jummy on April 3, 2007 at 11:41 PM

After a little more pondering … I would concur.

Killing people and breaking things are means; the end is victory.

Wow, that is pretty sick. That’s not a motivational video. That is, for lack of a better word, death porn.

When I went through basic in 1998 we had the same chants (Blood, blood, blood makes the green grass grow and Kill, kill, kill). I had a problem with it too. Even spoke with the chaplain about it.

I see now though that it was for the better. I have served in Iraq and what I saw didn’t affect me as it would have had I not been desensitized. I can shoot with no hesitation or concern for anyone by my buddies and me. I can see death and not get ill like I did as a 15 year old in drivers ed watching accident videos.

Does this make me a worse man? No, it makes me a better soldier. I stuck through it and I am better for it. He should do the same.

Look, since our military is the best in the world at what they do, I gotta figure they know better than you. Right? Our military is the best trained, best led, best armed, and most FEARED military on the face of the earth. Next to God, there is no entity capable of sending more souls to the pearly gates or destroying more stuff.

GO TROOPS! Hooah!

csdeven on April 3, 2007 at 9:07 PM

I suddenly find myself aroused.

“Next to God, there is no entity capable of sending more souls to the pearly gates …”

Oh. Yeah.

Although I’m not sure the pearly gates is the direction many of them are headed ….

wouldn’t call it a motivational video, I would call it a reality check to weed out the people who should not be there.

I was Air Force and never had to contend with a fight for my life, but if you join the Marines in this era, you will more then likely will.

Shock them as much as necessary to make sure they are the right ones for the job.

Karl on April 3, 2007 at 8:15 PM

There. What I was trying to say – but put much better. Thanks Karl.

Exactly, exactly right.

Marines are training for war now. This is necessary. Necessary isn’t always nice.

And I for one am glad to see it worked. I’m glad to see Zabala realized he wasn’t fit for service and said so. That’s actually a kind of courage in its own way, and as long as he doesn’t become a tool of the leftists, I applaud his honesty.

Not everyone can fight. Nothing wrong with that. By being honest, he may have saved lives down the road. I sure wouldn’t have wanted him next to me in combat.

(Oh, and yeah: sadly, I expect to see him paraded around at a Cindy Sheehan rally in 5 …. 4 …. 3 … 2 ….)

Wow, that is pretty sick. That’s not a motivational video. That is, for lack of a better word, death porn.

John on April 3, 2007 at 7:16 PM

As a former Marine, I’m both perplexed and amused by this post.

What EXACTLY do you think Marines are training to do? What PRECISELY do you think a warrior’s main objective is?

Is it your position that a Marine should be shielded from even SEEING the reality of what he is being trained to DO?

Interesting theory. Sadly, there are too many people who think the same way, and the endanger all of us.

War isn’t pretty, son. And our warriors need to know that, and be ready for it.

Once upon a time, this was called “common sense.”

He is a coward with a conscience.

No he is just a coward!

It would have been nice to see him follow in the footsteps of Desmond T. Doss Sr. a consciencious objector who won the Congressional Medal of Honor back in the day when the medal was still authorized by an honorable institution. Desmond T. Doss Sr. was an Army medic who refused to carry a rifle but risked his life helping his comrads.

as a civilian though who is familiar with radicals i can only say that there are those who are willing. i have dead links on my hd to deleted indymedia pages discussing such things. some of this came out when the “military councelling project” tried to get pablo paredes to deploy and foment mutiny.

He applied for discharge correctly.

He kept it low-key.

When denied he went to Federal Court.

No matter what you think of him he is not the off the shelf “Hate America” coward. He is a coward with a conscience. He better never demand Rights he wasn’t willing to fight for.

There are no non-combatants in the Marines. Even the pencil-pushers are basically trained riflemen, deadly out to 500 yards. It never made sense to me that we were asked at boot whether we joined as COs. (No one raised their hand so I don’t really know what would have happened if they did.)

But I agree, there’s definatly something fishy here.

(Anyone else notice that the story aired 1 Apr?)

Simple fact is, the USMC attracts head cases. It just does. Hell, I’m living proof. And I went through boot with a guy from Texas who joined after losing a bar bet. There are many roads lead to the Corps, and they often begin in very strange places. UC Santa Cruz isn’t the craziest starting point I’ve heard of.

F15Mech –

“Any Marine feel free to correct me however is that how the chain of command works?

Any/All decisions must go through the chain of command and only the Commander of the Marine Corps can approve them?”

Yeah, that sounded strange to me, too. But I chaulked it up to the reporter’s unfamiliarity with military custom. As a deptartment of the Navy, the Corps has a formal process for bringing grievances called “request mast.” Technically, you can request an audience with each of your commanders in turn, all the way up to SecNav. My guess is he got frustrated and so went outside the system (to the federal courts).

Like I said, there’s something missing here, but no way to tell what that something is.

From wikipedia…

Total Japanese and Korean casualties are about 4,713 killed in action on Tarawa and Apamama. For the U.S Marine Corps, 1,001 were killed, and a further 2,296 wounded. These heavy casualties sparked off a storm of protest in the United States, where the high losses could not be understood for such a tiny and seemingly unimportant island in the middle of nowhere. The losses at Tarawa can be explained by the dificulty of coordinating combined amphibious operations, one of the most demanding military missions. At the time, Tarawa was the most heavily defended atoll invaded by Allied forces in the Pacific. Later the lessons learned at Tarawa, would pay off for the Marines in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

More concepts the libs just refuse to accept as fact! They are dooming us to repeat the failures of the past if they get their way! I hope GWB sticks to his guns until we win this seemingly unimportant battle in the middle of Iraq.

The libs are MORONS!

Why would his request reach the Commander of the Marines (is that an official title BTW?) if everyone in his chain approved his status?

The title is “Commandant of the Marine Corps”, until recently the highest-ranking officer in the USMC. Gen. Peter Pace outranks the Commandant as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the first Marine to hold that position).

Frankly, I think the court exceeded it’s jurisdiction and should have refused to hear the case.

Just a thought…….

Vorenus and Pullo would have never this lad near the 10th

No, they wouldn’t have..er..because they weren’t IN the 10th. They were in the 13th. Hence, as Pullo fought in the arena during season 1, he screamed ’13! 13!’ It’s a great show. Apparently season 2 just ended in a not so good way…can’t wait for it to hit dvd.

As to the Watada clone, I guess we have another lawsuit coming. I suppose it’ll go something like ‘They never told me I was going to have to kill people if I joined the marines.’ What’s he going to claim, Pre Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Prediction: Next will be troops who won’t fight under a Commander and Chief who isn’t of their same political persuasion.

RightWinged

I can honestly tell you that if I was a bomber pilot and Bill Clinton ordered me to bomb Christians in the Balkans on behalf of his al qaeda/KLA allies, I hope I would have refused.

I don’t at all hold it against those who carried out those orders though.