iPods at War 364
phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has put together an outstanding piece of journalism about the use of personal technology in America's military and how these devices along with blatant piracy is causing new problems in the face of war: "While soldiers once deployed with little more than a backpack and a rifle, today's crop of infantry troops pack along MP3 players, digital cameras, DVD players, video games, movie collections, and computers of their own. The personal electronics have made modern American warfare the most comfortable it has ever been, but they've also brought a new set of problems onto the battlefield.""
Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Insightful)
I haven't heard any anecdotal stories about "so and so would still be alive if he hadn't been listening to his iPod." Or people's personal devices interfering with a mission. I think the number one weapon against the United States military is the IED (Improvised Explosive Devices). And these things blow up without warning. If you're super alert or playing a DS Lite in your vehicle, it's not going to make a difference when one of those things go off.
The loss of USB drives with sensitive data happens here at home, is it a surprise it happens at war?
Furthermore, if a soldier wants to play Counter Strike during his or her off-time in his or her tent, why not? If there's a surprise attack, there's not going to be much difference whether they were playing football, reading a book or playing counter strike. Human beings are distracted naturally and this is necessary, you can't ask someone to concentrate on war 100% of the time.
Our troops aren't just fighting for Democracy, they're also fighting for stable economies & developed infrastructures. I don't think it looks bad if they have gadgets and bells and whistles along with them while they're at war. These are some of the things they're fighting for them and their children to keep.
I would speculate that if you took away these devices that reminded them of home and society, their performance and morale would probably drop. I believe the USO show was designed to distract soldiers from the horrors of the war they fought, let them have an iPod if it does just that even better.
"Outstanding"?! It's an interesting piece but I'd hardly call it 'outstanding' or even credible journalism. Just an interesting thing to consider.
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Insightful)
Give me a break - I read the comments and no one else mentioned soldiers abusing drugs, which was a definite problem in Vietnam. Still an issue? Sure. But it's less of one now, because the soldiers have other outlets for their stress.
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Insightful)
Suggested techniques for the marine to use in the avoidance of boredom and loneliness: Masturbation. Rereading of letters from unfaithful wives and girlfriends. Cleaning your rifle. Further masturbation. Rewiring Walkman. Arguing about religion and meaning of life. Discussing in detail, every woman the marine has ever fucked. Debating differences, such as Cuban vs. Mexican, Harleys vs. Hondas, left- vs. right-handed masturbation. Further cleaning of rifle. Studying of phillipino mail order bride catalogue. Further masturbation. Planning of marine's first meal on return home. Imagining what a marine's girlfriend and her man Jody are doing in the hay, or in the alley, or in a hotel bed.
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Insightful)
ARS has always been a pretty heavy critic of the RIAA/MPAA and their anti-piracy rants (they recently ran an article about how the RIAA is moving on from online piracy to "playground piracy" - kids sharing their CDs with eachother - as the number one threat to the industry) and I believe this particular article is showing that if every copyright law paid for by the RIAA were followed, the soldiers may have a modicum less of the comforts of home to enjoy while on the front lines.
For me, a little piracy for our men and women in uniform is just fine, and any person attempting to crack down on a soldier for playing their IPOD over the loudspeaker for the enjoyment of their fellow soldiers as an illegal peformance under US copyright law is a traitor to this country and the men and women defending it.
Piracy is the least of my concern (Score:5, Interesting)
Piracy is the least of our concerns here. In fact, piracy is mostly the ONLY way we are able to get music and movies to bring a little comfort into our lives. I'm stationed in Iraq now, and have been so for the past 10 months. Let me tell you - we soldiers swap movies and music amongst ourselves all the time. The PX'es have a small selection of music and movies, and so we turn to other avenues (like swapping music and movies) or buying pirated CD's and DVD's from Iraqis. We can get whole TV series (Babylon 5, Sopranos, Simpsons) and if they are DVD rips, the quality is pretty good. We can even get movies when they're still in theater - of course, the copy is pretty crappy, but sometimes it'll do. Piracy is rampant here and I wonder if the RIAA knows about it. To put it quite simply, none of us are really bothered - we're mostly trying to make sure we stay alert and alive. To be honest, I find that if I hear some music from a band/artist I like, I buy their CD's. For example, I recently got a song or two by Death Cab For Cutie from my friend. I liked their music, so I bought their CD.
