Someone Let the Cat Out of the Bag

[BMT (RIP)]

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htm.../20090215.aspx






BMT

[Kosta]

Wait, different cultures instill different values in their members that make members of some better soldiers or participants in democracy than others?

SAY IT AIN'T SO.

What's the over/under on how long until the PC crowd starts making a stink?

[Blitzzz (RIP)]

Absolutely a good quick read. We always know and have known. The hardest to advise are the Regular Army leadership. Blitzzz

[Richard]

Yep.

Richard's $.02

[Team Sergeant]

We have over 300,000,000 Americans.

We have just over a million three on active duty.

Less than a forth of those are "Combat Arms" personnel.

We cannot keep the Army Special Forces Groups "manned" even with those numbers.

That article not only reflects on other nations but us as well.

I remember the movie "The Last Samurai", the next one will be "The Last Green Beret".

We are also a nation of "sheeple".

Team Sergeant

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

That article not only reflects on other nations but us as well.

Yep.

Richard's $.02

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

That article not only reflects on other nations but us as well.

Team Sergeant

Yessir, on an extremely large (and growing) scale.

[abc_123]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

We have over 300,000,000 Americans.

We have just over a million three on active duty.

Less than a forth of those are "Combat Arms" personnel.

We cannot keep the Army Special Forces Groups "manned" even with those numbers.

That article not only reflects on other nations but us as well.

I remember the movie "The Last Samurai", the next one will be "The Last Green Beret".

We are also a nation of "sheeple".

Team Sergeant

Very true, I'm afraid.

I look at the hoards of kids playing youth soccer as compared to football or wrestling and I am not encouraged that this situation will reverse itself in the near future.

[mark46th]

My son was a high caliber soccer player two levels away from the national level- Now he is a cop, young and hard as nails physically and mentally, just like I taught him. Soccer taught him team work, how to think without panicking when things are headed South and made him an athlete. When he started the Police Academy, he could only do one pullup, so they put him in the fatman squad. Then he ripped off a 5:15 mile...BTW, when he finished the acdemy, #2 in his class, he could do 12 pullups....

I guess what I am trying to say is that which sport you play as a child isn't important as long as you compete. It's up to the parents and other positive examples to give them courage and heart...

[abc_123]

Originally Posted by mark46th

My son was a high caliber soccer player two levels away from the national level- Now he is a cop, young and hard as nails physically and mentally, just like I taught him. Soccer taught him team work, how to think without panicking when things are headed South and made him an athlete. When he started the Police Academy, he could only do one pullup, so they put him in the fatman squad. Then he ripped off a 5:15 mile...BTW, when he finished the acdemy, #2 in his class, he could do 12 pullups....

I guess what I am trying to say is that which sport you play as a child isn't important as long as you compete. It's up to the parents and other positive examples to give them courage and heart...

Of course, your're right. Generalization on my part that won't hold up when taken down to the granular level. Also a spurrious correlation, like saying eating Tomatoes causes death (everybody who eats tomatoes dies at some point, right?) Achieving excellence in whatever you do be it sports, music, academics, take dedication, hard work and sacrifice. Things that are uncommon.

I guess where I was going is the coincidental explosion of youth soccer and the whole entire "soccer mom" thing with our society's seeming increasing unwillingness to let kids have unstructured play and roughhousing...where arguments happen and are settled where kids experience conflict and are forced to resolve it through all the various means. Where they first learn (usually after coming home and getting advice both wanted and unwanted from parents) about the role of aggression and violence in the problem solving process....and that it's OK to be physical.

I just don't remember the "be nice and not play rough" concepts when I was growing up not too very long ago and participating in more "traditional" American youth sports like I saw during my boys brief experience with youth soccer.

[Defender968]

Originally Posted by abc_123

Of course, your're right. Generalization on my part that won't hold up when taken down to the granular level. Also a spurrious correlation, like saying eating Tomatoes causes death (everybody who eats tomatoes dies at some point, right?) Achieving excellence in whatever you do be it sports, music, academics, take dedication, hard work and sacrifice. Things that are uncommon.

I guess where I was going is the coincidental explosion of youth soccer and the whole entire "soccer mom" thing with our society's seeming increasing unwillingness to let kids have unstructured play and roughhousing...where arguments happen and are settled where kids experience conflict and are forced to resolve it through all the various means. Where they first learn (usually after coming home and getting advice both wanted and unwanted from parents) about the role of aggression and violence in the problem solving process....and that it's OK to be physical.

I just don't remember the "be nice and not play rough" concepts when I was growing up not too very long ago and participating in more "traditional" American youth sports like I saw during my boys brief experience with youth soccer.

I have played and coached soccer for the past 25 years and I can tell you there is every bit as much conflict and aggression in soccer as there is in football, the competition is fierce and physical aggression is every bit as real as in football, the ways of taking it out are simply different.

I think what you're describing has more to do with the everyone gets a trophy style of thinking that has become so pervasive in nearly all sports and in our society today rather than the aspects of the individual sports children are playing today.

The problem as I see it is as others have stated, we are simply raising fewer and fewer sheepdogs and more and more sheep.

I can vividly remember my father teaching me to never start a fight, but to always defend myself, consequently I learned that if the fight came to me, I should seek to finish it quickly to protect myself and others. From what I've seen today most parents teach their children not to fight for any reason, they teach their children to simply walk away. Which I have to say I can understand in some ways when you consider what would have been a simple fist fight in my youth may end up with a shooting or stabbing today.

[mark46th]

You are both right- America is getting pussified. Too many Americans these days feel that everything should be a Win-Win, makes me feel good deal. Wrong. It should be we win, they lose. If they want to be civilized, the U.S.can be benevolent. If they want to play hard, they will suffer the consequences.

Most people don't understand that most of the world doesn't like us. How the U.S. conducts itself should depend on what policies the country we are dealing with has with the U.S.

My foreign policy would be along the lines of an Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove...

[greenberetTFS]

You are both right- America is getting pussified./quote/Mark46th........

I remember the movie "The Last Samurai", the next one will be "The Last Green Beret". We are also a nation of "sheeple"./quote/ TS.........

We are becoming a "paper tiger" like some countries call us.......Why?.......

GB TFS

[Blitzzz (RIP)]

The Nation can't be taken any more serious than the leadership projects. While Bush did project some toughness he failed in the depth of it. Obama is a Pussy so shall we be unil the next "Reagan" gets in. For too long the Nation's posturing has been by the likes of Carter, Clinton and now the "apologist" Obama. When he bowed to the Saudi King, so did we all.


Dave's forgien Policy would be based of an army made of entirely Regimemtal Combat Teams, and when "anyone" made a funny face or any other disrespectful politcal atonations to this country. I would deploy enough RTCs to stomp a mudhole in their asses and the return the troops home with a message to the offending Nation to "fix it" or we would return for round two, and so on. No occupying, no policing,no nation building, just punitive ass kicking and leave the fix to them. Yes, I would demand respect from anyone that wished to deal with US. just Me, Dave

[Utah Bob]

Originally Posted by Blitzzz

I would deploy enough RTCs to stomp a mudhole in their asses and the return the troops home with a message to the offending Nation to "fix it" or we would return for round two, and so on.

Now that I like!