[stg58fal]

Originally Posted by Targan

Stg58fal, I completely understand you not wanting to see American troops killed in a war half a world away over a conflict that has little to do with America. Most of the rest of your post seemed like a thinly-veiled rant against the side of American politics that you don't like.

I didn't think it was veiled at all, I thought I was pretty clear. Let me make it abundantly clear, then: our leadership is a bunch of weak-kneed scumturds who care only about pandering to the parasite classes, because that's what will get them re-elected.

Suggesting that any US President, whether they're Democrat or Republican, would wait for an already-launched Russian ICBM to hit American soil before taking any retaliatory action, beggars belief.

I have a hard time believing that any president since Reagan, and most of CONgress if they were to be elected president, would respond to almost any aggression against this country without first getting a couple of opinion polls, seeing what Wall Street thinks, and asking everyone else for permission. There was a time when we got things done. Now? Not so much. Maybe that's a good thing. It could be, I guess, if it means we finally start minding our own business instead of doing things all over the world that make people hate us.

You don't like the UN, fine. What's the alternative? No organisation of its kind?

Sounds good to me.

I doubt many forum members here think that the US should go head-to-head (militarilly speaking) with Russia over the Crimea, but there are reasons other than prestige and money for the world to try and stop what's happening in the Ukraine. How about knowing when the actions of a major power are fundamentally wrong? How about standing up for the oppressed underdog? I remember when the US and its allies were into that. I guess money and national interests will always trump knowing right from wrong in this new age of enlightenment huh?

Except this is really boiling down to prestige and money. Russia isn't thrilled about the idea of NATO bases on their doorstep, and I can't say that I blame them. Somebody pissed in someone else's Cheerio's about a gas pipeline, and now there's a military conflict going on.

Yeah, we've stood up for the underdog...and what has it gotten us? Hated throughout the world, massive debt, out of control spending, and watching our sons get blown to bits in someone else's wars. And for what? Ultimately, for what? So some fat bastard in Washington can make another million, and some rich bankster can afford a new private jet instead of flying around in one that's a year or two old.

I don't like seeing how the vets of Iraq and Afghanistan are treated. They bleed for this society, and when they ask for something in return, it treats them like uppity slaves. They risk their lives, and come home to find out not only has their wife been sleeping with every guy she could find, she's divorced them while they were gone, and they're making payments to her for the rest of their life, and the court just say "Lulz, datz da LAW". They watch their friends die, and they come home to no jobs and no one gives a crap about the demons that they are dealing with on a daily basis.

I'm glad that I got out when I did. And with all the things I've learned in the past year, I'm ashamed that I was ever stupid enough to volunteer to risk my life for a society that views me as nothing more than a utility and whatever resources someone else can harvest from me.

I don't want to see ANY more young men throw their lives away so someone else can get rich, in the name of a society that views them as nothing. I don't care if they're American, British, German, Russian, Ukrainian, what-have-you. Even Australian.