I'm waiting for the day when the *AA sends their representatives into the battlefield to make sure piracy isn't running wild amongst the troops - I'd laugh. I wonder if they'd have the balls to do that or to prosecute soldiers/marines/seamen/airmen who are simply trying to make their lives a little more comfortable.
Re:That's a Little Extreme (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? Not to start a flame war, but there is a difference between supporting the troops and supporting the war effort. I would, IMHO if it makes you feel better, consider the RIAA a bunch traitors to this country if they tried to take away a few simple comforts of home to protect their bottom line from soldiers in the field.
I'm not calling someone who is against the Iraq war a traitor, I'm calling someone who cares more for their wallet than the soldiers on the other side of the world fighting for their lives a traitor - and I stick by that assessment. (Although, I understand your sentiment.)
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We just need to be careful who we call traitor because if it becomes a laxed word then soon everyone will be a traitor, but I definitely see what you are saying. It would be a big betrayal to the troops and a big waste of that companies time. But I say hey, let the RIAA go to Iraq and find the t
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It can be said that the major REASON we are in that part of the world, putting our young men and women at risk and to death, is
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And how is Middle Eastern oil a "fuel" of capitalism? "STOP, STOP, everyone, oil's gone up a few dollars a barrel, we're going to have to shut everything down and go to worker-owned production now! It is impossible for us to use
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Extra territorial effect is required becauce commanders need a tool to keep their members disciplined and obedient to the chain of command a
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Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:4, Funny)
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you have to watch out with that comment.. as more active duty soilders die durring peace time than war do to things like drunk driving and the so forth..
take at look at the stats for the gulf war.. beeing at war was safer than being at home..
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I think there are entire essays that could be written in response to this so very American comment, a lot of them centering on the words 'oil' and 'selfish interests', but that would be quite offtopic.
Instead, I agree with you, naturally, that soldiers should have comfort, but FFS, there are limits. Take your ipod, your DVD player, your game consoles, that's all fine. Have good food, hav
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Interesting)
It's nice to be able to listen to some tunes or play some NCAA with the AC going full blast when it's 130F outside. You do it to try to bring back a feeling of normality. You know that in two hours you're going out for a patrol and you know that your sector is averaging an IED every other day but for that short time beforehand you can almost imagine that you're back home.
Is a $3000 plasma screen excessive? An entire DJ booth over the top? In my opinion yes, but to that soldier it's probably still not enough to make them feel like they were home.
One thing of note.... the PX who supplies most of the crap that soldiers buy is a monopoly. They stock that $3000 plasma that a buck private probably can't afford knowing that they'll take the money and run. In my opinion they were bigger cheats than the Haji shop on base that tried to sell you Rodex watches.
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Insightful)
But on top of that, nobody tells you (Americans) how to spend your time. I find most military members are a sight more industrious than the average American. Look at the amount of overweight Americans. Look at the amount of Americans that spend over 6 hours of day playing their favorite MMORPG Now think about the amount of Americans that exercised for more than 4 hours this week.
I completely agree with FiveDollarYoBet about this issue. AAFES (the company running the PX's) have programs to suck that hard earned cash out of the hands of service members. They provide payment packages to buy Harleys, convertibles, diamond engagement rings, etc. before you even get back to the United States. The ARS complained about service members taking advantage of cheap shipping from the states, but fail to see that we have no alternative to the store trying to sell garbage to us. There was also a complaint about the copy written material being distributed by the locals aka "Haji" (which is an improper reference to an Arab. It literally means a muslim that performed the Haj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the pillars of islam). The locals selling this material are truely benefiting from it, more so than the RIAA and the MPAA. But you have to ask yourself where they get the material (where the rest of the world gets theirs, P2P). I also need to mention that US Customs agents are responsible for screening these items, so they don't make it back to the states. So if you have complaints, take it up with them.
