Told my Dad that Bush had a perfect excuse to bring home the troops after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana. They would be needed here and the money could be spent to rebuild every school in America. Ah 20/20 hindsight.
2 Likes
Junk. Find some A.M.C. qat chewing guy to maintain them Bro.
1 Like
Not doubting your seal friends. But it seems there are a disproportionate number of people I have run across claiming to be SEAL vets. When asked about their DD 214 about their SF 180 class many get defensive at which time I suggest they FO.
2 Likes
is it a criminal offense in the USA to claim status as ex servicemen or even changed service?
Only if there is an intent to defraud
Under a 2013 law, it is a violation of federal law for someone to falsely claim military service, awards and decorations, or “embellished rank.” But what makes this a crime? The intent to get money, property, or some other benefit by making the false claim.
surely a violation of Federal law is a crime?
In the UK people caught wearing medals that didnt get awarded can put you in prison, certainly charged.
I think OZ is the same.
Only if there is an intent to defraud
Under a 2013 law, it is a violation of federal law for someone to falsely claim military service, awards and decorations, or “embellished rank.” But what makes this a crime? The intent to get money, property, or some other benefit by making the false claim.
1 Like
20 years since 11/9 this year and Afghan is now worse than it was before that.
I dont think its related, the problem started before the twin towers were built
1 Like
Wrong.
Twenty years ago most Afghans didn’t have electricity. Today most do. Most roads in Afghanistan were crumbling. Now, many are modern. Most women and girls had no hope. Today they may be fearful but they fear because they expect more from life.
Twenty years ago the Taliban could inflict brutalities in private behind a Stone Age curtain. Today millions of Afghan will use cell phones and show the world any harm the Taliban inflict.
The Soviets turned a poor, secular and Western country into a wreck. The Taliban v1 turned that wreck into a brutal, backwords shithole. NATO turned that shithole into a poor, Islamic and Western country.
It’s not perfect. It’s not what NATO hoped to leave behind. But we did better than after Taliban v1 or the Soviets. We’ve left Afghanistan a better place than we found it.
2 Likes
Ezanullah, one of thousands of young Taliban fighters from the countryside who rode into Afghanistan’s capital over the weekend, had never seen anything like it.
The paved streets of Kabul were lined with towering apartment blocks, glass office buildings and shopping malls. The plush furniture inside the Interior Ministry was like “something I thought of in a dream,” said the 22-year-old fighter from the country’s mountainous east.
He said he plans to ask his commander if he can stay. “I don’t want to leave,” he said.
Sadly, this is true. Stealing service is not a prosecutable offense but stealing money using false claims of service is, it’s the USA. Laws reflect values.
The sad thing is many of these guys I’ve met who falsely claim to have been in some “special force” actually did serve. Some worked in supply, logistics, motor pool etc. All essential. The tooth to the rail ratio used to be about 8 to 1. [ takes 8 people to support one 1 trigger puller or canon cocker] They had important jobs. I think it’s sad Hollywood and the Pentagon only advertise the the tip of spear with no mention of the folks without which they would not exist. So when they come back to civilian life and the chicken hawks start asking them what they did they BS. It’s a “little” understandable but should be illegal.
I will add MSC gets NO thanks or consideration from the general public. That to me is inexcusable. Perhaps the Pentagon is embarrassed that civilian mariners on a UNS can do a better job with less people than the US Navy?
3 Likes
And then there were thousands of local Afghanis that “chose” to work with America’s military and civilian contractors as interpreters and admin roles. At the time, up until slow Joe pulled the plug, they believed we’d be there … for them.
How’s that working out now?
Which U.S. President got Abdul Ghani Baradar, out of prison in Pakistan, and then negotiated with him and the rest of The Taliban, then drew the U.S. troop presence down to less than 3000 troops?
2 Likes
Was it the same one who planned to meet with Taliban leaders on 9/11 at Camp David?
Had my locations wrong first time around
2 Likes
So much outpouring of concern over Afghan refugees. It’s touching. 
Here’s a plan to help them that won’t cost the U.S. taxpayer a dime! The Former Guy raised a quarter of a billion dollars for his “election defense fund”. Only a few cents of it has been spent. (Not much defending going on…) The funds are presumably collecting interest at, what? $10 mil a year, conservatively?
The Former Guy can spend just the interest to help pay for the re-settlement of those refugees he worries so much about. His supporters can form committees to make sure the money is spent wisely, and provide welcome-wagons, as they prepare to greet the Afghan refugees to their communities. And no one–not the Former Guy, or his supporters, or the American taxpayer–needs to pull their wallet out! The money is just sitting there doing nothing, waiting for a bashful kraken to show up.
Show of hands?
1 Like
What we left behind is/was worth much more than that.
Only one member of congress voted against the Afghan War in 2001. She begged her fellow members of Congress at the time:
“However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, ‘Let’s step back for a moment, let’s just pause, just for a minute, and think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control.’”
“Some of us” turned out to be just her.
2 Likes
Yet you gleefully voted for two different candidates that voted to authorize the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
I protested on the streets of Seattle against those wars, and when I see people who I recognize from those protests eagerly pull the lever for those who voted to authorize them I wonder what else they’re capable of.