Published over a decade ago but Jeremy Scahill's book on Blackwater and the rise of Prince's mercenary-centric idea of warfare is worth a read.
This family and people like them are pure fucking evil. They give no fucks about the lives they destroy.
Read the book "Blackwater" if you want an idea. Also pretty relevant because it discusses a lot of Erik Prince's political views as well as the DeVos family. Disgusting to see Betsy DeVos in a position of power ESPECIALLY concerning education.
Honestly, I never let it bother me. In reality as a special forces guy (O'Neill) and an astrophysicist (Carter), it's very likely that in the real world neither of them would have been a pilot as they quite simply would not have had time to be trained as one plus their main job. Besides which, as I'm reading an F-16 pilot's memoir, fighter pilot slots are actually pretty rare in the Air Force. Granted, this doesn't really jive with the fact that they can actually fly, as we've seen, but either way.
Read Tom Satterly's book. Retired CSM who spent close to 20 years in Delta. Even in top top echelon special forces units, there's still a lot of toxicity and a culture that you're always one misstep away from being hammerfucked by the giant green weenie.
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https://www.amazon.com/All-Secure-Operators-Battlefield-Homefront-ebook/dp/B07H2D6B4K
First, can we stop posting screenshots? It's the lowest level of shitposting, at least include a link in the comments.
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Second, but related to first, it's not a simple issue. I read the book about this: Black Hearts, this guy should not have been in the military in the first place, then you have multiple failures of leadership on all levels, and once you ready the book - you will think that one dead Iraqi family is getting off easy for the situation US military was in.
Oh lord no, I’m out. Did my four years and bounced. I was regular army, nothing special. I was an FO attached to an infantry platoon, but I didn’t get to be a terribly dangerous person until after that deployment when I got more strenuous training, by which time it was time to go back and pull tower guard for a bunch of MARSOC. At the time I was describing I was a spare rifleman and a radio bitch in the Headquarters. Actually, being a radio bitch was pretty cool- I got the scoop on every firefight, convoy, and blasted Afghan trucker in a fifty click radius.
If you really want to black pill yourself, check out Black Hearts about a couple of infantry guys in Iraq who went off the deep end and committed war crimes for fun.
My feelings on the matter of the Forever War are somewhat conflicted, but I consider it unarguable that our stated goal of establishing a stable democracy in Afghanistan is inherently unobtainable, and that it is a grave sin to wage war in pursuit of an objective that cannot possibly happen. A war without a win condition is simply well-organized mass murder, regardless of how honorably or dishonorably the guys fighting it behave. So even if I still had the crusader spirit and wanted to wipe the earth clean of all the bigots and sectarian butchers and reactionary terrorists in Afghanistan, I’d still want out because we can’t pull it off and so oughtta stop trying.
I would have to recommend anything by Bing West. Here's his Amazon page.
In particular, No True Glory, "A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah" is very good.
A somewhat unusual hypothesis is that, in modern society, we are far too comfortable and lonely. For almost our entire history as a species, we woke up every day with a very clear purpose: collect the food and resources necessary to keep you and your group (family, friends, etc) alive while also protecting you and your group from very real external threats (warfare, predation, etc). Fail to do these tasks, and you and your group may die.
Contrast that to now, an age in which people are constantly looking to find meaning and new challenges in their lives. We are not presented with fundamental life-or-death challenges regularly, and our minds are going haywire as a result.
Also, those of us living in large urban areas do not have a 'group' in the same way that early humans did. Studies show that people living in NYC are some of the loneliest people on earth, while those living in rural areas statistically have much larger networks of friends and associates and deeper relationships with those people.
The hypothesis is that, while certainly stressful on some level, these fundamental challenges and close-knit relationships gave our lives meaning in a way that modern life does not.
Again, this is just a hypothesis that I find interesting. There are many other compelling explanations.
If you are interested in exploring this further, check out Sebastian Junger's book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
There's an entire book written on this theory.
I actually just got done reading it this week. It really makes you think.
You cannot go wrong with Tribe by Sebastian Junger. It’s short, just under 200 pages, but it’s packed full of fascinating ideas from across the world. He talks why tribes are important and why people in modern society are hurting for more meaning in their lives. You’ll learn about different cultures, the mind and history. It’s fascinating. I could not put it down.
No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah by Bing West.
Awesome book. Was bought by a film studio a long time ago and Harrison Ford was connected, but obviously nothing has ever come of it.
Sorry, couldn't respond because I had to go to bed. Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, like I said, ultimately it's hard to get around the fact that it worked out about the way people predicted it would - that we would get ensnared in a conflict we couldn't "win" by our own definition. But, I do believe that Bush actually believed in spreading democracy and freedom, and had a (somewhat) reasonable goal compared to Trump's policies.
I haven't actually read either of them, but if you're interested in learning about Iraq (and military affairs in general) in a more nuanced way, check out:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SEGHCS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
or
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008J4RONU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Admittedly, I've only read small parts of each, but both are excellent journalists/writers and they should be good.
Everyone who found this TIL interesting should read the book Viper Pilot. It is truly one of the best and most entertaining books I've ever read. It blows every other military / combat book I've read out of the water. His stories are so epic, I read the book in two sittings...
Everyone who found this TIL interesting should read the book Viper Pilot. It is truly one of the best and most entertaining books I've ever read. It blows every other military / combat book I've read out of the water. His stories are so epic and engaging that I read the book in two sittings...
There were a few issues with what I wrote in my first, post...comes with writing all that after a few glasses of Jack Daniels. You should read my answer to OPs reply. Did some more research on the stuff I just kinda glossed over last night. This foreign policy article might have some good information for you. There's a lot out there, but it seems to do a nice job summing things up.
Also, if you want a good source of information about the run up to the invasion of iraq itself, I cannot recommend George Packer's The Assassin's Gate highly enough.
http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-II-Inside-Invasion-Occupation-ebook/dp/B000GCFCK0
Page 13-14 "Once the two men [Clinton and Bush] were behind closed, Clinton told Bush that he read his campaign statements carefully and his impression was that his two priorities were national missile defense and Iraq. Bush said this was correct"
This was in December 2000. Of course keep in mind the US maintained air patrols in Iraq and had since the Gulf War. The book also details how the Iraq invasion was on the president's mind even shortly after 9/11.
I just finished reading the biography of Chris Kyle, where he talks about using this technique in Iraq.