Ding Dong the Witch is dead

Internationally the USA has a bad reputation. It (as an entity) is often seen as hypocritcal, heartless, greedy, vocally ignorant and as a bully who does whatever it wants without regard for other cultures, idealologies or rules.
This is often then associated with its citizens which, to some, is true but doesn't apply to most people living in the USA. I also think that it's human nature to remember negative things, I can far more easily recall negative first hand experiences with people from the US (and associate the experience with with them as an american) than the positive experiences. The nice girl from California fitted in so well you forgot she was from the other side of the world, or my friends mum, who's from NY state. But my friends cousin, when he came to visit, was a jerk dismisisng new ideas with "blah blah blah but in america..." or the guy in my russian class who said the way t was written (by hand) in cyrillic was "stupid" (btw it looks like m). I could go on but its not important

I think is partly due to the US being a superpower and the mass amout of US media that gets exported to the rest of the world

-not all muslims are terrorists, and not all terrorist are muslims, just like not all americans are proffesional baseball players, and not all proffessional baseball players are american-

 

What exactly did not you like there?

But, small hand-written Т in Russian is exactly like small hand-written M in English (well, there can be a horizontal line above it sometimes, when one wants to distinguish his Т from his Ш, and when you write fast they can be very much alike.)

 

Yeah thats pretty much what I said. He said it was stupid that it was like that rather than just accepting that thats the way cyrillic script works. That wasn't the only thing he called stupid about the russian language and he did argue with the teacher (a native russian) at times, I don't see how a beginner to the russian language would know more than someone who's a native speaker. I don't know what he expected to get out of the class.

 

A sense of his superiority over Russians

 

One cannot use a direct translation in this case. The Finnish word “jääkäri” is an honorary name, not a descriptive. It derives from the “27. kuninkaallinen jääkäripataljoona” that being the 27th royal Jaeger Battalion of Prussia. Which was formed by Finnish patriots, who fled to Germany in order to receive military training during the first world blaze.

They later played a key role in our civil/independence war in 1918. The Jaegers were also famous for the high mortality rate of their officers, since they introduced the military doctrine of leadership by personal example (“an officer will never ask his men to do a deed he himself is not willing to do”). The highest ranking officer ever killed in action was jääkärikenraalimajuri (Jaeger major general) Einar Vihma who fell in the battle of Tali-Ihantala 5th of August 1944.

Nowadays the Jaeger are the best trained and the best equipped of our operational forces, they only bare that name in order to honor the brave few of the past. And we bare that name proudly. I know that for a fact since in 2008 I was interrogated by the police (for a crime I was later found not guilty) and I instinctively refused to sing the statement, since the clerk had misspelled my military rank. I said I am not a Jaeger, I am a Jaeger of the Guard. (Same thing as calling a marine as a soldier).

 

I am aware that Jaeger is used as an honorific. 200 years ago, American infantry regiments had Light (Jaeger) and Grenadier companies. By then, titles were already just titles. The Light Infantry companies were armed with rifles and operated in dispersed formation, rather than massed ranks like the Line (musket) companies, but they didn't really perform all the duties of "old time" light infantry.

When I was in uniform, the main local National Guard unit was the 36th Airborne Brigade. One of the local airborne companies, F Company, 2nd Battalion, 141 Infantry Regiment, was still referred to as the "Houston Light Guard", which was originally a militia unit formed to fight Santa Anna's Mexican Army, and later, Commanche Indian raids. The old titles in military units lose their original meaning as needs change.

 

Every government affects their citizens emotions artificially. Not just us. It's a form of control.

Remember Russia during the Cold War? Or us? Or any country during WWI or WW? Korea (past and present)?

The same is true for all major religions.

 

Interesting point.

We American Airborne Rangers are and have always been the quintessential light infantry, if we couldn't carry it and jump with it we did not use it. I was with the 2ND Battalion 75TH Ranger Regiment. BTW GA82, did you guys have to fly out to Fort Benning for Airborne School?

We still perform the same duties we were originally formed to due, albeit we now have much cooler toys to do it with and we don't shoot the British on sight anymore.

