The twilight days of Pax Americana and its coming fall

#1

Gandalf

The Orange/White Wizard
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#1


This video says pretty much everything you need to know about America, China, and Russia. How they see their place in this world and how they are preparing to take it. Consider, these recruitment videos are not just what these militaries are telling the world about themselves, they are broadcasting how they see themselves and what they believe will be attractive to the potential recruits from the "best" and brightest of the type they want to join them.

You do not need to speak Russian or Chinese to understand the message each delivers. As a thought exercise, answer each question after watching:

How do the Chinese see themselves? What do they believe makes them strong? If you think to attack them, when you look into their eyes, do you have thought to reconsider?
How do the Russians see themselves? What do they believe makes them strong? If you think to attack them, when you look into their eyes, do you have thought to reconsider?
How do the Americans see themselves? What do they believe makes them strong? If you think to attack them, when you look into their eyes, do you have thought to reconsider?

From a discussion on the fall of Rome:
The decay of the army, according to the 5th-century Roman historian Vegetius, came from within the army itself. The army grew weak from a lack of wars and stopped wearing their protective armor. This made them vulnerable to enemy weapons and provided the temptation to flee from battle. Security may have led to the cessation of the rigorous drills. Vegetius said the leaders became incompetent and rewards were unfairly distributed. In addition, as time went on, Roman citizens, including soldiers and their families living outside of Italy, identified with Rome less and less compared to their Italian counterparts. They preferred to live as natives, even if this meant poverty, which, in turn, meant they turned to those who could help—Germans, brigands, Christians, and Vandals.

Now consider this from a recent piece in the American Conservative:
I repeat what one active-duty service member told me not long ago, paraphrased: “The Pentagon doesn’t know how to win a real war against America’s enemies, so it’s focusing on winning the culture war against conservatives in the ranks.”

Whether you believe American military leadership is purifying its ranks or not, what matters is that significant portions of the American public do believe that and will make decisions accordingly. If the American public no longer identifies as American but as "natives" of some other tribe, what will be the result?

Every great empire has fallen from within long before it falls to "invaders". Consider how much effect a cohesive culture has on a mere football team, irrespective of its talent or even coaching. What then lays in store for our own nation, when forces are hell-bent on obliterating it to such a degree that the traits of self-reliance, hard work, timeliness, and rational thinking are actually held up as symbols of oppression?
 
#4
#4
I have many conflicted feelings on this.

So what if the best sniper ever to live likes to wear high heels and put his makeup on with a trowel when away on leave? If he can make more of the enemy die for their cause than ours do for hours, who cares about his fashion sense?

We should have an armed forces that represents the colorful mosaic that is the United States. And we should have an armed forces that is prepared to defeat enemies at the drop of a hat with no question as to the success of the mission.
 
#5
#5
I have made a lot of friends on this board and irl who have served in the military. I respect those who have served. With that said, I think America needs to radically rethink how we approach voluntary military service.
 
#6
#6
I have many conflicted feelings on this.

So what if the best sniper ever to live likes to wear high heels and put his makeup on with a trowel when away on leave? If he can make more of the enemy die for their cause than ours do for hours, who cares about his fashion sense?

We should have an armed forces that represents the colorful mosaic that is the United States. And we should have an armed forces that is prepared to defeat enemies at the drop of a hat with no question as to the success of the mission.

I do think the attitudes of most soldiers have changed since my time and few probably care what their fellow soldier, marine, sailor airman do in their off duty hours. It's the double standards and accommodations made for <pick a group> that rubs people the wrong way.
 
#9
#9
I have many conflicted feelings on this.

So what if the best sniper ever to live likes to wear high heels and put his makeup on with a trowel when away on leave? If he can make more of the enemy die for their cause than ours do for hours, who cares about his fashion sense?

We should have an armed forces that represents the colorful mosaic that is the United States. And we should have an armed forces that is prepared to defeat enemies at the drop of a hat with no question as to the success of the mission.
No we should have a army of the meanest and baddest humans alive. Not caring about themselves, but for this great nation and willing to die for it. Skin color doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, religion doesn't matter, and most importantly quotas don't matter.
 
