A violently true depiction of what war really is • Hacker News Board

Re: A violently true depiction of what war really is

#261

Post by dinkumthinkum » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 8:31 AM UTC

roboneal wrote: post #7

Being ex-military and not a sociopath -- he lost me when he said that the "vast majority of us are straight up sociopaths" We constantly made decisions that increased the risk to ourselves while trying to minimize the risk to civilians. That is not a mindset of a sociopath.

It's also possible that his experiences jaded him as well as what another commenter said about group dynamics. Having that sort of attitude may just be how he copes with it. There are all kinds of people in the military, many like you and many that are not.

Re: A violently true depiction of what war really is

#262

Post by dinkumthinkum » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 8:36 AM UTC

gruseom wrote: post #63

burgerbrain wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. As I read the article, it seemed like the author was alternating between suggesting that experience was what turned people that way ( "he was the FNG [ed: fucking new guy] that got blown up because he was incompetent, who left the fight before it turned him into one of us." ), and suggesting that there is something else at play ( "only roughly 20% of combat troops ever get PTSD – when if you think about it, it s…

Yeah, but I'm asking about roboneal's personal experience, not the article. Edit: what bothers me about the article is that it seems unlikely that a true sociopath would describe himself in these terms.

Well, the author says he is not an academic so I think we can freely assume he may not necessarily mean sociopath as how it may or may not be understood by psychologists or the DSM-IV. I think he refers more to apathy.

Re: A violently true depiction of what war really is

#263

Post by dinkumthinkum » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 8:50 AM UTC

unknsldr wrote: post #196

I am an experienced soldier with combat experience in several corners of the world. I have a distinguished service record. The only units I've ever known are Special Forces units. I've operated in several tiers of the community. I was medically discharged following injuries sustained in combat operations. You deserve a better account than M provides. Please understand some detail must be left out. I am not an academi…

Far be it from to tell anyone what they should do but I must say this comment was very well written, engaging, and informative. You might want to consider writing about this more; I think the best way for the civilians to understand what war and military life is like is for those at the tip of the spear is to communicate.

Re: A violently true depiction of what war really is

#264

Post by leot » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 4:32 PM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #189

leot wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, I'm going to call "straw man". No one is forced to clean old people's bedpans. They all do it for money, or because of a sense of obligation/love. But, there are a few other big differences between waging war and providing social services. Perhaps the biggest is that a particular war is a one-time, no-easy-turning-back event, that generally provides little direct benefit to the population funding it. By wa…

They all do it for money, or because of a sense of obligation/love. Soldiers also do it for money. You are advocating that we change this in order to make a policy you oppose less politically popular. I'm just trying to determine whether you are willing to apply this logic in an intellectually consistent manner, or if it's just a political maneuver unrelated to your real motivation [1]. If the possibility of deaths i…

The question a country needs to face before deciding to go to war is, "is it worth it?"

The draft, and taxation, help to provide the needed reckoning.

There is no comparison, here, to the provision of social services. Or to debt-financed infrastructure construction.

War is categorically different.