However, I find that many of the most bigoted people I see and talk to end up being transplants from colder climates.

Well that's your experience then. I normally agree with much of what you have to say but I also lived in the deep south for some years and I can see why people make those southern bashing comments. It isn't all of them no, but, on the whole, the south is filled with bigoted conservative morons. Sometimes things are as they appear.

Regardless, it just seemed that there was a whole lot of bigoted bashing today. Letting out a little steam? -- heru-ur

So if one bashes known bigtots then they themselves are bigots? Pick a side heru-ur.

For the record, the "Greatest Generation" had no problem with Dresden, Nagasaki, or Hiroshima. They would've done anything and everything to beat their opponents. And if you don't think that ad hoc executions went on in the field, you're truly naive.

War isn't pretty, people.

Do you know many people from this generation, because you truly insult them. They may have done what would amount to horrible crimes, but unlike you they didn't believe in them. If I were to follow your logic they would support "ad hoc" executions today. They don't and they didn't support torture either. In fact much of their motivation was to fight against people who were labeled (correctly) horrible "torturers".

And actually you're wrong. There were many things they could have done, specifically including torture, but they didn't. That's not to say that some guys in the trenches didn't do it, but the president of the U.S. didn't order it.

The fact that there may be some hypocrisy in their actual actions does not imply tacit support of those actions in the future. I am sure many Americans raped Axis civilians during the war, but that does not mean they support rape of occupied powers.

I really get sick of the "holier than though" military types (real or pretend) that think most of us don't "get it" - that war isn't pretty. Of course it isn't pretty, but if it was as simple as that you wouldn't have "rules of engagement" to abide by. Maybe they don't get followed as well as they ought to, but were not animals man. We all do horrible things under insane circumstances, but that doesn't mean we have to legalize it.

I know, right? It's almost as if people have never "thought long and hard" about the things you are describing.

In regards to "is it a secret?": You either know, or you don't. You and Glen apparently do not.

How do you know I don't know? Is it a magic</> secret?

In regards to you having no idea: Having never been there, you probably have little to no idea.

About what? Who cares?

Try actually saying something.

Tease.

You're right. The "Greatest Generation" wanted to impeach FDR after the firebombing of Dresden. And, in fact, the US government couldn't find ANYONE in the entire state of California to help round up Japanese citizens to put them into camps! And, of course, you remember how they booted Truman out of office when he used the Atomic bomb!

I take back my stupid, foolish insinuation that the Greatest Generation believed in aggressive warfare.

Oh. And as for me thinking that you believe war is a video game: WHY on earth would I think that? Just because I post a single 100% TRUE story from the field, and every single poster here chimes in like I'm some sort of liar?

Between villages, you intercept a small group of people who are in transit to who knows where. You use metal detectors, and on them you find four grenades (one of them hidden in a woman's vagina), and two cell phones (and yes, one of them hidden in a woman's vagina.) -steveindallas

Wow, f'real
Even Jack Bauer never had to defuse a ticking vagina. - Baldie McEagle

Er, I went and looked up, um, some dimensions of, ah, some relevant comparative parts, thought about it for a bit, and promptly fell out of my chair laughing.

As for the link,

http://www.masscops.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13681

interestingly, you can only find that reference in various comments threads. The original story appears to have been scrubbed from all primary source outlets. Wonder if maybe it the story wasn't true?

Well, there is something to be said about a hand grenade in a vagina. (1) It certainly has a certain oedipal aura in the context of 20 year old males, and (2) clearly, given it's location, it is of no immediate threat to anyone, except maybe those young men who, ah, harbor certain unresolved fears and fantasies.

Regardless, I'm sure it makes for a great barracks/bar/VFW story.

When and where did you serve?

Which is worse: Someone with some water in their sinuses? Or, an increased likelihood that a few American troops are ambushed a few days later?

It's a question people should think long and hard about.

Losing you soul and the soul of a country is worse. And that's what you (if you're real) and they are doing.

Again, why don't we torture suspected American criminals? It most definitely could save lives. If your American son (if you had one) somehow went all Muslim on your ass, would you support torturing him should he be a suspect in some sort of plot?

Going back to WWII where a lot more was at stake - how come they didn't feel legalizing waterboarding was necessary? How come they felt that Nazis and Japanese should hang for it?

But you seem to be avoiding the tougher questions.

the Greatest Generation believed in aggressive warfare.

American Foreign Policy was so aggressive not even FDR could hold them back from running in and killing Germans!

oh wait.

Like I said, you either know or you don't. And no, it's not magic.

Anyone seen Alan Dershowitz's take on this issue? I find it hard to believe anyone who writes such childish stuff every graduated from grade school, much less law school.

Link in sig.