How do you respond?

<p>There is no belittling. I am merely stating the fact that community service is unpaid, the fact that you or your son/daughter is getting college for free is the main point. You're not doing any more of a service to your country than someone going to Tufts, Georgia Tech, or anywhere else in the country.</p>

<p>p>S correct me if i am wrong but after your 4 years when you have 5 years of obiligatory commitment, but they are sending only reserve officers to the front. Most people who go from an academy don't actually fight the wars, enlistees are the crux of the fighters, so you're not saving anyone from anything.</p>

<p>Interesting. I will have to tell the Marine captain Academy grad who just got back from Iraq and is gearing up for another deployment. Or the Navy SEAL Lt. (USNA 2001) who has spent more time in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last two years than he has at home. Or the dad I met whose son (Charlie) is a West Point grad currently in Iraq. They are all on my daily prayer list. Who is on yours?</p>

<p>May I ask where you get your information? Perhaps you need to visit my neighborhood some time.</p>

<p>Your evidence is merely ancedotal. I am talking about percentages and statistics. Since about 50 of the 2500 dead are usma students and we shouldn't multiply by 5 since the navy or mma or cga aren't that involved in the war we can assume at the most 100 of the 2500 dead are academy kids. That means most are enlistees, and even though I say the war in iraq has INCREASEd terrorism, even if you say that the war in Iraq decreased terrorism its the enlistees who are doing it NOT you.</p>

<p>If you have any numbers let's see them.</p>

<p>You are right. I am not now, nor have I ever been in the military. But my husband is a mustang (prior enlisted sailor) who served in submarines. He served in conditions that are almost unimagineable. He has also served in the special warfare community. I have gotten the dreaded "There has been an accident." phone call. I have stared at the television screen praying that it was not his plane that went down in the Atlantic.</p>

<p>My older daughter is an enlisted Marine. Her fiance is a Marine sniper Sgt. who returned from Iraq three weeks ago. My nephew is an Army enlisted man who spent over a year in Iraq. My best friend is a Navy SEAL chief who has done so many tours in war zones he has lost count.</p>

<p>Please don't presume that you know anything about me. The information you so casually toss out is statistics to you; to me, they are my family and friends. I won't tell you how many friends we have buried in Arlington or the number of times I have explained the casualty notification process to wives and parents. Anecdotal? I hope so! At least I can put a face and a name to those "casualties".</p>

<p>Plus prayer like religion is an opiate of the masses, you might as well snort heroin.</p>

<p>This kind of emotional display, however, is not relevant with the people in this forum. They openly say they like dicators who kill as long as the give free oil so they have no regard for human life.</p>

<p>The Coast Guard is involved in the war, as is the Merchant Marines. The Coast Guard is much smaller force, and has lost fewer people than the others but still has sent thousands to the war to protect our country. The Merchant Marines has sent supplies to the war, that is their jobs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Midshipmen from the Academy are on some of those boats bringing supplies to the war. Your anti-war propoganda won't work here...
<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060529-111320-9094r.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20060529-111320-9094r.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Alright...C23 has gone a ruined what started out as an outstanding thread once again.</p>

<p>Just don't respond and let it die.</p>

<p>There have been very few if any naval battles in this war. Which knocks out MMA, CGA, ad NA for the most part. I am merely stating that the people who fight this war are enlistees, not academy students, so don't try to spew out that you are morally superior if you sent a child to the academy.</p>

<p>OK (deep breath), I should have realized that you would not understand. As a dear friend (and Academy grad, heh heh) says, "You should not be clouding a good story with facts." </p>

<p>Sorry if my facts get in the way of your good story. The floor is yours!</p>

<p>Confused, I did not open the link you provided (on purpose) so I don't give a hoot what you're out here pushing now. Go grow up on another forum why don't you. No one here is impressed with your opinions or your thoughts OR your copy & paste morals. THINK FOR YOURSELF for a change. Thank goodness there are kids out there willing to protect your freedoms. Otherwise, where would you be? I'm not afraid of what my son is doing my dear. I'm 100% confident that its better than what you're doing.</p>

<p>BTW. Moron. Pffff.</p>

<p>You shouldn't have even had to open the link you already should know about the children that the Marines killed execution style in Haditha. They aren't protecting freedoms, if you think that, you're the moron.</p>

<p>I'd like to live out my dreams and turn you over my bended knee..... You are such a shmuck. I'm not going to open the link. Sorry. You pull 99% of this stuff out of your nether regions. Its plain silly. </p>

<p>Sorry Dmeix. I tried. Just not in the mommy mode this evening.... I like you best. :) And Taffy too. He's my buddy. Because he THINKS.</p>

<p>yes you are right the stories of the executions in Haditha by Marines is a Conspiracy by the Liberal media. Not. It was finally reported after a year by the military. Dummy.<br>
P.S. Spanking is outlawed in many civilized nations. Spanking creates violent minds that later make violent children go grow up and execute innocents , as in Haditha, see above.</p>

<p>The investigation is still ongoing.</p>

<p>Explain to me how spanking creates violent citizens. The problem with such chicken and egg confusion scenarios like that is that you use selective information. You say, well these people were spanked, and they killed people, so spanking creates killers. Okay, but how about all those who were spanked and didn't kill people, uh, what about them. Your "evidence" only makes sense to the anecdote-minded, people of, shall we say, limited brain capacity... ergo you.</p>

<p>Confused, you are clearly not the most intelligent person on these forums.</p>

<p>Enlistees are not the only ones dying. But, since you're such a fan of numbers, go look up the ratio of officers to enlistees, and you'll see why more of them die than officers. There are simply more. That's how the system works.</p>

<p>In fact, if we were to use ratios of officers (I'm going to use rough numbers, you can look them up for me when you try to disprove this) we'll go 2500 officers per year and 60,000 enlisted. You said 100 of the 2500 dead were officers (how you arrived at this would require thinking like an idiot, something of which I am not capable, so I'll take your word for it). So, that's 1 out of 25. Now, using my ratio, 1 out of 24 are officers. These are extremely rough numbers, and look how close they are. My oh my, the things you can do when you compare numbers instead of just spew them out.</p>

<p>Now, ahem...</p>

<p>S T F U</p>

<p>Why can't we go back to the original post and the question that was raised? We were having such a nice discussion.</p>

<p>The investigation is not ongoing. They're guilty and the only sad thing is that there are hundreds of more of these massacres that go unreported. Three officers have already been removed. The "investigation" is just looking to see if there were even MORe civilians killed and even MORe of this type of action. </p>

<p>And when it comes to the numbers ratio I asked for numbers because I wasn't completely sure. And if the ratio is 1 to 25 regardless, most of the people fighting are enlistees .</p>

<p>Depends what you call "most". If you mean purely numbers, then yes. If you mean ratio-wise, then judging by deaths no. In any military there are far more enlistees than officers. That's the nature of the beast. It would make no sense to have it any other way. As you go higher up the chain of command there are less and less people there. By your twisted judgement we should have as many 4-star generals as 2nd Lt.'s.</p>

<p>I love how you ignored the othe part of the post. What happend in Haditha was a massacre, no question. Well even though that's the nature of the beast they should get the most credit for whatever misery er "democracy" they created. Not you. Since they are doing the fighting.</p>