I guess what I’m suggesting is that mom and dad typically have some blame too, (even though it surely extends beyond the immediate family), given that the child grows up in an environment where the poor decision of a teenager can hardly be all on him/her.
Shit I wanted to join the army as a teenager. A bunch of people I was friends with as a teen did that.
My soldier-loving conservative parents told me not to. Of course being an epileptic would’ve disqualified me anyway. But yeah I was all gung-ho pro-Afghanistan war as a kid like my family was.
Almost went for the free college. Glad that never happened lol.
Yea there are factors like this that can contribute to young folks’ decision-making. Sense of purpose, access to future education, a decent salary–all of that can be appealing to kids, and the propaganda/recruiting machine goes all out trying to capture them before they wake up a bit about the world and the US military’s role in it.
They’ve been fed lies and propaganda for their entire life, I wouldn’t expect many teenagers to be able to see through that bullshit.
Some kids are just gonna rebel, but if you don’t raise your kids on nationalistic bullshit they might be less inclined to volunteer to go abroad with guns.
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Yeah, John Q Public was overwhelmingly in favor of rushing off to the forever wars, I’m happy to blame us all as a whole for this fuckup. Never seen Americans so completely united as we were when George W Bush was telling us we were gonna get payback for 9/11. Cable news and the NYT get a special mention for cheerleading us on every step of the way, but really we got involved because we’re a nation of bloodthirsty idiots who never challenge authority.
It’s not good to heap scorn on the kids (victims), but the whole culture of “honor the service” makes this happen. People want to be honored. Especially 17 year olds.
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this is a giant pet peeve of mine. most people calling themselves patriotic would cheer their own military every chance they get, but at the same time they would call a russian or chinese parade a disgusting militaristic display. and vice versa by the way. we respect our allies somewhat, but fail to see honor and heroism on the other side, even though it’s are quite clearly the same parts of the population who end up in service. military families and lower income from places of fewer opportunities.
i get that this is just a human or perhaps ancestral trait, and it really required a superhuman effort and retrospective for individuals to wrap their minds around. Doing it as a society is harder still. but damn, once you see the tribalism up close, you can’t unsee.
and the service propaganda doesn’t make it any easier. the people willing to serve are deserving of respect, as do the people willing to be nurses, teachers, bus drivers, etc. which are all functions that soldiers end up doing as well by the way. 17yo about to enlist ought to be told about that. and have a no-fault way out of the service, say 6 months or a year after enlistment.
i do appreciate that at least western armies have partially taken on humanitarian missions, compared to say mid-20th century, and we need that to continue. although if you asked rwnj about that, they’d probably call trmp’s troops to the southern border stunt humanitarian.
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there is no way any of these turds are capable of this sort of analysis
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Afghanistan has a shit ton of rare earth metals. Someone will want to partner with the Taliban for that.
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Yeah there are no good guys in Afghanistan. In some ways the Taliban are the closest thing because at least they have laws and stick to them.
Nah. Taliban are predictable, but that’s not better. (Of course the Taliban aren’t a monolith either and not free of corrupt opportunists)
although much of the U.S. expenditures pertained to defense, the United States has ostensibly invested in other sectors of Afghan governance. As of June 30, the United States has spent about $144.98 billion in funds for reconstruction and related activities in Afghanistan since fiscal year 2002, including $88.61 billion for security (including $4.6 billion for counternarcotic initiatives); $36.29 billion for governance and development (including $4.37 billion for counternarcotic initiatives); $4.18 billion for humanitarian aid; and $15.91 billion for agency operations.
Although these numbers are staggering, much of U.S. investment did not stay in Afghanistan. Because of heavy reliance on a complex ecosystem of defense contractors, Washington banditry, and aid contractors, between 80 and 90 percent of outlays actually returned to the U.S. economy. Of the 10 to 20 percent of the contracts that remained in the country, the United States rarely cared about the efficacy of the initiative. Although corruption is rife in Afghanistan, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction repeatedly identifies bewildering corruption by U.S. firms and individuals working in Afghanistan.
So yes if you wanted to say, let’s spend 20 years and billions of dollars doing nothing with the end result being handing AR rifles to the Taliban it’d look like a gigantic waste of money, but what if we also said we’re going to spend 20 years and billions of dollars subsidizing guys the lifestyles of defense contractors to end up with absolutely nothing to show for it except for some 1000 new backyard pools and second houses for contractor executives
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Many others have their index fingers aimed at the State Department, particularly Afghanistan Task Force Director Ambassador TRACEY JACOBSON . “She obviously did a heck of a job,” sniped one colleague. “She has a lot of questions to answer.” The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Others in the administration say that the White House let political fear of GOP attacks make them act too cautiously on relocating Afghans to the U.S.
As one administration official put it: “It’s like they want the credit from liberals for ending the Trump cruelty to immigrants and refugees but they also don’t want the political backlash that comes from actual refugees arriving in America in any sort of large numbers.”
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My wish casting for the day.
So I guess women aren’t allowed to have any jobs whatsoever anymore?
At this exact moment, they are still allowed to have jobs and be otherwise treated like people with no announced plans to change that.
Colbert said female employees were forced out of a bank in Kandahar at gunpoint and told a male relative could take their place.
I’m sure it will be fine!
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strong text[quote=“simplicitus, post:322, topic:6139, full:true”]
The US military seems like it could use more sociologists. It appears our biggest military mistakes over the last 20 (60?) years is not appreciating the social reality of the situations in which we find ourselves.
I’ve always thought that tactics and logistics are harder than strategy, but strategy seems to be our weak point.
[/quote]
The strategy is to make money
Mission A
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