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Invictus
December 11, 2009 | Posted by Abu Muqawama - 1:24pm | 29 Comments
A movie by that name opens today. But Spec. Brandon Marrocco, I believe, truly embodies the word. This guy is incredible.
Respect....
Respect....
You, Andrew, embody this
You, Andrew, embody this word. Or better... COINvict Us.
Carrying on through that
Carrying on through that would take more courage than I have.
How dare you, Exum!!! How
How dare you, Exum!!! How dare you push for this worthless escapade in a land which will never appreciate our sacrifice and a people so backwards they'll sodomize you, then drink 3 cups of tea just to show courtesy. How dare you make fun of the very people you're advocating to perform Pop-centric COIN for a worthless cause. Save our children's limbs and send them home, don't make heroes out of them because you sent them and they came back without limbs!!!
thanks for passing this
thanks for passing this along.... far too often those of us who have never served don't understand the conviction and service of those who do.
God Bless that kid. And I'm
God Bless that kid. And I'm glad we've put the money into advanced prosthetics the last few years. Really.
O/T but hopefully on a lighter note...
Sanctions on Iran..
".. the administration should take care to keep its eye on the goal as it turns to the pressure route, participants in a recent Harvard Iran simulation caution. As the simulation played out, Washington focused so aggressively on the effort to get a new round of international sanctions, while Congress pushed for unilateral sanctions that would target foreign countries' companies doing business in Iran, that it drove two Security Council members to make side deals with Iran, and the international alliance quickly unravelled... (money line next)..Just fyi -- Stephen Walt played Secretary Gates in that war game, and coincidentally, the U.S. almost ended up in a war against Israel rather than joining Israel in a strike against Iran. "
Just by coincidence, Walt takes USA to simulated war with Israel over Iran's nukes being sanctioned. ROLF.
What's not so funny is people are predicting that sanctions against Israel will be the actual response to Iran getting nukes, and in this world (and in the UN world) I think they are right.
Burn in fucking hell George
Burn in fucking hell George W. Bush, burn in hell.
Everybody that takes the job
Everybody that takes the job knows how it can turn out. Marrocco was not drafted into service.
We can sit at home and damn people, or we can choose to go find out what it is about.
Marrocco is miles ahead of us all, he embodies the American Spirit.
We can all learn to be better people from his sacrifice and example.
For every sunset there is a sunrise
Young men like Brendan take
Young men like Brendan take my breath away.
He is... Wow. No words.
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.co
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/afghandyland-where-you-cant-wi...
Yeah, Zak, we can sit at
Yeah, Zak, we can sit at home and damn people, or we can sit at home and mouth meaningless jingoistic bullshit. Why don't you go fight the next one, tough guy.
God Bless you kid, I hope
God Bless you kid, I hope you get the best science can offer.
Keep plugging Kid.
Keep plugging Kid.
======================
Uh...Rich...lighten up for the Holidays?
======================
Anyone else check out Luttwak's "The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire"? Lotta lessons. We are much closer to Byzantium then either Greece or Rome by nature, situation, and I think you could say policy as it seems to play out.
Also some good lessons for the trade, the Byzantine Army took at more than a year to train it's Cataphractia (all around Cavalry Soldiers), with a huge emphasis on Basic Training - that's what took a year. I think we'd be well advised to start front loading a lot of what is taught still at units or MOBE centers back towards Basic and Advanced Individual Training, so that it doesn't need to be taught at the unit level. Luttwak's point being that if the unit needs to go back and teach or hone these skills it holds up tactical unit training. True.
Personally, having passed
Personally, having passed through a few Army schools, I would advise giving as little responsibility to TRADOC as possible. Possibly the branch and (I hear) infantry schools are better. But the ones I went through were a haven for shipwrecked NCOs who didn't screw up quite badly enough for an Article 15.
Rich S. , I was in the
Rich S. , I was in the hospital for two weeks for burns to my face and hands. They kept me on pain killers most of the time there. Parts of me did not look attached anymore. Looked like a cartoon character, hair burned short in the front and longer in the back. No eyelashes or eyebrows, just a blackened face. I was lucky.
Met a person that had the same experience. Gasoline had poured into his calf-high leather boots. For all his attempts to put out the flames he could not do it. He held up his thumb and index finger and joined them and said, "Afterwards my calf was that that big around". He ended up getting many skin grafts.
It does not take a war to understand scars. Some of us have scars and were never physically injured.
Listening to Marrocco, he sounds more whole then most of us. There is a lesson in everything if we look for it.