#10
#10
No we should have a army of the meanest and baddest humans alive. Not caring about themselves, but for this great nation and willing to die for it. Skin color doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, religion doesn't matter, and most importantly quotas don't matter.

I agree completely. I just said it differently and a little more obtusely.
 
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#11
#11
I have many conflicted feelings on this.

So what if the best sniper ever to live likes to wear high heels and put his makeup on with a trowel when away on leave? If he can make more of the enemy die for their cause than ours do for hours, who cares about his fashion sense?

We should have an armed forces that represents the colorful mosaic that is the United States. And we should have an armed forces that is prepared to defeat enemies at the drop of a hat with no question as to the success of the mission.

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The problem is not that the talented individual is not willing to do their duty or even that they may love their country (perhaps more than others) - it is about what makes the unit stronger, more cohesive. Mosaics are colorful but have no loadbearing strength. By way of example, is it worth it to offer a very talented player if he totally disrupts the locker room?
 
#12
#12
The problem is not that the individual is not willing to do their duty or even that they may love their country (perhaps more than others) - it is about what makes the unit stronger. Mosaics are colorful but have no loadbearing strength. By way of example, is it worth it to offer a very talented player if he totally disrupts the locker room?

Or if the talented player isn't disruptive, but the rest of the team discriminates based on ignorance and causes issues with their behavior towards the player?
 
#13
#13
No we should have a army of the meanest and baddest humans alive. Not caring about themselves, but for this great nation and willing to die for it. Skin color doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, religion doesn't matter, and most importantly quotas don't matter.

Screw that! I wanted to live for my country and make the other MFer die for his.
 
#14
#14
Or if the talented player isn't disruptive, but the rest of the team discriminates based on ignorance and causes issues with their behavior towards the player?

Perhaps so - but your concern is how all this effects the talented player - not the team. You want to change the whole team to benefit the one player rather than change the player to benefit the team. In this case, simply select from those players most simpatico to the current team. When the program is there to benefit the players, we have rather "lost the plot" especially in regards to the military. The same can be said that a police force does not exist to give blue collar workers a job.
 
#16
#16
Perhaps so - but your concern is how all this effects the talented player - not the team. When the program is there to benefit the players, we have rather "lost the plot" especially in regards to the military. The same can be said that a police force does not exist to give blue collar workers a job.

So you're taking up for the players who sodomize their teammate with a stick for being gay, and not the player who no one would have realized was gay unless a friend accidentally outted them.

Pretty sick way to side, if you ask me.
 
#18
#18
No we should have a army of the meanest and baddest humans alive. Not caring about themselves, but for this great nation and willing to die for it. Skin color doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, religion doesn't matter, and most importantly quotas don't matter.
How many of those have been wasted in the past 20yrs? Could probably go back to Korea, Vietnam, etc
 
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#20
#20
#21
#21
No we should have a army of the meanest and baddest humans alive. Not caring about themselves, but for this great nation and willing to die for it. Skin color doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, religion doesn't matter, and most importantly quotas don't matter.
How about we have a military that is actually used for defense and not for military policing and serving the interests of corporations?
 
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#24
#24
So you're taking up for the players who sodomize their teammate with a stick for being gay, and not the player who no one would have realized was gay unless a friend accidentally outted them.

Pretty sick way to side, if you ask me.

Stop with your trying to twist my argument into some sort of anti gay thing - we get it, you like to ride the gay hobbie horse even if it runs off a cliff. If America were ancient Thebes then it would be better to have an army of paired gay lovers - but we aren't (not yet at least). And my original post isnt even really about gays in the military per se, its about elevating ANYTHING above military capability in the military.

I mean look at the lean hungry wolf like eyes of the Chinese and Russian videos, then see the doey eyed "ME ME ME, ITS ALL ABOUT ME AND MY JOURNEY" one that we put out. When real predators see weakness, they begin to salivate.
 

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