We were Rangers, (Rogers' Rangers to be exact) in the Beginning and we will always be Rangers until our last breath.

 

There was a jump school at Camp Mabry near Austin for the Texas Guard. We dropped north of San Antonio, at a manuever area belonging to the 49 AD. I wasn't Ranger, though I was in Rudder's Ranger's. (James Rudder commanded 2nd Ranger on D-Day. They weren't airborne, nor 75 Inf, then.)

There were 6 Ranger Battalions were formed and disbanded during WWII. Various Ranger units had existed before then, including the Texas Rangers. IIRC, the present units were reformed from the divisional LRRP companies during the Vietnam War into the 1st and 2nd Bn, 75 Inf. The 3rd came later. That was right before my time. I think the 2nd was at Lewis, though that may have been the 3rd. You could easily look this up online, rather than rely on my recollection.

In the '70's, Benning was Ranger School and Bragg was Airborne School. You did 3 weeks at Bragg, then 6 at Benning. Well, 2 at Calladega(?) in Georgia and 2 at Eglin in Florida (Camp Rudder). Us Guard numbskulls had to take the paltry few slots we were allotted after the RA got theirs.

 

I'd like to congratulate everyone for conducting an interesting debate on such a sensitve subject as adults, using reason instead of insults and name calling.

 

Yeah, I thought it was boring, too. :roll:

But the colored letter debate got kinda hot! :yes:

 

The real reason behind the current Afghan war. :yes: :

 

The U.S. Army? The Army doesn't start wars. It ends them.

The fighting in Afghanistan was going on before the Soviets invaded. The U.S. took advantage of several of the anti-Taliban factions when it intervened to force the Taliban out. There are several groups in armed conflict with the present government, and with each other, including the Taliban. I think it's possible that the "civilized" world could improve living conditions there, but that's unlikely while fighting continues. And fighting is "politics as usual" in Afghanistan.

I see from the patch on the soldier on the right that the unit is the 173rd Airborne Brigade. That was the first major Army unit that was sent to Viet Nam in 1965, and then was deactivated afterward. For a while, there was an Australian Infantry battalion attached to it. It's interesting to see that it has been reactivated.

 

Yes, it is the evil politicians who start the wars, not the soldiers who do the dying. Anyways as stated before, US entered Afghanistan as a member of an international coalition sanctioned by the UN.

I posted that picture because I found the idea that the US invaded Afghanistan not because of its oil fields but because of its pot fields: hilarious. I have no idea if the picture is staged or not, but it surely is funny.

 

Is there any tangible proof that Osama was the leader of Al-Qaida, that he was personally responsible of those attacks or that those attacks were even executed by Al-Qaida?

Videos posted in internet are hardly evidence, since anyone can post them. Anyone can also claim responsibility after an act, but just saying so doesn’t make it so. Also we can’t just believe the word of US intelligence agencies, since they said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, which he evidently didn’t have.

I think that actually depends on one’s culture and on the level of trust the police and the justice system has with the citizens. Our police are armed (unlike their Britton counterparts), but they very rarely resort to use of deadly force. Actually there is an inquiry every single time when a police draws a weapon and a trial to determine if the use of force was excess, should he actually pull the trigger.

But they do not need to use their weapons since Finns don’t fight back, at least with firearms (and we do have a lot of those). Last police officer killed in action (some years ago) was hit by a drunk driver. And the last police shot to death was killed by a fellow officer during a live fire exercise. In 1997 a Danish fugitive shot and killed two police officers, so the last time when a Finnish citizen shot and killed a police officer was in 1969. Btw. none of these cop killers were shot; they were later apprehended and sentenced to jail.

I think I would actually like Texas. They used to be an independent state and to my knowledge they still have that way of doing things their way without giving a crap what others may say. Also I think they have I high notion of individual freedom (like shown in their gun laws). The weather could be a problem though. I took a road trip from Kirkland to Santa Cruz California and the heat was hellish. I thought I was melting; at least I sweat like an iceberg in an oven. Maybe the Great Lakes (love our lakes) or Alaska, that should be as north as we are.