Thread: Sad, sad sign of the times...

First, I demand some rispek for the carrot juice. This is a beverage as tasty as a goat milk so no aggression against it will stand!!!

OK now let me opine on the ass-kicking - the fact is the superpower US did loose the war in Viet Nam, and it doesn't matter if it was the politicians or the soldiers. The kill-ratios are only one side - you have to take into account the ability to sustain casualties too. I hope this is not taken as disrespect as I don't mean any. My country has had it's period of glory over a thousand years ago but currently its role is marginal at best. And our recent history is full of examples where the soldiers have won all the battles, yet the politicians have lost the wars, so that concept is pretty familiar to me as well.

As far as patriotism goes, one of the first thing I noticed in 2nd grade when we started learning some basic history is that all the battles/wars that were won by my country were 'liberation', while all the ones that were lost were 'invasion' on the other part. Unfortunately when I asked the question nobody was interested to answer it. Many years later in college I lived with a graduating historian, who also had few years of high-school teaching experience prior college. He told me that all the history that is put out for mass consumption - schools, mainstream books, media is propaganda in patriotism. And there are a lot of 'facts' that are just plain lies.
Of course I grew up in communist country, so if you want you can blame it on the commies.

Nevertheless after living in several countries and getting to know closely people from every continent and every major religion, the patriotism on me is a bit lost. People are very similar, every group has their good and bad quirks, just a bit different than the next one. So I just appreciate them for what they are (yes, the french too - for example a nice burgundy in my book is something zin, or should I say primitivo, will never come even close to).

Originally Posted by trewornan

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I've got to point out that for all the US's vaunted superpower status, the military has managed to get their ass kicked with monotonous regularity in the last 50 years or so.
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Originally Posted by gugi

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OK now let me opine on the ass-kicking - the fact is the superpower US did loose the war in Viet Nam, and it doesn't matter if it was the politicians or the soldiers.
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In matters insofar as trewornan's original claim was that "the military" got their ass kicked. He made a very clear distinction. It is that precise distinction that I was/am addressing and referring to.

Clearly wrong by any standard.

EDIT: to jaegerhund; I wasn't trying to take you to task, only the concept. I personally find burning any national symbol somewhat distasteful. I would still defend your right to do it though.

Yep, you are correct, he did refer to the US military - my bad.