Is the US Military fighting for good?

What is your take on the actions and operations of the United States Military? Do you think that they are "good" in their own right, that they're doing the right thing by intervening into foreign affairs in order to help the unfortunate, the tortured, or the terrorized? Or do you believe them to be the world's bully, a destructive force that doesn't help anyone but themselves? Or are you on the fence?

This thread was inspired by this quote:

Where he is questioning Never Back Down on his motives for wanting to join the armed forces. If he truly believes that the US army is on the wrong side of the world, I want to know specifically why without spamming up another person's general discussion thread, and I want to know what everyone else thinks.

Personally, I think we're fighting the good fight because of the fact that we are devoted to stamping out worldly terrorism, helping foreign countries, protect our home land, and because every one of the soldiers have more balls than a lot of people. Our operations have always been for the good of Americans and the good of the oppressed.


Your thoughts?

 

In short, no I don't believe so for the most part. I think you're very heavily mislead if you think that the militarys operations in Iraq were helping the poor, terrorized, unfortunate people as you've put it. The war in Iraq was a sad baseless invasion. We've killed plenty of civilians with our good ol' predator drones and such and it's really not a helpful operation for anyone. Most of the enemies we fight are people we have funded or helped in the past really. When we gave billions and billions to fighters in Afghanistan which ended up almost entirely becoming the Taliban and indirectly was funding for Osama. Not to mention the fact that we trained most of them including Bin Laden. For all the idiots that think that this is some crazy conspiracy you should get your head out of your ass it's a very commonly known fact. We weren't exactly going to let Russia take it over. It's like the Oliver North scandal with the Contras and Iran. Poor decisions have been made in our history no doubt and we should heavily improve but we certainly aren't the bully in the world. We probably also indirectly gave Sadam the ability to create the chemical weapons as well as other countries that gave separate supplies at the time to create such weapons. Granted we were quite friendly with them at the time because of oil. The Gulf war was entirely because of oil as were many operations in the Middle East though the Gulf war was us just bombing everything. There's way too much to be said on the topic but any member of the armed forces have to be ready to accept that what they are doing is the right thing and they should have the ability to do so and NEVER think that the missions they are given are in anyway fraudulent or misleading in the reasoning for it. That being said there are a lot of people who think the majority of what the Government as a whole is mostly bullshit which sadly is generally true. But then again there's still the fact that none of us can forget. USA #1. Hey Europe you jelly?
^for the tl;dr people

 

1) Our efforts in Iraq have successfully costed the Taliban their elusive leader and many of their members.

2) Death of civilians have been an unfortunate but unavoidable bi-product of war since the beginning of humanity and their wars. If we don't fight because we're scared of hurting possibly innocent people, more people will die anyway because no one is standing up against terrorism.

3) The flow of money is not a military operation. That is, admittedly, a prime example of our politician's greediness because they undoubtedly got something out of it, same with whole oil thing.

And for everything else you're saying we -probably- did, find sources for that, because I doubt we gave Hussein the ability to create chemical weapons, especially since they were denied entrance into the UN and denied the ability to hold nuclear weapons. As for the our friendliness in exchange for oil; again that's issues with our politicians and our greediness, not with our armed forces.

 

Yeah I know I was just stating that as a problem with politics involved in them. I'll find the sources. Also Iraq and almost nothing to do with members/leader etc. They were all in Afghanistan and Pakistan for ages. I'll edit this post with sources in a moment. I agree with all you're saying I just think people don't understand a lot of what they think or just believe idiots that give them false information like all of the people that blame Islam for everything and stuff like that. And I have to say I know TONS of people that believe that sadly. Yes I know it's copy and pasted don't hate That's just part of it's mostly precursor things that were sold by many places that ended up with such a result
The United States exported support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war|over $500 million worth of dual use exports to Iraq that were approved by the Commerce department. Among them were advanced computers, some of which were used in Iraq's nuclear program. The non-profit American Type Culture Collection and the Centers for Disease Control sold or sent biological samples of anthrax, West Nile virus and botulism to Iraq up until 1989, which Iraq claimed it needed for medical research. A number of these materials were used for Iraq's biological weapons research program, while others were used for vaccine development. For example, the Iraqi military settled on the American Type Culture Collection strain 14578 as the exclusive anthrax strain for use as a biological weapon, according to Charles Duelfer.

 

Yeah it's completely ludicrous that people blame the religion for the problems when only a small percent of the world's followers are the extremists who carry out the terror attacks. It's just like gay panic, xenophobia, basically anything having to do with uncomfortable differences between two groups; it's often blown widely out of proportion.

If these specific events you list are true (I don't know, haven't researched them) and there isn't an ulterior motive that justifies it, then it is appalling that our government can't find better friends, but I still think the armed forces are very good in their ultimate mission at world peace (through more violence, albeit necessary violence).

We've made our share of mistakes, but I still think the world is better than it would be if we stood by and let people do whatever the fuck they wanted to

 

I believe the United States Armed Forces are complete justified in their actions oversea's and i encourage you to not be so easily fooled by the media. All news stations are biased because they want the current president out, and theirs in. One of the easier ways to do this is by upsetting veterans, who are devoted to voting because they are devoted to country. Predator Drones have killed civilians yes, but do you know any information as to how or why they actually operate? Taliban crossing mountainous regions trying to sneak into Al-Qaeda territories set off pressure sensors, alerting satellite imagery to be taken at Langley, Virginia. Once the threat has been identified as a terrorist, a order is sent to a drone pilot in Nevada to send a Hellfire missile at the targets. Not too bad of a setup in my opinion? This forces terrorists to have to try and sneak through trade routes undetected, because if they go off the beaten path they can set off sensors and be identified.

