Trust in U.S. Military soars

[GRUNHERZ]

Originally posted by midnight Target
I meant figuratively left of Stalin... not necessarily communist. But you get the idea.

I know MT, thats what I meat by  "loose definition of communism", just sometimes it scares me how otherwise resonable people distrust our military so deeply.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by midnight Target
Another straw man set up by the right to discredit the left. The military is held in high regard by most Americans. Those who don't feel that way are either somewhere left of Stalin, or somewhere right of Burch.

youre over my head dude. i dont know what you mean by straw man and i never thought that all liberals disliked the military and i never doubted that plenty of Americans support the military. the point is that professional warriors do their job with excellence because they believe in the code of the professional warrior. public opinion is heavily controlled by the press. if you work at the pointy end of the spear and think that the majority of the public knows the real story you either grow up real fast or grow very unhappy and change jobs. all that story said to me was "hey look we appreciate you now no harm done". the harm will be undone when the people responsibile apologize to the guys they should have appreciated and respected and didnt. im not one of the unappreciated by the way. but i have served with guys who are a part of that group so ive heard what was done and said by the unappreciative. that article is like the first class steward going down to the boiler room one day after spending ten years on the ship and saying "hey guys i just want you to know i really think you do a hard job well". so ****in what. the only reason the guy is down there is to make himself feel better by trying to do what he thinks will be seen as the right thing to do, not what he knows is the right thing to do. me? jaded? nah.

[Sandman]

<---- This liberal is a veteran that currently works for the U.S. Navy.

[Montezuma]

Originally posted by Mini D
And to think... it was only 30 years ago that people were throwing paint and blood on them.

I guess My Lai created some image problems.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Montezuma
I guess My Lai created some image problems.

only to those with a lack of perspective. since the war has ended nva have agreed that it was only atrocity of its type commited by American soldiers for the duration of the war. the atrocity was stopped in progress by other American soldiers. and the American soldiers who did commit war crimes were tried found guilty and punished by the American military. i never heard of similar legal proceedings on the part of the vc when their guys murdered innocent south vietnamese. has the govt of VN tried the co and guards of the hanoi hilton for war crimes yet? any who doubt that my lai was an isolated incident should keep in mind that any actual atrocity commited by Americans would have been used for propoganda by communist forces. face it the most extreme members of the antiwar crowd in America were played like violins by the commies of VN. they swallowed every lie they were given hook line and sinker just like the little puppets they were meant to be.

[Manedew]

Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
sometimes it scares me how otherwise resonable people distrust our military so deeply.

They don't deserve trust...dateing back to and before Tuskegee-Syphilis "testing",  to the modren denials of the effects and use of depleated uranium....  These aholes don't deserve our trust..... maybe our respect .. but not our trust....

tho's who forget histroy..are doomed to repeat it.

[guttboy]

Excuse me Manedew????  Would you care to elaborate on your quote????  I'm just a bit confused by it.....who is the "they"???

"They don't deserve trust...dateing back to and before Tuskegee-Syphilis "testing", to the modren denials of the effects and use of depleated uranium.... These aholes don't deserve our trust..... maybe our respect .. but not our trust.... "

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Manedew
They don't deserve trust...dateing back to and before Tuskegee-Syphilis "testing",  to the modren denials of the effects and use of depleated uranium....  These aholes don't deserve our trust..... maybe our respect .. but not our trust....

tho's who forget histroy..are doomed to repeat it.

oversight is necessary with almost every structure that wields power. what was the tuskegee syphilis test? as for du i was warned in 1991 gulf war to be careful around ko'd tanks and bmps and such. are you talking about du poisoning from residue after du round hits armor? most of what ive heard said about du related sickness is really inaccurate. i heard a guy on npr claim that we were using "du tipped" cruise missiles to poison iraqi troops even.

[Montezuma]

Originally posted by anonymous
and the American soldiers who did commit war crimes were tried found guilty and punished by the American military.

The 'American Military' tried real hard to cover it up.

Calley ended up spending a couple of years on house arrest.

[anonymous]

Originally posted by Montezuma
The 'American Military' tried real hard to cover it up.

Calley ended up spending a couple of years on house arrest.

all the same it was soldiers who fought to prevent the cover up. didnt know the guy got away with house arrest though thats bull****. i heard from some guys that he was sentenced to life at hard labor?

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by Montezuma
The 'American Military' tried real hard to cover it up.

Calley ended up spending a couple of years on house arrest.

It was also the US Army that stopped the massacre at the point of a gun.  There was a unit commander that ordered his troops to fire on any fellow US soldier that didn't cease his fire.  This action prevented more slaughter of innocents.


Ack-Ack

[Dead Man Flying]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Opinion polls back that up. A poll by the Harvard Institute of Politics, based on interviews with 1,200 college undergraduates last month, found that 75 percent said they trusted the military "to do the right thing" either "all of the time" or "most of the time." Two-thirds of the students said they supported the Iraq war. Hawks outnumbered doves more than 2 to 1.

In contrast, in 1975, 20 percent of people ages 18 to 29 said they had a great deal of confidence in those who ran the military, a Harris Poll found.

This is news?

I'm curious why they don't show a poll of 1,200 50-something adults in 1975 or 1,200 50-something adults in 2003 to compare with the student polls.  I'm not buying this "Generation of Trust" thing unless these researchers can prove that aggregate public opinion hasn't shifted from mistrust to trust over time.

EDIT:  I just reread and noticed that they include Gallup numbers which indeed show an aggregrate upward trend in military trust, and given the sample size, the difference between the aggregate and student samples probably doesn't significantly differ.  

-- Todd/Leviathn

[guttboy]

Manedew...I am still awaiting your response to my post earlier.

[Nash]

It's obvious 'they' means the military, guttboy....

Grun: "....people distrust our military so deeply."

Mane: "...They don't deserve trust."

I'd personally like to know what is meant by trust in this case. Trust them to do the job well? Trust them not to cheat on their taxes?

Actually, upon a re-read of the article it seems pretty clear that "trust" means "confidence", as those two words are used interchangeably. If that's the case, I would think it'd be hard to argue that the military isn't worthy of it. You point those guys at something and it's pretty dang likely that they're gonna kick booty.

If you think "trust" is meaning something else here.... what is it and what would be an example of it?

[guttboy]

Nash,

I am still waiting for Manedew's response.  I would like to hear what he has to say.  I would also like to hear what he has to say about your post.  Well written.

Manedew?