Rich S., I respect your feelings. I disagree with the war too, we just fight our demons in different ways.
Zak, I apologize. It was
Zak, I apologize. It was wrong for me to have written that previous post. I hope you can accept that.
What I would really like to say is that, although civilians can never match the heroism, and patriotism of our volunteer soldiers, we could have at least lived up to our obligation as citizens to make sure their sacrifice is not exploited unecessarily. Allowing Bush to send our best citizens into war for less than clear reasons of absolute necessity is a source of shame and guilt that we all have to carry. Allowing the same tiny portion of our country to directly carry the load of this war alone by sending them back for multiple combat tours while their childen, and marriages suffer, and their physical, mental, and financial health deteriorate.
We let them down, and this realization is inescapable every time I see our wounded. Their continued courage and good attitudes in the face of their crippling injuries only adds to our shame and guilt. All this makes it difficult to "lighten up for the Holidays".
In the old days, they'd
In the old days, they'd probably have deemed this guy too far gone and let him pass away. But credit the latest technology, now the guy can still play the game of life, albeit on heavily modified terms.
That said, I'm not inspired by this. All it does for me is hate this war all that much more.
On American Muslims
On American Muslims condemning Takfiri/Jihadi violence...I can't say enough about this thread from Al Sawah...
Amiriki Iman's Condemn Hasan on Islamic Grounds
OK. For all those wondering where's the condemnation...HERE IT IS...!! Along with the silent no longer kinda sorta acknowledgment.
=======Back on Thread======
War is part of the Human condition. Denying it or blindly condemning even those who fight purely defensive wars (there is nothing in Astan we need/want, to include NG pipelines...you kidding we have a thousand year supply in Marcellus field in USA)...and who fight them with great restraint...or condemning the elected leaders (over 3 elections and two Presidents, if you don't count Carter, Reagan and Bush I who involved us in Astan) will change that brutal fact.
You aren't anti-war. You're anti reality.
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@ Visitor 852 - well I'm all with ya on TRADOC. It needs to go away, or at least most of them not sporting Drill SGT's This we'll Defend or hard earned rest from war, heal up time do...BUT there has been some really good training and passing of experience coming out of this...some of it from 1st Army and then there's the social networking and the entire CALL concept. The 1st Army vets training us, the CALL types, some of the MOBE center training and the contractors bought it was really great training. And keep and expand CTC training concept and staff. I might humbly recommend a unit deploying do CTC in two parts, one at the beginning of MOBE and one 75% thru, the second one being the pass/fail grade.
Scrap the Cold War stuff.
In other words...out with the old - and I gotta mention the REFORGER era FORSCOM syllabus we suffered under - yuck.
And fuck NBC too. Bye. Call us when someone uses it, it's been 89 years.
God bless that kid. Both
God bless that kid.
Both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.
Just...respect.
Ranger done good.
Ranger done good.
Ranger done good.
Ranger done good.
Hi Abu M Off topic but
Hi Abu M
Off topic but thought you and the readership may be interested in this:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/1211/Should-anthropologi...
Its on the HST thing, a topic you;ve mentioned before, albeit what seems like a long time ago.
Good Brit rehab war
Good Brit rehab war invictus..
"When Rfn Shaw went clubbing in Milton Keynes for the first time after leaving Selly Oak, the bouncer on the door let him jump the queue. “I still go out clubbing every time I go home. Going clubbing in a wheelchair with no legs is great. You never have to wait. So getting blown up has its advantages,” he said."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6954027.ece
I can't believe they had their Sappers looking for mines after Dark without NVG's. As one of the comments pointed out, that's just a few less mansion repairs for MP's.
Or maybe somebody has less GIRO for the Offie's?
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http://sompost.com/
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THanks you
Warmest hug
sompost
My hat is off to a man such
My hat is off to a man such as this who can be bloodied that badly but remain unbowed -- upbeat, in fact.
But I have to say, videos such as these really are The. Worst. Recruiting. Materials. Ever. I was about 2/3s of the way to joining the Marines in 2003, but two things kept me out. 1) It was becoming increasingly clear i would have a higher probability be fighting in a war I didn't believe in rather than the one that I did, and 2) a feeling deep down in my stomach that i would end up like Spec. Marrocco. (Maybe there was a number 3) i began to read about the realities of PTSD.)
People probably should see videos like this before signing up, but if more did I feel like it could be a real problem for recruiting. On the other hand if the economy stays like this much longer...
Invictus.. Corking :)
Invictus.. Corking :)
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