The last thing I want to say is that I'm tired of people assuming they know what the other side of the fence is like. People not associated with the military will not understand military life. People who don't enjoy technology will not understand the "slashdot culture". We've all been affected by unfounded judgement, so why rush to place it on someone else?
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The $10 was based on extra fuel burned on a flight with extra space, and is probably much higher than the actual number. I'm not sure how much exactly it costs to have a C-5 that's already flying anyway carry an extra 40lbs, but it's not going to exceed $10.
And as for number of personnel? Ok, so you spend $10 for every soldier deployed, and end up with
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It's a sad comment on the condition of humanity when we see youths describing how they turned up their MP3 player while "killing the enemy" in Iraq. There's a horrible scene in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" when a solider starts singing "The roof is on fire... we don't need no water let the [mellonfarmer] burn, burn [mellonfarmer].. burn!" to describe his work from the past days. But as he or a com
You can say fuck on slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
"Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck. What's the big fuckin' deal?"
Other things you probably shouldn't say. Like Donkey raping shit-eater. You definitely shouldn't say donkey raping shit-eater on slashdot. People could get offended if you mentioned donkey raping shit-eaters.
Mellonfarmer? Come on. What's the point of shit like that? What are you, some kinda smegma licking pussy? Everyone knows what you mean, it's not like people don't make the fucking mental translation instantly, you haven't sheilded their tender, innocent brains from having to process and comprehend "that word."
Sorry, sorry, that was kind of a rangent (that's a rant off on a tangent...) But if you learned anything from all this, it's that you shouldn't mention donkey raping shit-eaters on slashdot.
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spun (1352)
C'mon now grandpa,should you be using such language at your age? Wont you think of the kids?
Re:You can say fuck on slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
"fighting for democracy"? Are you joking? (Score:2, Insightful)
Our troops aren't just fighting for Democracy, they're also fighting for stable economies & developed infrastructures.
Have you picked up a newspaper lately? Half a million Iraqi citizens dead, infrastructure (that we destroyed) still massively broken despite billions upon billions of dollars being forked over to government contractors, and currently the country is essentially in the midst of civil war; you've got your warlords, and now there are Iraqi police departments turning into gangs. The coun
No, I'm not joking! (Score:2, Funny)
I didn't say who's economy, democracy or infrastructure they were fighting for :)
el
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That's absolute crap. Intelligent humans have this ability called "conjecture", that allows them to make informed judgements about things based on their own, different experiences. Now, maybe your experiences will be different enough to mean that judgements can be made poorly, but that's not always the case, there are 'universals' that people can discover by themselves without having to experience the thing ("I'm n
Blackwatch Found Same Criticism (Score:2, Insightful)
I think if there is a possibility it's going to be your last days on earth if you fsck up, well you'd better put down the toys and face it head on like a man and maybe survive. The enemy sure ain't playi
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The only thing I read as a negative was how the iraqies *MAY* be jealous as they can't even operate cooking stoves -or whatever- while these soldiers get
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This is ridiculous. If you are willing to put yourself in harms way for your nation, you should probably be cut some slack on your behavior when your in a war zone. Letting soldiers share mp3 files amongs themselves and purchasing bootleg DVD's is nowhere close to rape.
Way to kneejerk.
let's take that further (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:5, Funny)
You're forgetting one thing...
Copying music and movies FUNDS TERRORISM!!! Therefore anyone who does it is the enemy, and shouldn't be allowed into the military!
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That and my Cynicism detector is broken.
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Where i am stationed the drinking age is 18 for the local nationals and as such the command has stated that it will follow the laws of our host nation.
So no, it is not true. I am all for those of us who risk our lives fo
bzzt (Score:2)
Also - needle exchanges for drug addicts are a workable program that have succeeded in what they're designed to do - prevent the spread of blood borne diseases.
Hi, you're wrong (Score:3, Interesting)
Not the only source, but a half-assed google search found the AMA with an article on page 1. Lots of goodies there, here's one:
"A higher MLDA results in fewer alcohol-related problems among youth, and the 21-year-old MLDA saves the lives of well over 1,000 youth each year (Jones et al, 1992; NHTSA, 1989). Conversely, when the MLDA is lowered, motor vehicle crashes and deaths among youth increase. At least 50 studies have evaluated this correlation (Wagenaar, 1993)."
