prole

no. From a well-known researcher on cults:

Welcome.

And if he had?

Oaths that require someone to commit unconscionable acts under false pretenses were meant to be broken. Whether or not he ran and hid afterward is beside the point.

From what's been said, a fan of the Nuremburg rallies (in principle, at least).

Well that's a question worth pondering, soldier!

Or a solder for that matter.

I'm pulling for a cabinet post appointment for Tom Clancy under a McCain administration.

Oh yeah, and undergone some of the most intense psychological indoctrination techniques devised in order to instill these traits?

Nice. Now again, why would I ask someone who's "not paid to think above their pay-grade", trained to follow orders without question, willingly accepts their role as a tool of the State, and surrenders their intellect and identity to the chain of command anything about matters of policy?

Yeah I'd say it's a probable scenario too, considering the US will end up spending $3,000,000,000,000 (that's a trillion, right?) to have brought most of those conditions into existence already.

Will do.

I'm sorry you decided to join the "I'm-Here-To-Talk-Not_Listen" Club here at CC.com. I never said the soldiers who died were special-ed, I said I was tired of people handling you folks with kid-gloves as if you were because telling you that you're not fighting and dying for "your country" but a warped policy agenda gone wrong would hurt too bad. Grow up, hurry home and for god sakes don't cut anybody's wiener off when you get back.

Tell it like is is black-brother!

Prole, you've got some serious issues, man. You've demonstrated why civil engagement with your type is utterly pointless. Scott H has opened up and presented you with opportunities to engage and learn --to participate in that whole open mind principle you lefties are always chest-beating about. You've passed up this opportunity to, basically, spit on a vet. You're just as smug, arrogant, and intellectually dishonest as FearandGreed. Whoop-Whoop! It's the Ironically Politically Correct Thought Police! I'm surprised it took so long for you guys to show. What exactly is open minded dialogue about somebody spewing the tiredest "stay the course all the way to Tehran" type bullshit and using vet-status as cover? Just as Scott is "tired of trying to win hearts and minds", I'm tired of kow-towing to some absurd notion that some military personnel's dumbassed opinions are off-limits because they've joined the Army. Use your fucking brain. Personally, I've always thought joining the military was the easiest thing one could do: what could be easier than not having to think for yourself, having someone tell you when to take a shit, eat, shoot, sleep. No wonder people join right out of high-school! Anyway, Scott's right, all this "support the troops" stuff is just a bunch of hypocritical bullshit. I support the individuals, not the "troops", not soldiering as a cultural institution. It's an anachronism. Soldiers these days are just a state sanctioned subculture of gun and violence fetishizing homo-repressed whack-jobs. They could just as easily be Juggalos or Trekkies, they just happen to fit a personality type that the State can use to do its dirty work. What really is seriously sad though is that they've been deluded into thinking they're doing what they're told to do for everyone else's benefit ("Fighting the Nazis since 1945!"). Liberals and conservatives alike have been guilt-tripped into joining this circle-jerk. Liberals only play into it cause I think they really do care about the person underneath and the "support the troops" crap is just a necessary evil. I mean, who would support a military purely out of principle? Besides Fairweather I mean. It's a joke. Conservatives only "support the troops" purely in the abstract. They don't give a fuck about the individuals, only nonsensical abstractions like "honor", "glory", etc. and of course to fulfill their idiotic fantasies of world-domination, national purity and the like. Creepy. So both sides are caught when an actual "troop" speaks up: liberals when a soldier makes a case for keeping himself employed and conservatives when a soldier frags an officer or joins a book-tour. Spare me your sanctimonious pious outrage about spitting on vets. Please! Ugh, and all of this garbage about "oh, well I respect him because he's acting on his principles". What a load of horseshit. Nobody would say that about a suicide bomber, a child molester, or a Scientologist, or even a soldier in a government's military whose policies you disagreed with. No, you'd actually examine their principles and then make a judgment! Not here. No, here the principles no matter how dumb or misguided are taken for granted. It's like the "troops" are in the Special Olympics or something. Jesus.

Well good luck working things out with Dad and that whole ticker-tape parade thing you're looking for.

cheaper this way. Is it? Link

Oh, so what you're saying is that you really dig your job, you buy into all the bullshit, you hope it lasts forever, and you don't give a fuck who pays for it. Just as your avatars suggest. You should have gone to a shrink instead of the recruitment office.

It saddens me but doesn't surprise me that those who are still clinging most desperately to the mythologies of this invasion and occupation against all evidence and reason are those who most badly need to, just to get through the day. I guess if I'd seen the things you'd seen, I'd tell myself what I needed to hear too. You guys got fucked over bad. I'm sorry I couldn't have done more.

I wonder if your co-workers are a excited as you are at the prospect of being deployed in the Middle East into your seventies. ...the fact the entire planet from Bush Administration officials to 5-graders knows that the "mission" has been a tragic, colossal, criminal, unwinnable mistake except for the people that have the most to lose, namely you?

Well, you not only seem pretty psyched to be there but you're pretty fired up to convince the voters on this board to keep you there. Good luck with that seeing as how this seems to be how you're spending your (ample) down time.

Apparently you didn't get the memo, dumbass.

Scott, instead of seeking to change all our minds or clinging desperately to "old news" justifications for a failed war, step back look deep within yourself and ask: "how did I get myself here and how the fuck am I going to get out". Then seek help to process your frustrations about being lied to and ease your reintegration into society and get on with your life. We all respect your personal decisions and sacrifice for a cause you believe in. Now get up from the computer and start figuring out how to get out of this war and stay out of the next one.

Perhaps if you could be a little more specific in your definition of terms...