Mundane News

[rockyroller]

if Americans learned anything from Viet Nam it's that each individual soldier has the morale obligation to make an individual decision about what he does. US soldiers now have the right & responsibility to NOT follow an immoral order. mother daughter father walking down the street in Ukraine mother gets sniped in the head in front of her daughter & husband father gets hand tied bag on his head and interrogated, russians looking for nazis. release the father later. they're animals every last one of them. the world's lame response is pathetic. why should the entire world fear puny putin. that sc*mball should be fearing US!

 

[Reynard]

if Americans learned anything from Viet Nam it's that each individual soldier has the morale obligation to make an individual decision about what he does. US soldiers now have the right & responsibility to NOT follow an immoral order. mother daughter father walking down the street in Ukraine mother gets sniped in the head in front of her daughter & husband father gets hand tied bag on his head and interrogated, russians looking for nazis. release the father later. they're animals every last one of them. the world's lame response is pathetic. why should the entire world fear puny putin. that sc*mball should be fearing US!

Yes - in western armies, the soldiers have been trained to think for themselves.

However, the Russian army is still run on the old Soviet / Tzarist lines where all the thinking comes from the top. Why do you think the generals are on the front line rather than in a situation room somewhere safe? Russian soldiers are conscripts mainly, poorly educated and badly trained. Same can be said for the NCOs. The ethos is that they have to wait to be told what to do, rather than decide to do something for themselves.

That hasn't changed from my grandfather's day, when he fought in the Polish - Bolshevik war of the early 1920s.

 

[Reynard]

And of course, labeling the Ukrainians as "Nazis" is one of the oldest military / political tactics there is, stretching right back to the dawn of recorded history. By describing your opponents as something that your country vilifies, by describing them as effectively less than human, it provides a justification for what is effectively genocide.

Putin's rhetoric is chillingly similar to that of Hitler's, although somewhat less bombastic, and with fewer marches and parades. But the net result is the same.

P.S. I should state that I am a military history buff, and an army brat on both sides of the family.

 

[biggs682]

I think rain is imminent.

Dry here

 

[Andy in Germany]

you have a weapon in your hand, you use it, you are a criminal & should be hunted down like the murdering dog that you are

According to that philosophy, every soldier in World War Two who shot someone, bombed a city, et c, committed murder, regardless of which side they were on, not to mention, Iraq 1 & 2, Afghanistan...

 

[Andy in Germany]

I've read & seen horrible atrocities committed by individuals with individual brains capable of making individual decisions. if you are are a mass murderer you are a mass murderer. any excuses are absurd

Every war released unpleasant individuals who see their chance to commit horrible atrocities. It doesn't mean every soldier or worse, every citizen of the aggressor country is the same and deserves to be harmed or killed.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Bricklayers listening to the radio outside with ear protection on

To be fair I'd wear ear protection in places where the radio is playing if I could get away with it...

 

[Threevok]

or eating for that matter

 

[Reynard]

I have just washed and blow dried my hair.

 

[oldwheels]

if Americans learned anything from Viet Nam it's that each individual soldier has the morale obligation to make an individual decision about what he does. US soldiers now have the right & responsibility to NOT follow an immoral order. mother daughter father walking down the street in Ukraine mother gets sniped in the head in front of her daughter & husband father gets hand tied bag on his head and interrogated, russians looking for nazis. release the father later. they're animals every last one of them. the world's lame response is pathetic. why should the entire world fear puny putin. that sc*mball should be fearing US!

I think the fear is that he has nuclear weapons and is mad enough to use them. Since the UK nuclear submarine base as well as other nuclear weapons stored there is very near Glasgow it would be goodbye Central Scotland. Not that that would bother the London establishment.

 

[oldwheels]

Nice short run this morning but too cold to stop. Warm enough when moving but chilly wind.
The Moss road is as the name suggests over a peat bog. The gorse is in full bloom and the main Moss is on the left of the photo.

 

[Reynard]

I think the fear is that he has nuclear weapons and is mad enough to use them. Since the UK nuclear submarine base as well as other nuclear weapons stored there is very near Glasgow it would be goodbye Central Scotland. Not that that would bother the London establishment.

This.

If he didn't have nukes, I think his head would already be giftwrapped and handed by NATO to the Ukrainian government on a silver platter.

Anyways, I need a

 

[Reynard]

I had a and half of a large Belgian bun. The parental unit also had a and half a large Belgian bun.

 

[rockyroller]

According to that philosophy, every soldier in World War Two who shot someone, bombed a city, et c, committed murder, regardless of which side they were on, not to mention, Iraq 1 & 2, Afghanistan...

enemy combatants are fair game. civilians in their apartments, or at train stations, etc are not

 

[rockyroller]

The ethos is that they have to wait to be told what to do, rather than decide to do something for themselves.

sounds like my office