Thanks for playing.
Re:Unfounded Criticism (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to mention it's near impossible to deduce which type of device is being used based on a probably non-existent electrical signal. If it were really an concern we would be using this technology to sniff out our enemies too, no? Why isn't this technology being used if it's so simple?
Your comment is definitely not interesting, you're just one more person spreading rumors to fuel this countries fear of war and terrorism. We have the most technologically advanced army in the world and to imply we can be easily tracked and spotted when we don't want to be would mean we can be defeated.
an interesting tidbit: (Score:5, Interesting)
From the fine article, first page, a paragraph:
First, please let this be tongue in cheek on the author's part (I'm assuming it is).
That aside, it's an interesting notion. Yeah, let the MPAA and RIAA go after the piracy of media by soldiers afield. The stipulation would be that the RIAA and MPAA must confront the accused personally, i.e., make them go the active front... after all, they've claimed they themselves are engaged in a war. What better way to experience that reality?
Anyway, if you've read Joseph Heller's Catch 22, soldiers' ingenuity to make their insane world a little more liveable is Milo Minderbinder redux. More power to them for making it through.
Re:an interesting tidbit: (Score:5, Informative)
The thing about the military is that you have a large number of young men with a disposable income (ie: food, housing, medical care, and transportation are all provided). Sure, it's not much of an income, but when you don't have to spend money on rent, you cand stretch $14,400 a year pretty far on entertainment goodies(that was my salary as an E4 in 2001).
-Rick
Another good paragraph, more Catch 22 (Score:5, Insightful)
Another thing about Catch 22 is that it showed how the first contention of the article, that soldiers used to go to battle with nothing more than a rifle and a backpack isn't true. Remember Orr, Yossarian's tent-mate? He was always adding stuff to the tent. Basically everytime he came into a scene, he was either being shot down or trying to get the gas stove working better. Or consider the show MASH. Hawkeye's tent was full of "luxury" items. Ok these are fictional accounts, but based on non-fiction accounts I've read, I'd be willing to bet they were pretty close the real case in terms of personal possessions...at least for units that stayed in one place for any significant amount of time.
Here's another good paragraph
I'm more inclined to think it goes the other way: movies and video games are unable to depict conflict any other way than by focusing on the action, only filling in the context sufficiently to give the viewer/gamer a plausible plot. Except for fans of the movie Jarhead, nobody is very much fascinated by the mundane elements of war: cleaning your rifle, trying to stay awake through guard duty, cleaning your rifle, doing PT, cleaning your rifle, cleaning the latrines, cleaning your rifle. Audiences expect 5 minutes of that, then a lot of shooting and heroism.
Consider amatuer movies at home. For example, the obligatory end-of-the-season high school football team music video recap. It's all clips of tackles, touchdowns, passes, field goals, pranks during scrimmage, etc. Nobody's interested in the time spent running around the track, doing calistenics, sitting on the bench, and especially not sitting in class trying to maintain acedemic elegibility.
Furthermore, we really are talking about amatuer's here, putting together simple recaps. They're not master storytellers. They don't have the time or luxury of putting together complex narratives, and since they're only sharing this with friends and family, they don't need complex expositions making it clear to the viewer that this is so-and-so's involvement in Operation Enduring Freedom.
Actually, let them go after the parties offering the goods for sale. As I understand, the lawyers interest is not as much in the receivers as the providers. Please, go confront Abdul about his copying CD's to sell to the GI's. A flak jacket might be a good a better idea than a briefcase, though.
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Generally speaking, the punishment is worse for a soldier commiting just about any crime than if (s)he were a civilian. Now take that same soldier & put them in an active theater of operations and that punishment is even harsher.
I'd really hate to be the first soldier that gets accidentally pinged by the **AA, because someone up your chaing of comm
Iraq (Score:5, Funny)
In fact, bullets aren't even coming clo...^C^C^C^C^C No route to host.
