

to be full of Gatorade and creatine.
4. Mr Minority - December 3, 2008: Take away quote: “Our frames are amusingly skinny to them – we are wimps, even the strongest of us – and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.”

Sorry to disappoint you froggy, but the Afghanies don’t surrender.
5. eddiebear - December 3, 2008: Man, this guy focused on Gatorade a lot in the article. Viral marketing.
6. nicedeb - December 3, 2008: That was very moving. And, no..don’t be hating on the French. We had a French foreign exchange student stay with us, last year. She was a sweetheart…a very shy, reserved, skinny little thing. And an expert crepe maker.
7. Mrs. Peel - December 3, 2008: I read that when the Anchoress linked it, and have been meaning to link it myself. I liked the raising-babies-on-Gatorade bit. Thanks, compos.
8. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: Really ND? I don’t hate the french, just most of the friends

She was a sweetheart…a very shy, reserved, skinny little thing. And an expert crepe maker.

She sounds like a nice kid, so uh, you know, just out of international friendship and curiosity I was just wondering. . . uh. . .
9. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: you know, Whats her situation?
10. Lipstick - December 3, 2008: You crack me up, Pinto.
11. nicedeb - December 3, 2008: You’re a baaaad boy, WP.
12. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: does it make your joints hurt ND? Need some boniva?
13. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: capsaicin?
14. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: aleve?
15. John - December 3, 2008: So should we give up Freedom Fries and switch back to French fries now?

Aw screw it. They’re going to piss us off again soon anyways, so to hell with ’em…
16. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: bengay?
17. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: Nice Deb isn’t responding, is there someone nearby who can put a nitro tablet under her tongue?
18. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: Is her life alert active?
19. nicedeb - December 3, 2008: Don’t make me kick yo ass, boy.
20. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: Thank GOD! ND, thank you for responding!!!

I was worried that you had fallen, and couldn’t get up.
21. Wickedpinto - December 3, 2008: admit it deb, you love it.
22. eddiebear - December 4, 2008: One difference between our forces and the 3rd World militaries is that our NCO ranks are so professional, top notch, expertly trained, and able to lead the junior enlisted.

That, and the fact we are an all volunteer force is a boon as well.
23. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: The actual number of differences are vast, but they can all be summed up in 2 things.

Professional
and
Dedicated.

everything else can be trained, learned or built, but those two things are paramount and always present.
24. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: My buddy, (the o’grady rescue guy) did a field excercise with a bunch of UN troops to “exchange” idea’s and tactics.

His unit, MEU-22 was on a hilltop not far from an albanian unit. The officers went in early to do the politics stuff, and the meu was supposed to treat it as an advance security situation.

In comes the meu in their 46’s and 53’s acting like they are ready for war, securing a perimeter, and theres the support marines coming in after touching ground and digging in, meanwhile the nearest opfor (albanians,) got overran by the security patrols while eating at tables.

They didn’t know what the fuck was going on, and then buddies unit was instructed to withdraw by the UN ref’s.

Funny huh?

less than a battalion conqueres a significant portion of land, digs in for defense, and noone knows what the fuck is going on, and then the ref’s had to make it fair, by resetting the excercise. His unit even had to give up the dugouts the support groups started to make.

I guess his captain was ornery cuz according to terry (the o’grady guy) they would split patrols and send teams out to harass every allied position they could (allied as in people taking part in the excercise) just to embarass the UN NATO and the stupid rules.
25. Cathy - December 4, 2008: Great article. I’m proud of our troops and grateful that I’m an American.

Our trip to the South of France some years back helped me change my impressions of the French. Most we met and associated with were easy-going, non-critical of Americans, and rather simple, humble people. They love food and preparation of it and were passionate about sharing what they had with us. Many are basically poor but live well off the land.

For us, staying out of Paris was the trick, just sayin’.
26. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: Most we met and associated with were easy-going, non-critical of Americans, and rather simple, humble people.

Cathy? ever think it had to do with the french men wanting to hit on you, and their women knowing that it would never happen cuz your husband is about 6′ eleventy, just as this article said?

Did Mike not tower over everyone? Yes he did, just not, cuz you know it’s true. Your husband is a big man even by American standards, and is a goliath in european standards.

OF COURSE the french are nice, when the know that at the first moment they offend the American Balrogs womon, they well be swept aside like the tiny little liliputian flappers that they are.

Walk tall and know who you are. I think you both walk tall, but he walks MUCH MUCH MUCH taller, really, it’s kinda freakish when you are next to eachother, and you both know who you are, though I think most people know who mike is, cuz he’s a BIG FUCKING DUDE!!!

