[political] Clear me on WMD arithmetics

[Jason Menard]

Originally posted by Daniel Almond:
i was in for 4 years, one enlistment, thats it. but as a paratrooper, not in the air force.

Is there some significance here that I'm missing? I appreciate your service, even if you were only willing to serve on your own personal terms, but I mean, hell, I've met army supply folks who they let jump out of airplanes.

did you fire that m16 you got to carry once on detail or was the quick class in the 6 week air force basic training the only time?

You mean those things shot real bullets?

i don't recall any air force computer geeks ever being in combat zones.

But then how would you know? Oh that's right... living vicariously though your ex-boss' war stories.

bosnia certainly wasn't one

Does that mean I have to pay back the hostile fire pay and combat zone income tax exclusion? Damn. They'd probably make me pay back interest on it too.

and i really don't know what it was in southwest asia that you got deployed to.

I don't think I mentioned it.

even my boss who was a paratrooper in GW-1 said all they did there was to ride around in trucks and i highly doubt any air force computer guys made the journey into iraq.

There's that boss of yours again.

i don't really know what it was that you did...

Probably because I didn't tell you.
Ya know, I thought we were having a relatively friendly conversation, but you're just getting a bit too personal for my tastes I'm afraid. This is exactly the sort of thing that happens when one stops debating the facts. This also seems to have drifted just a bit too far off topic. If you have any other personal questions that you would like to ask me that you don't require an audience for, feel free to PM or email.
As a side note, you seem to think that you were above members of the other services. I guess it would be another safe assumption that in those long four years you never served in any joint-service assignments? No need to answer.
[ August 06, 2003: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]

[Thomas Paul]

Originally posted by Jason Menard:
Is there some significance here that I'm missing? I appreciate your service, even if you were only willing to serve on your own personal terms, but I mean, hell, I've met army supply folks who they let jump out of airplanes.

Even civilians jump out of airplanes for fun. Jumping out of an airplane isn't a big deal. Jumping out of an airplane with people on the ground shooting up at you is a big deal but I doubt that Mr. Almond had that type of experience.

[Daniel Almond]

ya i'll tell you, i did nothing at all when in the service.i was lucky and there was no war while i was in. i was never claiming to be audie murphy or saying i was sent to combat zones and stuff. i was just trying to express an enthusiastic appreciation for US lives which i guess not too many people share as much as i do. they really are worth keeping alive. maybe the next einsteins, shakespeares etc. that are getting their lives cut short and potentials ruined. there are kids who aren't going to have dads and moms anymore. i would really rather have them all alive than have the muslim world even more pissed at us than they already were which seems to be all that is being accomplished. is that so bad? when i was in the service, it wasn't on my own personal terms, i would have gone somewhere if my number came up but it never did. as for joint operations, yes, i served with a lot of other people especially in the NG unit i was in after i got out of the reg army. by that time i was pretty much a peacenik but still wanted to help people in case of hurricanes and stuff. the marines i met had plenty of knowledge but the navy guys had a lot to learn about the infantry because their expertise was more mechanical and technical. useful on a ship, but not in the type of fighting we were training for. i never met an air force guy but was jealous they would drop us off in the middle of nowhere and they got to fly back to the base and go to sleep. now, i think the only service for me will be to volunteer for red cross in case of disasters.

[Daniel Almond]

plus, i think if it really had to be done it could have been taken care of through CIA/special forces ops and channeling support to insurgents already in country. it would have kept a lot of soldiers out of the line of fire and bush could have looked a lot more intelligent.

[Eric Fletcher]

Originally posted by Daniel Almond:
i was just trying to express an enthusiastic appreciation for US lives which i guess not too many people share as much as i do.

If you are wondering why some respondents to your posts take an adversarial or antagonistic stance, this sentence should explain it. You keep saying this over and over, and IMHO, you imply that if someone disagrees with you then they couldn't possibly care as much as you do about soldiers dying. How noble you must feel. And I guess you can afford to feel so noble, unfortunately the rest of us have to live in the real world, where, in case you haven't noticed, the Muslim world is already pretty pissed at us( check the New York skyline if you want proof that we are ALL in danger, not just soldiers on the front lines).

[R K Singh]

[sad smile, no smiley for that..]