Let's see if the RIAA really has any balls... (Score:5, Funny)
Somehow I think Orrin Hatch [wikipedia.org] would shit a brick of confusion over how to react
Music Mix (Score:2)
So that is where Perry went. (Score:5, Funny)
Ah. Soylent Green day at the mess tent. I bet he went down smooooooth too.
Problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are willing to get shot at, I am willing to let you play playstation and listen to music on you off hours without any objection from me.
Re:Problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm glad that our troops can be entertained in this fashion and that some can get stationed in places with all kinds of creature comforts, but trying to paint a picture (paraphrasing Dave Barry) of the place as a glorified college dormatory is disingenious at best.
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There was a time when serving your country meant defending it against threat (ie NOT IRAQ!)...
Re:Problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
While I agree that the US invasion was sold on lies and serves the interests of the rich and powerful while making the US no more safe, the troops don't get any say in where they're sent and do. They didn't get up one day and decide to take over Iraq, "secure" the oil, and install a puppet government. Those decisions were made by people who are so far insulated from the costs and horrors of the war that they might as well be on another planet.
If you're going to take issue with somebody, point the finger at the assholes who sent them there, not the poor schmucks who are bound to do their dirty work if they have any hope of going to college.
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What we need to be careful about however is the perception of this confort by for example the Iraqi people. That's been one of the big criticisms of the way Iraq has been handled. While the Iraqi's don't have clean water, working sewage and electricity, our troops were chilling in big palaces with all the latest toys. Many Iraqis compared them to Saddam.
Of course, I'm
It's still war. (Score:5, Interesting)
Chuck E Cheez - our robot elvis man-dog overlords. (Score:5, Funny)
Did you ever go to any of the last of the "old style" Chuck E Cheez's before they closed down? You know, the ones where you'd walk down a hall and look off to the side and there would be a huge auditorium, empty of humans, and on a stage was a band made of giant Elvis man-dog robots that shook and gyrated, with their crude mechanics making so much noise that the songs in the speakers couldn't even be heard? If this scene (and it was real) isn't as close as you can come to the future war with the robots, then nothing is.
Re:Chuck E Cheez - our robot elvis man-dog overlor (Score:2)
Re:Chuck E Cheez - our robot elvis man-dog overlor (Score:5, Funny)
You just brought back a very very bad childhood memory.
Re:Chuck E Cheez - our robot elvis man-dog overlor (Score:5, Funny)
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On specific instructions from the Chuck E. Cheez top management, a large number of these had their fur disposed of and their endoskeletons/mechanics cut up with blowtorches. A friend of mine used to work at one of these places when the order came down. He managed to rescue one of them (sans fur) from the cutter and I wound up with it when he no longer had space for it. It's a very interesting device, all pneumatically actuated using a low pressure air line. He also managed to grab a programming c
I'm reminded of what Colnel Kurtz said (Score:5, Interesting)
While I have been against the Iraq war from the begining, I wonder how much truth there is to this. Are short stints and relatively comfortable surroundings really not motivating the troops to do their job? A quote from Captain Willard: "Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R and R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death or victory."
Just take the above quotes and replace "Vietnam" with "Iraq" and "Charlie" with the insurgency and you have quotes that apply as much to this war as it did 'Nam....
Sun Tzu and Machiavelli offer the opposite view (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sun Tzu and Machiavelli offer the opposite view (Score:5, Insightful)
Sun Tzu wrote military strategies for armies just prior to the consolidation of states during what is now called the Warring States period. Machiavelli wrote in the hopes of a Prince that his strategies would enable a Prince to unify Italy under a single government - despite the fact he preferred a republican form of government. Neither is particularly insightful on guerilla warfare.
You want to know how the U.S. government approaches this kind of war? Try reading the manuals that the CIA [fas.org], Marine Corps [fas.org], U.S. Army [fas.org] and others have put together on the topic.
While these are fairly large to summarize, let's just say that comments like these are not unusual:
My point is that this is not an issue of fresh troops and a quick in and out strategy. Winning these kinds of wars means living with people, sharing their lives and commitment. It is very much what the original poster was getting at that it requires a completely different frame of reference to "win" a conflict like this one and the military is only one part of many that needs to be brought into play - and they need to think about their jobs differently as these manuals will attest.