You guys need a great dane, you need a bandit, so that mike can have a dog he doesn’t look at as a large rat.

NEVER forget the power of a large and fit man. Makes kindness so much easier, for others to offer, toss in a pretty girl, and kindness almost seems genuine.
27. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: I’m a relatively large dude, and mike grabbed my shoulders, and didn’t say a damn thing, and what did I say? “yes sir, sorry sir.”

Look at the batman wicked pick.

Mike was pushing down, HARD on my shoulders, HARD! and I was smiling because we were all laughing about how he dominated me, I think dave took that pic.

Your husband is a big man.

In an armed society, like the US, russ is a king, because he has the weapons and we depend on him. In an unarmed society like france, Mike is the king because he is the weapon. A giant who can only be defeated by a david, and since he’s a lutherin, he’s invincible in europe.
28. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: come on!!! That was good stuff!!!
29. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: and true.
30. composmentis - December 4, 2008: Regarding Cathy’s comment, I think it’s because Michael and Cathy are genuinely good people. That quality is easy to recognize.

The fact that they carry around and are willing to share top notch ganja doesn’t hurt.
31. Cathy - December 4, 2008: You guys crack me up.
32. Cathy - December 4, 2008: Today is special. Oldest kid’s 25th birthday. Quarter of a century!

… AND my 25th anniversary of being a MOM!
33. composmentis - December 4, 2008: Feliz cumpleaños!
34. Cathy - December 4, 2008: Mustachios Craziass!
35. eddiebear - December 4, 2008: Congratulations
36. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: Happy birthday not quite as big as mike baby mike.!!!
37. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: I assume all baby mikathy’s are shorter than mike and taller than cathy, cuz it’s almost impossible for a mating of Galactus, and a tachyon, to not be exactly in the middle.

IIf they were bigger galactus might accidentaly eat them.
38. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: though I believe that the tachyon would GREATLY disapprove of Gallactus eating their young.

Thats probably a nono.
39. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: They are QUANONS!!!
40. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: (a star trek mockery)

The Quanons are warping spacetime, and we will all be dead in 2012!!!

ROCK AND ROLL!!!!

GO CALVANIST!! THATS HOW IT WORKS IN THE END OF DAYS!!!
41. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: why do I go to the calvanist joke? maybe cuz I feel bad about the mormon jokes?
42. eddiebear - December 4, 2008: WP:

dude, I luvs ya, but you need to get some rest
43. Wickedpinto - December 4, 2008: I know eddie, I’m watching puppycam and looking at john cox’s art.

They soothe me.
44. eddiebear - December 4, 2008: No problem.

Good luck, man.
45. Lipstick - December 4, 2008: I love the puppycam!
46. John - December 4, 2008: Puppycam?

(congrats, Cathy!)
47. Dave in Texas - December 4, 2008: Happy birthday to the lad.
48. Mrs. Peel - December 4, 2008: Ok, I’ve GOT my vector of coefficients. Now what do I do with it??
49. Mrs. Peel - December 4, 2008: I figured it out. yay. Now I just have to double-check everything, clean up all my code and make it super-pretty, and maybe try to figure out why semilogy goes nuts on the magnitude of the frequency response of the Parks-McClellan filter. I have a workaround, but it technically doesn’t satisfy the prof’s requirements. And this isn’t due until the 16th, so I have plenty of time.

Happy quadrancentennial, (Michael & Cathy)-spawn. I had mine last year. Kinda weird, isn’t it?
50. Michael - December 4, 2008: John:

Puppycam
51. Michael - December 5, 2008: why semilogy goes nuts on the magnitude of the frequency response of the Parks-McClellan filter

That recipe needs bacon.
52. Michael - December 5, 2008: Or, Francis Bacon.
53. eddiebear - December 5, 2008: mmmmmmmmm………………….baccon!
54. Michael - December 5, 2008: mmmmmmmmmmmmmm…………………………inductive reason!
55. Michael - December 5, 2008: Deductive reason: discern the truth to discover facts.

E.g., Religion, math, logic, law.

Inductive reason: discern the facts to discover truth.

E.g., the scientific method.
56. eddiebear - December 5, 2008: Ugh. New WordPress Dashboard
57. Michael - December 5, 2008: It is commonly held that any rational argument can be expressed both inductively and deductively.

I don’t think so.

The ongoing creation/evolution debate on the web is an example.

The first issue is the source of truth.

After that, the rest is pretty much predictable blather.

You can earn a lot of cred at atheist/evolutionist sites if you get this right.
58. BrewFan - December 5, 2008: mathematicians laugh at evolutionists. The evolutionists response? They wave the magic wand of Time and they’re back in the ball game. Life started on another planet, God knows how many years ago!