Marine on the bus

Spare me. Americans are usually criticised for being too patriotic, too keen on supporting our troops fighting in the middle east. So which is it?

That marine probably had bad ptsd. Returning to civilian life is a little different than being shot at daily and hearing rockets and mortars explode constantly. That is also where the disrespect for civilians comes from. I imagine it's hard to be on the same level as people who have never known war when it's all you've known for the past however many years.

The military offers little mental health care for returning soldiers. That's the real problem.

Also I'm not sure there is a polite way to tell someone to stop their private phone conversation. Challenging someone's views when they're sharing them with you is one thing, but the guy was on the phone.

 

There hasn't been a draft in quite some time. So yes, these people are choosing to support the war by willingly joining.

 

Rather than say: Most military folk are not like modern day Nazi's - you say:

Do you think most of them are or most of them are not?
What makes you think most of them are or most of them are not?

Are you saying that the ones that are not modern day Nazi's are well meaning dupes?
What makes you think that or doesn't make you think that?

So you have no idea what the majority of those in the military think?
Obviosly they follow orders - good and bad.
That's called 'being in the military'.
What do you want them to say: "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker", and do what ever they want?

So, what evidence have you of what they actually think of them?

Perhaps 'shit' is the operative word.

I did not vote you down, but can see why people did.
It seemed like a generic swipe.

If somebody said: 60 soldiers committed suicide last year.
You seem like the person to say: Yeah, well, I'm not surprised - I would if I was forced to kill people on a daily basis etc etc etc.

If I were to say: Only 3 soldiers committed suicide last year.
You seem like the person to say: Well, yeah, most of them don't give a shit and love killing people - they have no heart etc etc etc .

If I were to say: Well, there is no difference - in No.s - between military suicides and and civilian suicides.
You seem like the person to not bother to find out if that is true, and just either remain silent or wait to hear what you wanted to hear.

 

Probably means your formulated opinion isn't as popular as you hoped it would be.

 

Props for standing up to that douche-bag, he was well out of line. It's funny, but there's this popular conception of marines and soldiers as ultra-disciplined, almost robotic in how they interact with non-combatants (as in the whole, 'yes, ma'am', 'negative', 'affirmative' talk). And yet time and again, there's incidents with off-duty marines getting into scuffles with civilians.

I think this shows not a lack of discipline, so much as highlight a popular misunderstanding of the type of discipline that comes with - lets be honest here - killing other human beings for a living.

Despite that the army (like the police) might have a vocational appeal to violent-minded proto-fascist types, in practice it's apparently quite difficult to get people to go the full nine and pull the trigger when told to. Even in your corn-fed liberal-hating lunatic, it seems there's all kinds of inhibitions you need to get around.

This is where army psychology comes into play. A substantial part of military training, apart from getting up to par physically, is devoted towards breaking down those 'innate' psychological reservations against killing. That's to say, part of the training that goes into preparing recruits for combat is to instill in them a mindset that in the straight 'civilian' world is considered 'psychopathic'. And as is borne out by the countless reports of soldiers with dire psychological problems after returning from combat zones, this is a process not so easily reversed.

I'm not at all saying this to excuse the guy - rather, what I'm suggesting is that there's a host of rarely discussed social problems that come from having an army of organic killing-machines in the first place.

 

Well stated.


A complete stranger comments to another stranger on a personal phone call and conversation that is occurring and wonders why there is animosity returned?

Then to add fuel to the fire another party decides that they too should weigh in and it deteriorates even further.

Small wonder.

 

im sorry sappho, im afraid you have an incurable form of narrowmindedness. some anti-biased medication might be helpful, but there is no known cure for this level of unreasonableness.

 

I bet the OP is exaggerating more than a wee bit.
While I'm not saying it's not possible, I am wondering why a marine, whose been in for 16 years, is riding a bus in his uniform. I mean, there are a bunch of other unlikely scenarios in this "story" too.

 

Bullshit

 

I can't honestly say I've heard these precise set of circumstances before, and it seems highly unlikely somebody was talking about Obama, women, liberals etc (probably guns and gay marriage) on their mobile phone (how'd ya get yourself into that conversation?) - but you never know.
They do say: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

 

perk of the military, if you are in uniform, you get stuff. notice at concerts and events and television tapings- they love to give the military good seats. and unless you are an obvious douchebag, you get respect.

 

Indeed.

I served in the Marine Corps, during wartime, and have a case of "mild" PTSD and I have never once known or heard of a brother Marine acting like this.

 

Hey, ThePoetSappho, in your fantasy was the Marine wearing a camouflage uniform?

 

So are you insinuating they get a free bus ride? And that's suppose to be a perk? Haha. Like I said, the dude has a paycheck coming in, and has consistently for the last 16 years, and he's riding the bus? It's not likely he has to pay for parking at work, nor is it likely for the bus line to be convienent to base, and from the sounds of it, I doubt he cares about the environment. Sure, there could be a sound reason for taking the bus, but I seriously doubt he was talking in the manner the op suggested. Not every military dude is a bright bulb, but I'm sure that the marine realizes the serious consequences of talking in that fashion while in uniform.

And the steroid comment really made me LoL. I'm sure he's doing some Lance Armstrong shit to avoid pissing dirty. Yes, I am going to come out and suggest the OP is a liar, a bad one at that.

 

not free, discounts usually. or he could have had orders, if they dont want to put you on a plane, they will put you on a bus. also it is impractical for most military to have cars, what do you do when you are deployed? sell it? store it for a crazy price? at NAVSTAGLAKES there are jam vans lined up outside the gates, simply because most dont drive.

 

We all have our moments

 

Lulz. If personal attacks were allowed on this free speech forum, I may suggest that you're an idiot. But they're not, so I'll just leave it at that.

 

marine on the bus goes yell, yell, yell
yell, yell, yell
yell, yell, yell
marine on the bus goes yell, yell, yell
all day long

hippie on the bus acts self righteous
self righteous
self righteous
hippie on the bus acts self righteous
all day long

 

I applaud your effort... but you fell a little short this time.