Katie Couric, while interviewing a Marine sniper, asked:
"What do you feel when you shoot a terrorist?"
The Marine shrugged and replied: "Recoil."
it's hilarious. And in fact a very old line. I seriously doubt it was actually said to Couric.
As we see throughout history, it only takes one asshole to make a fight. The critical decisions are, what do you stand for, and what will you do about it?
Marines are simply committed to being available to do whatever is necessary for whatever America stands for. And they've done it one hell of a lot longer than the IDF, and are not a bunch to be messed with. There is only one way to do what is necessary, and that is detach from it. You must believe that what you are doing is right, and not hesitate, for he who hesitates is lost. I think that suppressing terrorism, including perforating their skulls from a click away, is the right thing to do. The obvious prerequisite problems are defining terrorism and deciding how to approach it. My suggestion would be to deal with many groups as transnational criminals. And I'm not anxious for anybody to carry any more baggage about this than necessary. I don't have a lot of qualms about snuffing criminals, and I don't want to make it any more difficult to defend our principles and nation than necessary. No angst allowed across the line of departure.
If you believe that aggression is intolerable, you must believe that defense of self or others is necessary. The more difficult question is defining agression and defense, and we have an elaborate political process for that, which is usually substantially better than most. I'm just arrogant enough to shamelessly compare US history to any nation's history, and say we've brought promise to civilization that no other nation has.
And yes, that's a very good reason to dump Bush and the Rethugs, because that duty-shirking idiot & his chickenhawk cronies could fuck up our 200 year roll.
But then, that's from a guy who wouldn't have lost no Masada. Semper Fi, mo'fo!
Seriously, it was probably a dumbass decision to hole up on a mesa against the Roman army; and also a little weird to go committing mass suicide. Far better to train the women & children to fight, and take the last man down fighting. It's logical: who kills themselves from fear that somebody else will kill them?
Sounds like exactly what the military hoped for when they began training this fellow. An unemotional killing expert.
It will truly be a glorious day when these living breathing weapons of surgical precision are no longer a requirement in any society.
so expertly train, and have such ministers of death for our defense.
And so needlessly expended in causes of such dubious worth?
That's one way war is hell.
we have given them a CinC who is not only a fucking idiot, but also has no sense of responsibility whatever. Maybe it's his lack of perspective, maybe it's laziness; but headshrinking the RNC is a waste of time, it's enough to know what they've done and want to do.
It's a sad day in America when the Democrats are the party of responsibility.
talk to your recruiter when you graduate
it might have been damned handy to your decapitated buddy to have a few jarheads around who patrolled aggressively, and could get 1st round kills at 1000m.
Some of those deaths are children, and I'd rather believe I had done something to protect them. You do what you have to do, and at minimum cost.
The line is bullshit. It was old in Vietnam. While I doubt Couric was ever in a place to ask such a bogus question, there is nothing a grunt loves more than shocking the Oprah-Alan Alda audience.
Jack I think the question was "How do you shoot little kids from a helicopter?"
The answer was "You just have to lead them a little more."
It's an example of gallows humor, I think?
You are right that the grunts like to mess with the civvies and tell them this kind of shit with an absolutely straight face.
I've noticed that protective and medical occupations for example are big on this genre of humor, perhaps because it relieves the intensity of the work.
Where people don't have real problems, like being shot at by 12 year olds, or trying to patch up a 12 year old, then they turn on Oprah, and assume that fashion, and the resulting mess is aired daily.
I wouldn't want to bet who is the bigger social problem, Oprah or Osama.
Always check your facts.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/recoil.asp
Snopes is off. The hippy question is not, "how can you SHOOT women & children", but "how can you KILL women & children?" The inference being more philosophical than technical.
Of course the shock value is that the respondent sees it as a technical question.
But you know they love it. People watch Oprah to be shocked, and these guys are just obliging them. Their day is complete as soon as they can hyperventilate. Shit, nothing else gets air to the bottom of their lungs. They should pay for physical therapy.
[this moldy chestnut is one of my ALL TIME FAVES. God, this is old] :
Q. "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"
A. "Practice, practice..."
I have been waiting about 38 years to nail a tourist with that one, but alas, still no luck. And a lot less grim than the prospect of terminating civvie tykes in hostiles climes under difficult circumstances.
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