Chase the Rabbits

So, it's Friday night, and as usual, we need some sort of entertainment. Tonight's theme: fitness. Here's what happens when a computer geek meets a Navy SEAL for PT. It's not pretty. But does he learn? Oh no.

Comments

Only because you're a hypersensitive twit.

[nurightshu]

Okay, I've got karma to burn (not that lack of it's ever stopped me before).

Lighten the ever-loving fuck up! These guys are the salt of the earth -- I should know; I served in the military myself. And to rebut your histrionic simpering, I present the following points:

• [H]ow many people (innocents, no less) have been killed[?] Not nearly as many as you think. Innocents are protected under the Laws of Armed Conflict, and {God|Allah|Buddha|Bob} help the soldier caught harassing, molesting, or injuring a non-combatant. You will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Uniform Code of Military Justice -- and the time you'll serve in a federal military penitentiary is hard time.
• Uptight: Maybe sometimes...like when we're at fucking attention! If he's not in a formation, a soldier would much rather be sitting than standing, lying down than sitting, and asleep much more than awake.
• Anti-homosexual: You've got a little bit of a point there. However, I'm gay, and it never bothered my coworkers a bit.
• Redneck: Au contraire, the average soldier is much more likely to be a tough kid from the barrio or a New England swamp Yankee than a redneck, at least in my experience. The occasional redneck I dealt with was almost universally the subject of pity from his more erudite compatriots.
• Bloodthirsty: To borrow from Tom Clancy, "Most of the Marines I know prefer beer." The soldiers I've known who had real combat time didn't glorify their experiences in the least. War is a savage and brutal act, the final extension of foreign policy, and its practitioners are sometimes required to undertake dangerous or distasteful tasks. Nonetheless, sometimes diplomacy fails (in the current case, when a bunch of religious zombies decided to turn the deaths of thousands of innocent people -- of all nations -- into a bloody public statement of hatred). When it does fail, soldiers must make war with justice, practiced skill, and swift surety, but never with unchecked agression.
• Automatons: The ultimate soldier is one who is capable of making intelligent and rational decisions with a minimum of oversight from his chain of command. Although ultimately responsible to his superiors for his actions and the actions of those under his command, a soldier must have the capacity to operate independently of his superiors, and the wisdom to meet the mission goals with his operations plan. Automatons are what other nations use as cannon fodder.

Have Afghan civilians died? Certainly. That's the nature of war. Sometimes people die in combat. Sometimes those people have done nothing wrong. But the goal of the United States is not the wholesale slaughter of innocents; to the contrary, we've gone out of our way to ensure their safety time and again. And as for Israelis slaughtering Palestinians, I'd call the last, oh, 96 hours or so in Israel a pretty good indication of who the aggressors are. While one side attempts to negotiate in good faith, the other side is setting of suicide bombs in public places. Who's the good guy to you?

Next time you want to whimper about how terrible the U.S. military is, remember that their mission is to act as guarantors of freedom not merely for the U.S., but for the world. Sometimes the mere threat of their use is enough to cause aggressive individuals to reconsider. Sometimes we actually have to show the intestinal fortitude to use them. And sometimes, every once in a while, I wish they'd call in airstrikes on idiot hippies like you.

Re:Only because you're a hypersensitive twit.

[MadFarmAnimalz]

And as for Israelis slaughtering Palestinians, I'd call the last, oh, 96 hours or so in Israel a pretty good indication of who the aggressors are. While one side attempts to negotiate in good faith, the other side is setting of suicide bombs in public places. Who's the good guy to you?

Let me join you in karma burning. I think this post is worth the trouble.

First, my bias to give you something to guage by: I'm half Arab half Scandinavian; lived half my life in the middle east, and I do now.

A few points:

1. You have no grasp of the facts on the ground. I do. Please read up on history first and seek the other side's bias first to better draw your own conclusions.

2. Your world view is a little too simplistic to be constructive. There are only good guys and bad guys in elementary school and Hollywood. The peace process gets derailed every time someone starts looking for 'good guys' and 'bad guys'.

3. Slashdot works better when we keep the politics out of it. Or, at least, the misinformed politics. Your post surprised me because I was under the impression that most shashdotters take the trouble to verify what the mainstream media has to say about issues.

Sayonara karma; you have served me well.

I've run that course

[AlaskanUnderachiever]

It's called "living in rural Alaska" and for anyone that's bored of the SEAL training, they should try cross country running. . . on tundra. . .at -50 below. . . while being chased by bison. . . in a blizzard. .

all to get the sunday paper. . .

Re:No need for fitness!!

[Galvatron]

A high school bio teacher once told me that a friend of his in his youth (he was probably about 60) said the same thing to him when told he should quit smoking. "By the time I'm old enough, they'll have a cure for cancer." Oops.