as to be meaningless. Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine have demonstrated (in some cases repeatedly) the limits of spending one's way to military success.

Most bragging is just people demonstrating how shallow their own thinking is.

pretty much all of the Eastern Hemisphere.

remember anyone talking like that back then. People didn’t constantly say “thank you for your service”. People didn’t idolize the military like they do now. If it was mentioned at all it would be a joke about FUBAR or SNAFU and how nothing ever goes right in the army. Of course, they had a high regard for everyone who served and they deeply honored the sacrifice that they and their fellow service members made, but they didn’t need to make a big deal about it because it was real to them. For many too real.

People today love the military because it’s macho and kicks ass and makes them feel important. It’s like supporting a winning football team. It’s shallow sentimentality, just like their expressions of patriotism and Christian faith. It makes my skin crawl.

die in front of them and they had to keep on fighting. They had no idea when the war would end. And most of them did NOT want to talk about it at all. WAR really is hell.

My dad, was in the Battle of the Bulge. Two Purple Hearts and one Bronze Star. He would never talk about it. He would get mad if I (being a stupid teenager) asked him anything. We didn't know anything about his awards, until after his death. He almost died in a POW camp.

Killing and being killed.

Nothing to talk or joke about.
Or pound your chest about.

were glad to have survived and didn't show much interest in guns.

Helicopters flew across Caracas, landed in Maduro’s front yard, grabbed them, and took off?

Back in a place called Vietnam, I helicoptered into a lot of landing zones. It’s noisy, busy, and gets a lot of attention.

How about this rumor: Maduro’s “capture” was set up in advance. He will plead guilty to some stuff, be sentenced, Trump will pardon him, then he can live safely and quietly in the US — which is far superior to being deposed and killed in a coup.

There are videos this morning of burning ground defense systems in Venezuela.

He was undoubtedly turned over by his own forces. The entire thing took two hours.

But…the entire air defense system was likely jammed by the US. Any threats were destroyed by drones and Apache helicopters. Despite Maduro’s bluster, Venezuela had no realistic chance of doing anything. I also doubt there people were going to realistically die for a dictator that made each of their lives that difficult. During Vietnam, they could still shoot down un-armored helicopters with rifle fire.

Meaning they had little communication, no radar guided weapons. We used a huge amount of assets on this.

He contributed his assholiness.

They are 8, so that would not be something to be proud of.

I'm not sure how many in this thread have been in the military, but I suspect not many.

Is our military its senior officer corps or the mass of people who do what that officer corps tells them to do? Which "military" is being discussed?

I'm a veteran, but I was never near any place where there was warlike activity happening. I have an expert marksman ribbon that I earned, but other than at the range in basic training, I never saw a weapon. So, was I military? I don't know, but I wore the uniform for four years and got paid no more than $256 per month at any time. Why did I do that? I don't have a sensible answer for that question, but I don't regret those years.

It's relatively stupid to talk about "the military" without being very specific about what you're talking about.

Such threads as this one rarely do much of anything to enlighten anyone.

Didn't he (trump) take a bullet, for the country?. Seems like, I read that somewhere. Maybe it was Fox/false news. (sarcasm)

If you have to brag about your military then you have a problem. The amount of resources spent on the military/industrial/university/congressional complex is astounding.

How many join the military because of lack of options?

Sure, the military is an impressive machine but at what cost?

The military, imo, as currently constructed and organized is made to fight wars that do not get fought anymore. Asymmetrical warfare, intense urban warfare, informational warfare etc are far more difficult to fight. Hell, the book on insurgency was shown to be useless in Iraq/Afganistan.

The American people are indoctrinated to rah-rah-ism and exceptionalism which means they don’t ask questions.

I'm just asking, because it makes a difference how you view it, I think.

But I'm female, and when I was the right age to enlist I didn't know any women who were doing that.

the USAF at that time. There still are, of course. I'm not really talking about you personally. It's just that people tend to comment on "the military" without being clear what they're talking about. It's not just one thing, you see. People like me, for example were IN the military, but had nothing to say about what the military did or did not do. We just had jobs, most of which had nothing to do with fighting.

