Soldiers...

[crestofwaves]

A MUST see: Frontline:Tim Hetherington, a film on HBO by Sebastain Junger about his co director on the great Restreppo about soldiers in Afghanistan. Hetherington died from mortar fire in Lbya in 2011. This film is a tribute to him and his photojournalism on the front lines. The most powerful line in the movie about soldiers: Soldiers are the only group of men in the world who are free to love each other unconditionally. A segment that just showed young soldiers asleep in their frontline cots--unbelievably sad and very upsetting. They're babies.

God Bless them all. 

I hate American politics that send these young men to die.

[Karin M Fichtner]

I know, crestofwaves......but young men have marched off to war since before the Roman Empire.  It's not an American thing.....it's a human thing.  Mankind has never, nor will it ever learn to get along with each other.  Greed, money, lust for power......has been the downfall of man since time immemorial.  Remember the old folk song from Peter, Paul and Mary? 

"Where have all the young men gone.....long time passing.

Where have all the young men gone.....long time ago. 

Where have all the young men gone.....gone for soldiers, every one.

When will they ever learn? 

When will they ever learn?"

Just down the road from me....on a quiet little hill.....on two days in 1862.....1892 men died.....13, 716 were wounded.....and 2422 were captured or missing.  Every one someone's son, husband, brother, sweetheart, father.  War is a fact of life.  They've been fighting wars around the world forever.  And as long as man is the imperfect creature he is.....wars will never cease. 

[crestofwaves]

True.

I read an article about ants as I waited in the doctor's office once. One type send their old females to war because they know they will fight fiercely since they don't have a long life ahead of them.  It seems ass backwards, doesn't it, that we send our healthy young out to die?  Who knows what they would have contributed in their lives.

[ProblemAgain]

Rush to repair WWI cemeteries as centenary nears

By DON MELVIN | Associated Press

ZONNEBEKE, Belgium (AP) — The Tyne Cot cemetery sweeps gently down the slope, the nearly 12,000 headstones aligned in solemn rows of gleaming white. Beyond the walls stretch Flanders Fields, dotted by red farmhouse roofs. For the stage of some of World War I's worst carnage, the scene is tranquility itself — but over the whisper of wind floats a whine like a dentist's drill.

A closer look gives the reason for the jarring sound.

Some gravestones are chipped or cracked. A century of wind and weather has worn the surfaces so the names are hard to read. The stones are no longer perfectly aligned.

So workers are using diamond drill bits to painstakingly re-engrave stones and make the names more legible, the regimental shields more distinct. It's part of a grand effort to get the cemeteries of the British Commonwealth — and Tyne Cot is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world — into perfect condition for the crowds expected to visit during World War I centenary commemorations that will take place between 2014 and 2018.

Nearly 100 years ago, these fields were steeped in blood and mud. Burnt trees stood like spent matches against the sky. Horses mired in muck to their haunches strained to haul wagons or guns. Men and boys in trenches watched their feet rot and their friends die.

And the stone wall at the top of the cemetery has inscribed on its panels the names of 35,000 British servicemen declared missing after Aug. 15, 1917. The names of nearly 55,000 who went missing before that date are inscribed on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, in Ypres, which turned out not to be large enough to display all the names of the missing, as had first been planned.

World War I broke out July 28, 1914. The guns finally fell silent more than four years later, on Nov. 11, 1918. Ten million people are estimated to have died. Europe can expect a series of commemorations of various events and battles between 2014 and 2018.

The Tyne Cot cemetery lies near Ypres, an ancient city in northwest Belgium that held a strategic position during World War I, standing in the way of Germany's planned sweep into France from the north.

All these things have an impact on visitors. Those who work at the Tyne Cot cemetery say that for many people a visit is an emotional experience. What had seemed distant and remote suddenly becomes tangible and immediate.

On a recent Monday, an elderly Scottish man, traveling with his wife, finally found the name of his missing uncle. It was not at Menin Gate, where he had looked in years past, but on the wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery. Later in the day, at Menin Gate, he was still in tears.

