Kevin Gowen wrote:
> On Feb 29, 10:29 pm, CL <flot...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Ok, so your position is that it's better that our cannon fodder be
> young. Thank you for clearing that up.

Wow, you don't care who you tag for points.  You must be an excellent 
defense lawyer for street trash and executives accused of fraud.  Do you 
also have the usual problems with standing straight and walking in a 
straight line?  Have you tried the forked tongue repair?  Is there 
surgery for the horns that covers the scars, now?

>> Unfortunately, US Republicans think that you can replace anyone in a
>> position lower than sycophant with a Mexican or Central American illegal
>> so, just keep 'em coming -- much like Japanese mangers and engineers who
>> believe that you can invent a robot for any use and need.
> 
> I think you'll find that American employers will hire the cheapest
> labor they can get regardless of their party affiliation. Of course, I
> don't know if I understand what that has to do with my point, which is
> that I don't owe a member of the military anything more than I owe a
> doctor or a construction crew.

No, I don't think that _all_ US employers will hire the cheapest labor, 
only the most greedy and dishonest ones.  The biggest conundrum of the 
Post Revolution period is whether we should use the business school 
grads as ballast to drown the lawyers or vice versa.

>> The military "used to" teach its officers that a maximum of 20% of its
>> total forces are direct combat, including intelligence operations and
>> intel interpretation, at any one time.  Hence, Declan's question in a
>> previous post can be answered that the troops who repair and maintain
>> the Global Hawks are combat support while the people who fly, take the
>> photos, select the targets, aim the ordinance, and look at the photos
>> and tell the planners what they see are combat troops.
> 
> Only 20%? That doesn't sound very impressive to me to learn that at
> least 80% of the people are never going to have to storm a beach or
> secure a hill or hang from that part at the bottom of a helicopter.
> (you know that part?)

It's called a "skid".  Sometimes you rappel off them into the jungle. 
Sometimes the pilot lands on them.  They're quite versatile that way. 
In the summer wed strap water tanks on them and water bomb forest fires. 
   In the winter, we used to strap skis on to them and practice downhill 
skiing with our helicopters.

>> Of course, the current civilian masters (sic) may have screwed things up
>> so badly trying to pay off so many of their corporate "supporters" at
>> one time that those numbers may no longer be valid.
> 
> Wow, you really hate corporations, huh?

No.  Corporations are fine.  It's the people who run them that need 
killing.  We just need to burn down the B-schools, make business degrees 
a capital offense, and dismantle international corporations.  We also 
need to require companies that operate stores to spend at least half of 
their budgets on purchasing locally made goods.

> I bet you wish you could blame Republicans for the "19"'s in Vietnam,
> huh?

Gosharoo, Mister Wizard.  Like give me a hard one to answer.  Yes, the 
Republicans, specifically the isolationist wing, are directly 
responsible for the conditions that led to Vietnam as well as the 
conditions that made escalation necessary later.  If I had to recommend 
one book that efficiently described the steps by which that happened, 
I'd suggest you read "The Coldest Winter" by David Halberstam to see how 
the Republicans, along with the China Lobby of the international wing of 
the party wrecked US foreign policy from 1945 to 1965 and why we're 
still living with their legacy even today.  Its a good overview.

>> No, I'm not.  You're just being petulant.  I'm poo-pooing how some
>> people mistake going to school for being smart.  This isn't the case
>> with the military as the system is designed to marginalize and weed out
>> those types.  But, maybe you'd have to see it to understand.
> 
> Tee hee I burnT your butter pretty bad with that one. If the military
> is so good at weeding out, why does it proudly proclaim that one does
> not even need a high school education to sign up?

Whatever.  The military is looking for smart people, not people with 
degrees.  That seems to be a point beyond your comprehension.  Its about 
opportunity and using it ... which may be part of your perception 
problem due to your "class" (sic).

The discrepancy you like to point out was even more pronounced during 
the Depression than now.  I have worked for, been educated by, served 
alongside older officers who walked off a farm, out of a cotton field, 
off a city street, enlisted in the military (most of them lied about 
their age and in 1935~1941 they weren't checking too closely), and ended 
up with advanced university degrees and officer's rank.  The heads of 
Asian Language Studies, Engineering, Economics, etc. at many US 
universities in the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies were people who had 
enlisted with grade school or junior high level educations and had 
doctorates when they left.

> Self-improvement? I thought that LIVES WERE AT STAKE. I think it's
> pretty inappropriate to be trying to improve yourself when LIVES ARE
> AT STAKE. Jack Nicholson said that I rise and sleep under a blanket of
> protection that he provides, and I want the people doing that to be
> top-notch already, not high school dropouts who are on some self-
> indulgent quest.

Jack Nicholson?  What units did he command?  If you don't like th 
equality of the help, I suggest you run to your local recruiter and sign 
up now.

> The fact is that they place an emphasis on finding suckers dumb enough
> to sign. That's why they have to have to many high school dropouts.

Bullshit.

> I have seen ASVAB questions. I was not impressed. I do not know what
> their was to manipulate. Besides, I think the idea of shooting
> whomever you are told without question and then getting a medal for it
> appeals to an antisocial personality.

"Not impressed"?  I didn't know tests had to be written to impress you. 
  Although it may be a sign of that asocial behavior I referred to.

> Life is easy when you have a Mensa brain. Am I rite!

I've preferred to keep mine hidden and have good friends instead.

-- 
CL