Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: GScholz on May 28, 2014, 05:21:59 PM
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http://www.ted.com/talks/wes_moore_how_to_talk_to_veterans_about_the_war
Thought provoking and heartfelt speech by Wes Moore, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, on returning home and the true meaning of the phrase "thank you for your service".
:salute
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Excellent. Widely forwarded. Thanks.
- oldman
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I know this is going to piss a lot of people, but if a countries young people is openly saying :
`I did not join the army because... I joined for the money...` that country is in really big problem.
because , there is only one reason I can think of that people would join the Army , `to serve their country and protect it thus protecting their own future` ... this might be service in front lines or
service in social services etc...
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Excellent. I didn't join up in order to fight, I was a 16 yr old Junior Soldier and I joined up because since I was a kid it was always what I wanted to do. I served overseas and I left to join the Police Service and regretted it.
When I rejoined it was with the express intention of doing a tour.
Most of my customers are annual visits, and they knew that I was going, when I returned that question was relatively common, but only amongst men and predominantly those of my own age group.
Almost all kids play Army, all kids pretend to shoot people when they are playing, all kids pretend to be shot when playing.
Those guys who were kids of my generation watched cartoons and kids shows that portray heroic characters and they try to emulate them. In short, I feel that there is a part of most guys that that wished they had joined the military, because the whole thing was so exciting as children.
Now whilst they are aware as they grow older of the realities of war, I believe that there is still a morbid fascination with combat, everyone on this game is fascinated with combat of a certain form, whether it be in aeroplanes or tanks or shooting a guy with your .45.
We can pass it off as an interest in aviation, or of aircraft dynamics, air combat manouvers, but at the end of the day they are here trying to emulate the kind of fighting that they would have secretly liked to have been involved in.
Throughout the world there is a burgeoning market in computer games and role playing games, paintball, airsoft, all of which try to emulate combat in some fashion, all predominated by males, the majority of which are of my generation.
I quite honestly do not mind the guy asking the question, usually accompanied by a sheepish grin, but I feel a palpable and genuine embarrasment and choose to answer in some flippant, self effacing way and just bat it off.
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I know this is going to piss a lot of people, but if a countries young people is openly saying :
`I did not join the army because... I joined for the money...` that country is in really big problem.
No. In all countries that have voluntary military service most will join for selfish reasons, in peacetime. It may be a way to pay for education, it may be they just want some job experience, or it may simply be just what they want to do for a living. People don't need a higher moral calling to be soldiers, or policemen, or doctors. Serving your country/community is always a reason, but perhaps not the primary one.
I certainly didn't volunteer to go to your lovely part of the world in the '90s because I had a higher calling to help the Bosnian Muslims. I had gotten a taste for military life during my obligatory one-year conscription. I went because it was an adventure and the paycheck was good. Getting to actually help people was just the icing on the cake.
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No. In all countries that have voluntary military service most will join for selfish reasons, in peacetime. It may be a way to pay for education, it may be they just want some job experience, or it may simply be just what they want to do for a living. People don't need a higher moral calling to be soldiers, or policemen, or doctors. Serving your country/community is always a reason, but perhaps not the primary one.
I certainly didn't volunteer to go to your lovely part of the world in the '90s because I had a higher calling to help the Bosnian Muslims. I had gotten a taste for military life during my obligatory one-year conscription. I went because it was an adventure and the paycheck was good. Getting to actually help people was just the icing on the cake.
As you said , you volunteer to serve your country at that point of time service required from you was to go overseas and fight...
The think is, `90s American & European intervention is not because to Help Muslims or Orthodox over there... Every country that participated in that operations participated to protect their own interests so again you were not sent there to save some body or free some suppressed people but to protect your own country`s interests. Saving some body in meanwhile is just the side effect of it... Public face.
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You have some strange ideas there Hotcoffe. First, I did not volunteer to serve my country, I was conscripted... It was forced upon me. However I found that I liked it. I volunteered for UN service, an international force that was deployed to Bosnia & Herzegovina, primarily to protect the international aid organizations operating there. In my unit there were Norwegians, Swedes, Canadians, Pakistanis and Jordanians. I did not serve my country in Bosnia. The neighboring countries had some self interest in containing/stopping the war I guess, but my country certainly didn't. Nor did the Americans.
Like I said, you have some strange ideas...
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You have some strange ideas there Hotcoffe. First, I did not volunteer to serve my country, I was conscripted... It was forced upon me. However I found that I liked it. I volunteered for UN service, an international force that was deployed to Bosnia & Herzegovina, primarily to protect the international aid organizations operating there. In my unit there were Norwegians, Swedes, Canadians, Pakistanis and Jordanians. I did not serve my country in Bosnia. The neighboring countries had some self interest in containing/stopping the war I guess, but my country certainly didn't. Nor did the Americans.
Like I said, you have some strange ideas...
Obviously you went there for the hidden oil fields and the WMDs.
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And to steal their women... and sheep!
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:salute