I'm just trying to clarify the term a little more for everyone. Not everyone connected with the military is "the military."

Although I had a couple of relatives who served in WWII nobody of my generation enlisted. My father had a medical exclusion. So my impressions are from a distance.

I was in the military, so I feel OK about commenting in threads about the military. I do know something about how it operates and who is in charge.

It was my choice. I needed a few year to figure out what direction to take with my life. I didn't want to be drafted into the Army, so I enlisted in the USAF. It was an interesting four years. At the end of that, I was 24 years old and ready to return to college and get on with my life. I had decided what I wanted to do during my enlistment and also learned many other things that would be useful to me.

But, hey, thanks for paying your taxes!

... make a pressure free choice.

I'd do it again. It taught me how show up every day, how to get along, about working on machinery I'd never get to touch as a civilian. That maintenance was worth a bunch of knowing how to fix it, and that fixing it right took less time and money than knocking it out, I learned that crew cooperation made everything run smoother. And I got education that made college work smoother for me once I reentered school as a civilian again.

I got to go places and see things I'd have missed if I had stayed in Akron, where I was comfortable but not getting anywhere. And where else was I going to ever get to ride in a submarine?

I thank you for your service because you showed up. And if the shit got deep, you knew how to pull your trouser legs up and wade through. How to maintain coolness when cool was the tool to head off a disaster. How to keep reaction in proportion to the event.

I pay my taxes because government contracts to the lowest bidder, but I still like good roads and bridges. Being sure those in lesser circumstances get a chance. Same as you. We only want the wealthy to pay their fair share. The system helps them preserve their wealth. It's only fair they pay for what they have, you and I paid by being available to do whatever needed to be done to keep the system paying off for them: they need to be paying at a significantly higher rate cash-wise than we of the middle and lower classes. We risked our lives - even the clerks and office personnel, they get to open their wallets.

... we won't have to start from scratch. A good military shortens wars. And WWII was ended by a huge percentage of those who were not ready to be in the military. Having a skeleton of veterans already in uniform and trained saved lives.

I submit the largest, most well equipped humanitarian relief organizations is the US military. And our military has been used as peace keepers all over the planet, putting themselves between partisans in terrible situations. I'd ask millions of civilians in Kosovo, Croatia, Herzegovina, Bosnia, the Congo what they think of the US military. Places where the military was not the cause of war, but politicians were.

It's not the US military, which has a long and continued reputation for keeping it's nose out civilian government, but our politicians who try to make to use the military as a sledge hammer. The regular army got used in very few confrontations in this nation, and the military felt burnt by it. Politicians have used National Guards to dismal results, but the National Guards are controlled by politicians.

The military doesn't make national policy, the politicians do. The Defense Department Secretary is a civilian politician chosen by another politician. The Secretaries of the various services are civilian politicians named by a politician.

Vote wisely and the military is no danger to anyone.

If they've "seen the elephant" themselves, they're less like to, but still not immune.

Dad got 2 Purple Hearts fighting a real existential threat, not just a perceived political enemy. He didn't want his sons to serve, but not out of any sort of pacifist ideals. He knew well that sometimes you had no choice. He figured he'd done and seen enough to cover himself and his boys. Relented on me joining the Navy. After all, what trouble could I get into being a squid. Well, that depends on what type of squid.

It puts our troops in harm's way.

Once you start acting like a bully and bragging, your enemies will go hell bent for leather.

It also demeans and humiliates a proud but humble military.
The hallmark of the US military.

The US military is the best in the world.
They don't need to act like juvenile tin soldiers.

And you did.
Basked in your moment of glory, the Hero Country that saved Europe from having to learn German!

Ever since, America has stayed on a war footing with a massive and expensive military looking for somewhere in the world to repeat the WW2 experience.

The urge to be the world's policeman has morphed into something truly psychotic and has come at a horrific cost.

America is backwards in education, health services, gun control etc, and there are 26 gravesites of American soldiers on foreign soil.

There is jubilation in some parts of the world from Venezuelan ex pats, surely now things back home will get better now that America has taken over!

History tells me that is unlikely.