Sure some of America's soldiers have killed civilians, so has every other military in the world. America's Tier 1 Special Forces units actually have authorization worldwide to kill civilians if they fear they'll be a threat. 3 years ago a 4 man team of Navy SEAL's let a father and 2 sons live, and allowed them to carry on with their business while the SEAL's got back to their mission. The 3 informed Taliban of their position and the SEAL's were raided by over 100 terrorists 2 hours later. Only 1 survived. The reason why SEAL's are allowed to kill civilians? That should answer your question. Outside of the helicopter crash earlier this month, these 3 were the largest loss to SEAL life since the war started. SEAL's stay alive because they don't allow any loose ends. Soldiers holding perimeters don't just randomly kill civilians at random, in fact they interact with civilians day to day to try and bring peace to the region. Many of the local populous don't want to be threatened by terrorists either.

-Sacro
Currently in the SOF pipeline for BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolitions and SEAL training)

 

I think the good doctor explains it best.

 

I agree with Dr.Paul when it comes to foreign policy naturally. I am of course sworn into the Marine Corps, and ship out to bootcamp next summer. I supported the war in Afghanistan, but not the war in Iraq. I generally like a non-interventional foreign policy, I'm signing up to support wars in which I feel are justified when that time comes, and for the benefits. We have no reason to force our beliefs on other countries, if a Socialist dictatorship like U.S.S.R had military bases on the United States soil in the Cold war era, because they felt Stalinism was "in our best interest" we wouldn't stand for it, we'd fight them. If we are attacked, then I feel war would be justified.

 

I agree with Dr.Paul.

I agree with an infraction.

 

Well the military itself should not be put to blame for the situations they are put in. The generals who recommend war can be blamed, the presidents and politicians can be blamed, but not the soldiers who are ordered into the area (unless you are a pacifist).
I believe the US should never have gotten so involved in the Middle East. I think the intelligence community should have pursued Bin Laden and others involved in 9/11, possibly with occasional help from SF contingents. However, we should not have massive wars against Hussein's government/its supporters in Iraq and the Taliban/its supporters in Afghanistan. Even though we are fighting bad people, we shouldn't be involved.

 

Good side? Lol. There hasn't been a good side in quite a while. Now its all about the countries interest and excuses they make to invade against the UN codes. They try justifying most of their actions by declaring that the war is to help develop democracy, free people, help foreign countries settle, etc. In the end the US benefits more out of the wars, especially those who run the funds.

There is no good side anymore, its whose the strongest side.

 

You think U.S make profit off war? are you kidding me?

 

Read carefully. I said the US benefits more out if than the countries they "help" not profits. The people who run the funds do profit.

 

Do not be naive. The media does not have their own president. I respect you for your service, however the media is generally one sided. Examples of this can be seen on Fox and NPR (national public radio). Either way, there are both democratic "stations" and republican "stations." Listening to BOTH of these can lead to a confusing yet revealing part of politics. This is: Politics revolves around money.

 

Invade countries that don't agree with the US.

Don't invade countries that agree with the US but are horrible dictatorships.


YEAH LETS FIGHT FOR THE GOOD OF AMERICA, FREEDOM AND EVERYTHING FUCK YEAH.

Let's not forget the 10-20 radical people that took over an airplane and crashed it into a few buildings.

Let's go invade and bomb a whole country and do 1000000x more damage, yeah America, fuck yeah.

 

You think people can forget that kind of things?
EDIT: if U.S wanted to bomb whole country, you wouldn't call it country anymore, just saying. Dont try to be retard with your kiddish talks.

 

Speak in coherent sentences before you start an argument with me.

Let me say some more facts.

Train and pay terrorist radical groups to fight off Russians just to watch them turn around and kill Americans as well. SHOCKING RIGHT??

Spend trillions of dollars to chase men in the desert that have 120$ rocket launchers on their back.

Yup. They're quite the threat to America.

American soldiers are baby and women killers. To assume this doesn't happen as much is true ignorance. Even in the fucking news, every single drone bombing, they are "alleged" taliban/enemy. Are you shitting me? They don't even know who they're bombing. Get the fuck out of here with "Oh America's great, we're white and christian so God is on our side!"

Patriotism and nationalism is the worst kind of terrorism.

 

How is this tale you just told me is facts? Also dude, what this shit should mean? "Oh America's great, we're white and christian so God is on our side!" you sick or whats wrong with you? You being racist over there and calling patriotism and nationalism an terrorism. Terrorists are not only thread to American, they're threat even to their so called god.

 

Lol you guys are quite...entertaining.

It is a fact that they spend a plentiful of cash to chase a guy with cheap equipment, its also true he had a great influence on people to go against the US; thats why he was a threat because of his past, present, and future plans.

Patriotism and nationalism are quite subjective to a person. I can't stand over the top patriotism and nationalism. As to the reference to terrorism, no clue.

Never back down you're last sentence is hilarious. Please, as said before, make an attempt to type coherently.

 

Why can't you speak in actual sentences? Are you THAT uneducated? Are you retarded or just 12 years old?

To your crying: The politicians certainly portray that mindset, especially at the end of every political speech "God bless America". Politicians single out American Muslims only to play on the fear of the common American to score political points.

What threat does America actually have? Tell me.

Americans INVADED 2 countries for no reason. Killed plenty of civilians, are you think it's because it's anti-terrorism efforts?