Arrogant military children

what do you mean? like accidently?

well look at it another way, if the doctor done nothing and just left the patient as they were, then they would've died anyway. Inevitably theres a risk with each operation

That's kinda my point. In the UK military there are around 250,000 people doing all manner of jobs. Yet they're all judged by the same standard, those ~20,000 guys who, by necessity, have a job far removed from any other. It's no more ridiculous than judging all postmen by the minority who steal, or teachers by the minority who have relationships with kids. Threads like these help perpetuate the myth that everyone in the Forces is an identical clone with the exact same mindsets and prejudices.

So don't even begin to throw the naive label at me, you're the one showing up your idiocy and closemindedness.

Doctors kill people through stupidity and incompetence all the time.

Regardless of your point, you knew what he meant and took it a different way. That is being intentionally naive to push your agenda.

I do agree, though.


The difference is intent. A soldier intends to kill people, a doctor does not. Also, I'd like to see you do a better job, kiddo.

Your dad's almost an Admiral? That's pretty cool.

Well I've found that many people who have 'important or wealthy' parents tend to develop their own sense of self importance, which is completely nonsensical.

I've noticed this. I used to get laughed at because my dad works in a fish factory.

Fundamentally you can't have a country without armed forces, whether or not they are used.

Of course this doesn't make everyone who joins up worthy of respect, but comparing them to doctors is a false argument - they are simply different jobs. Not everyone can be a doctor - does this make taxi drivers, teachers and bin men any less essential? You could even argue that soldiers save lives in the long term, but that's a matter of politics, not of the individual soldier. Regardless of whether or not you believe in the current war (and remember these 'shepherd fanatics' have co-ordinated one of the greatest breaches of American security in years and killed 3000 people in the heart of one of their safest cities), there are two main reasons to respect the Armed Forces;

1. Brainwashing. The powers that be need people to voluntarily go and die. Most people don't want to voluntarily go and die. The solution is to create a culture of camaraderie and patriotism that makes these people feel there is a greater cause. By humouring their dependents you are preventing the need for conscription, thus saving yourself.

2. Even if some chav decides to join the army because they want a gun, when they get there every single one of them goes through a kind of Hell. Their training is physically and mentally rigorous, and what they face in Afghanistan is worthy of respect in itself. Of course that doesn't excuse the few who delight in torturing or killing, but most don't. How many armies in the history of the world have been forbidden from returning fire at people who are trying to kill them unless they know there are no civillians in the building?

So yes, those children may be arrogant, but they are children, and they don't know if their parents will be alive in a week's time. I would just let them be arrogant.

oh and just arguing the toss here but what if their mummies/daddies are army doctors.... yeah think about that one!

oh and just arguing the toss here but what if their mummies/daddies are army doctors.... yeah think about that one!

Do you actually believe that the Afghans/Talibans did any of what you seem to accuse them of doing? I thought their main crime was that of harbouring Al qaeda and letting them establish training camps? I have not yet heard of an Afghan being among the ring leaders or perpertrating any of the international terrorism committed by Al Qaeda. The Afghans seem only to have sheltered their Arab friends and allies who fought with them to send off the Soviets in the 80s and nothing more.

Fundamentally you can't have a country without armed forces, whether or not they are used.

Plenty of countries don't have an Armed Force protecting them.

A country doesn't need an army. Japan doesn't have one (it has a Defence Force which isn't the same thing).

Plenty of countries don't have an Armed Force protecting them.

A country doesn't need an army. Japan doesn't have one (it has a Defence Force which isn't the same thing).