"Such a waste," he said. "It's not just the sheer number. It's the numbers who died in a single day — 40,000, 50,000, 60,000."

http://news.yahoo.com/rush-repair-wwi-cemeteries-centenary-nears-08...

[ProblemAgain]

 imagine the absolute waste of human lives....an example....the date and time of the armistice was agreed upon. the fact that any gained or lost ground would not matter because the lines of territory held were already agreed to...yet up to and including the morning of the armistice, generals were sending their troops out of the trenches to attack the enemy to take territory that would be turned right back to the other side at stroke of the bell for the time of the implementation of the armistice. some estimates have been as high as 10,000 absolutely unnecessary casualties caused by nothing other than sheer stupidity in mounting and pursuing pointless attacks..

[Shadowman]

But we do technically have a volunteer military, albeit much of the volunteering is driven by economics. And recruiters are fortunate in that their prospects have often been enculturated by video games and movies, and the Army used to have free shoot'em up games on their website to draw in prospects. And when the volunteer recruiting fails we hire mercenaries at a starting salary of $50,000 each. Also recruits are driven by societal pressures involving concepts like honor, patriotism, valor, and of course being able to do things that would be otherwise against the law. So one could ask, are they sent or do they go on their own for a variety of reasons, real and imagined? 

[crestofwaves]

The way these two photjournalists described the soldier mentality was this.  Get a bunch of young men, make them bond, make them love each other, and whether or not they agree with the premise of the war, they will fight to the death for their brethren.

 

Rose, I agree, it takes a certain mindset to be a soldier and a fireman. 

America has been at war all but 18 years in entire history.  Not sure about the number, but I am close.

[Lifesighs]

I understand how the young men do this, they are brave and want to show what they're made of, get the job done. My hope and wish is that we don't send them into battle for the purpose of some old man's greed. Let there be a real issue at stake like someone trying to take over the country or of trying to purge a race as in WWII.

[Karin M Fichtner]

My son joined for three reasons: first, it was a family tradition; his great great grandfather (maybe 3 greats) was a captain in the Union Army during the Civil War.  His grandfather fought in WW2....and his dad served 8 years in the Navy.  Second, he wanted a college education, and knew that, if he played his cards right, he'd get one.  And last, but certainly not least, it was because he wanted to be part of something that had meaning.  He didn't want to do what his friends did.  They married early, settled in Joliet, and had lots of babies and bills.  He wanted better than that.  He worked hard and earned that college degree.  He reached the rank of Major before he retired, after 21 years of service.  He loved what he did.  He went places and saw things he never would have.  He fought in Iraq.  His ex wife fought in Iraq.  He has been trained in Electronic Warfare and has done work for the Corps, and now for the Government, as a result of the training he received during his 21 years.  He is not a blood-thirsty, redneck macho guy who just loves to play with guns.  He really thought he was doing a service to his country.  Now.....he's disillusioned.  He's not sure he still believes in the country he fought to protect.  He feels his government.....even the people.....are turning against the military.  It is fashionable nowadays to look down on them.  To complain about how much they cost to train and maintain.  Complaining about the cost of taking care of the disabled who come home.  It is becoming very difficult for returning soldiers, airmen and Marines to find jobs.  Many are suffering from PTSD; more commit suicide every year than die in the war.  My grandson-in-law is an Army medic, stationed in So. Korea.  They are on alert, and my granddaughter is terrified that fat kid from North Korea will do something stupid.  He isn't there to prove some point.  He's not there because he likes to shoot things.  He is there because, since he's younger than my son, he still believes in this country and is willing to serve it to the best of his ability.  His job isn't to worry about politics.  His job is to do the job they give him.  The President is his Commander-in-Chief.  He holds our boys' lives in his hands.  Those boys in Afghanistan were supposed to come home 2 years ago.  They're still there.  My friend's son has been deployed to Afghanistan 3 times, and Iraq 4 times!  How much more should he have to give?  It's already cost him a marriage and taken his little boy far away.  We'll never change Afghanistan.  They are who they are, and that's who they'll stay.  They are not going to become laptop-carrying, suit-wearing copies of us.  They don't want to be us.  Bring them home.  We may have bigger problems in the near future.