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We only directly applied napalm to the skin of a couple thousand children, what are those stinky hippies still whining about? They saw the USS Maddox get attack

We only directly applied napalm to the skin of a couple thousand children, what are those stinky hippies still whining about? They saw the USS Maddox get attacked twice while performing peaceful maneuvers in our own backyard, the Gulf of Tonkin! We only dropped 21,000,000 gallons of Agent Orange, it hardly causes birth defects any more, only a few hundred writhing harlequin babies a year at this point, what exactly is the fucking problem?!

kridsdale1 3y ago
Take it up with Nixon. And the fuckers who voted for him who had no problem with the above. The military is a gun. It shoots what the President wants dead. In that case, it was Cambodia. You really don’t want a USA where the military decides it doesn’t want to listen to civilian government anymore.
- mistermann 3y ago
  The notion that the military is subordinate to The Will of The People is interesting, or maybe I misinterpreted you.
- ogab 3y ago
  I wish the gunshots came after formal declarations of war by Congress, something that hasn't happened since before the current and previous Presidents were born. Also wish Congress wasn't a clown car perpetually headed off a cliff. But the Department of War became the Department of Defense, so I guess all these gun shots aren't war anymore. And as for the gun analogy, I'm reminded of the "production for use"[0] defense from Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday: "And so, into this little tortured mind came the idea that that gun had been produced for use. And use it he did." ----- [0] https://subtextpodcast.com/his-girl-friday/ https://subtextpodcast.com/his-girl-friday/
  - ericmay 3y ago
    Congress being a clown car is problem #1 for sure. Though congress unfortunately is at least somewhat or perhaps majorly representative of the will of the people so the problem is mostly that we're idiots. I hear you on the need for a declaration of war, but as I'm sure you realize, it's not practical for most of the modern conflicts we find ourselves in. Congress has also explicitly given the Executive the power to conduct limited engagements because conflict develops much more quickly in many cases than Congress can act and we need to be able to respond quickly. Now of course one might argue something such as that we shouldn't be in areas or be doing things that could instantly cause a conflict and of course that sounds great to me, but then after a second glance you realize that, well, for example Americans must get oil and gas from the Middle East and so here we are without a formal declaration of war protecting shipping lanes.

kridsdale1 3y ago

Take it up with Nixon. And the fuckers who voted for him who had no problem with the above. The military is a gun. It shoots what the President wants dead. In that case, it was Cambodia. You really don’t want a USA where the military decides it doesn’t want to listen to civilian government anymore.

mistermann 3y ago
The notion that the military is subordinate to The Will of The People is interesting, or maybe I misinterpreted you.
ogab 3y ago
I wish the gunshots came after formal declarations of war by Congress, something that hasn't happened since before the current and previous Presidents were born. Also wish Congress wasn't a clown car perpetually headed off a cliff. But the Department of War became the Department of Defense, so I guess all these gun shots aren't war anymore. And as for the gun analogy, I'm reminded of the "production for use"[0] defense from Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday: "And so, into this little tortured mind came the idea that that gun had been produced for use. And use it he did." ----- [0] https://subtextpodcast.com/his-girl-friday/ https://subtextpodcast.com/his-girl-friday/
- ericmay 3y ago
  Congress being a clown car is problem #1 for sure. Though congress unfortunately is at least somewhat or perhaps majorly representative of the will of the people so the problem is mostly that we're idiots. I hear you on the need for a declaration of war, but as I'm sure you realize, it's not practical for most of the modern conflicts we find ourselves in. Congress has also explicitly given the Executive the power to conduct limited engagements because conflict develops much more quickly in many cases than Congress can act and we need to be able to respond quickly. Now of course one might argue something such as that we shouldn't be in areas or be doing things that could instantly cause a conflict and of course that sounds great to me, but then after a second glance you realize that, well, for example Americans must get oil and gas from the Middle East and so here we are without a formal declaration of war protecting shipping lanes.