While it is possible to use a strategy like the Romans did with their legions where you have quick strike capability (by building roads) that maintains a certain level of discipline throughout an empire, this was used in conjunction with other political and social strategies. Ultimately, it was Rome's dependence on the legions and the use of mercenaries that eventually was the undoing of that empire - a lesson the U.S. would do well to learn.
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Kurtz was wrong. (Score:2)
You can't make troops more committed to the battle by taking away amenities; all that's going to do is make them less committed, less trusting of their command structure, and less eager to risk their lives. It's the "we'll stop beating you when morale improves" school of leadership, and it only works when you're trying to get people to do mindless manual labor, under close supervision. In short, you can't make good soldiers through force or coercion.
A more general for
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Hardly. And if you only care about dead soldiers and not dead anybody else, or if you only care about US killed civilians and not terrorist killed civillians or
The conflict in Iraq is NOTHING like 'Nam, unless you are a peace and surrender at any cost type. You remember Chamberlain? ("I have a piece of paper")
The people we are fighting agains
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"While I have been against the Iraq war from the begining, I wonder how much truth there is to this. Are short stints and relatively comfortable surroundings really not motivating the troops to do their job?"
While the conditions may be more tolerable than, say a WWI trench, I don't think US soldiers consider their conditions "comfortable" by any stretch of the word. The word "comfortable" may come up in casual conversation, but would not be a word most w
I'm reminded of what Lois Lane said (Score:2)
in the animated Superman to two supervillians that seemed to dispatch Superman.
To paraphrase: If the **AA starts suing soldiers on the front, I will *persoanlly* lead the mob that takes down the **AA offices wherever they may stand.
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Me: "therefore we should not enter wars which neither the troops or the nation at large have any real reason to sacrifice for."
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First off, most personnel are on their 3rd to 4th tour of duty, a circumstance unprecedented in recent history. Soldiers in WWII, Vietnam, and Korea had shorter tours of duty and a defined endpoint to their enlistment. With stop loss and arbitrary callup of the IRR, soldiers are forced to stay on or get called back up long past their existing commitments. Second, wheras soldiers in Vietnam could pull R&R in Siagon without excessive fear of harm, most units are presently
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Let me state for the record that I think the war in Iraq should have been fought, but we fought it for all the wrong reasons. Saddam needed to be booted out, and should have been in '91 when we had a better force for the purpose on the ground. Failing that, Saddam's wilful flaunting of all of the UN sanctions combined with the wholesale slaughter of his own people demande
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Be
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Saftey. (Score:2)
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Well, I suppose there's some risk in everything...
Back-seat drivers: discipline (Score:5, Informative)
People who've never been deployed and only seen movies don't realize that soldiering is 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror. It is just as important (maybe more) to handle the boredom as the terror.
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I'd even pay for Cary Sherman to fly there, get into a Land Rover and try take the iPod directly from the MTTs.
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Much like a network administrators job.
Talk about a Battle of the Bands (Score:2)
Though the question is, will playing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" at high volume cause the insurgency to run away in terror, or try harder to destroy the iPod?
Sounds like ripe targets for virus attacks (Score:2)
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Yes.
I liked this little bit... (Score:2, Interesting)
God B
You hear that, Sony? (Score:5, Funny)
And the Wii will only make them even better shots. The smallest of the consoles, it will be the easiest to pack up and ship out. Using the Wiimote on a low sensitivity will help to better train hand-eye cordination, as well. (It will also server a double purpose with the DVD functionality.)
So you better watch your back, or the console wars may become real wars...
CALL THE RIAA (Score:3, Funny)
Note: I'm not so much in favor of soldiers getting sued as I am in favor of soldiers with a grudge and souvenir rpg's visiting the riaa to rebut their arguments...
$5 is all you need - RIAA stops at the border (Score:2, Interesting)
Posters Missed the Point (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone tell Stephen Colbert... (Score:5, Funny)
I say we invade the RIAA next...
Personal entertainment devices not new during war (Score:4, Insightful)
In World War 2, the troops had "foxhole" (crystal) radios, the detector was a razor blade and safety pin. There were many AC and DC powered radios. AFRTS started broadcasting during World War 2. There were also portable phonographs.
I am not sure what the GI's used during the Korean Conflict because transistor radios hadn't been introduced yet; they would have had phonographs, they may have carried battery operated tube type radios.
In Vietnam, transistor radios and tape players were carried in the field. MANY GI's came home from Vietman with high end stereos.
During the Gulf War and Bosnia, there would have been portable radios, portable CD players and possibly still some portable cassette players.
iPods and MP3 players were probably first used in Afghanistan.
Now, during Iraqui Freedom and Afghanistan, the state of the technology includes iPods. Same idea, smaller devices.
Nothing new.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Gotta speak my mind... (Score:3, Interesting)
Regardless of what side of the coin you follow (democrat or republican, liberal or conservative), if you are not putting your
life on the line don't criticize others that do. In addition, as to servicemembers allegedly listening to music or watching videos
illegally, I would ask you to consider the morale factor. If you know you can possibly die at anytime, do you really think that we care
(during our deployment in a hostile country) that the RIAA is going to come after us? Whatever my fellow servicemembers and I need to
maintain our calm in a chaotic situation is what matters plain and simple. Because the simple matter is lives are at stake, namely ours.
Irregardless of whether this war is a good or bad action to undertake.
Another way I'll put is like this: If the RIAA wants to fight terrorism in Iraq before it comes to our shores, I'll gladly hand my M16A4
over to one of the cushy (or pudgy in somecases) lawyers and they can stand post. I don't mind sitting on my ass collecting big checks from
overpaid, overhyped artists (whom the majority can't sing or act anyway). At least I won't harrass dead people's families, college students,
and children. (Not to mention, all that gear hurts my back any damm way).
Regards,
MBC1977
(US Marine, College Student, and Good Guy)
Please note: The following comment is personal and not an official US Marine statement
Yes, you do have to speak your mind! So do I. (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is that public tax dollars are funding the whole mess. Just because the kids they send over there have been sold on a total lie, (being that the war has any positive moral qualities to it at all and is not largely a money scam/creepy apocalypse cult thing for Bush and friends), doesn't mean that I shouldn't speak my mind about it. In fact, I'd say that the exact opposite is true.
Burglars, rapists and murderers also put their lives on the line in their chosen profession, but I'm certainly not going to withhold my criticism about them.
Sorry. You may be a nice guy, and no doubt you are, but you are still carrying an automatic weapon in a land where you are not and never were wanted. There were no WMD's in Iraq, Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11, and Iraq is a lot worse off today than it was before the American invasion, and the only people benefiting are those selling weapons and oil, and they will keep the war running until the public finally threatens to hang the management. So why on earth are you playing pawn out there? If I were you, I'd get out right smart quick before I got hurt or before my brain short-circuited on too much negative stimulus.
Best wishes and good luck to you!
-FL
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Oh really? And how many Iraqis have you polled recently? Heck, how many Iraqis actually have the 'choice' you speak of. In any case, the kids making road-side bombs seem to think you don't know what you're talking about.
-FL
I guess we should do it like the good old days... (Score:3, Funny)
Ah yes, iPods at War (Score:4, Funny)
Then near the end of doing my bit, they rolled out slim players that needed only one battery and had special sand filters. They played, "Another One Bites the Dust," and were quite the thing. We put the Jerries to route with that number. A handful of the lads were equipped with odd prototypes that had no batteries or cartridges and got their songs from a computer, but we hard-bitten vets laughed and laughed and would never have gone to war with something like that.
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Quick, a
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Sorry, I must have missed the bit where I owed the US military my life. Care to offer a credible example?
Okay, but you need to back that up. (Score:3, Insightful)
You mean like, "There were no WMD's"? And, "Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11"? Or how about the Downing Street Memo fave, "Blair and Bush planned to invade regardless of whether they found WMD's or not."?
And let's not forget about, "Close friends and family of Bush and his cabal benefit directly