US 'war is fun' general rebuked (By the US Marine Corps)

[truthpusher]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4234751.stm


US 'war is fun' general rebuked
By Adam Brookes
BBC News at the Pentagon


Gen Mattis described fighting as 'a hell of a hoot'

The US Marine Corps has publicly upbraided one of its generals for his comments describing shooting people in Iraq as "fun".

Discussing fighting in Iraq, the General said he liked brawling and enjoyed shooting people.

The Marine Corps said Lt Gen James Mattis had been "counselled" concerning his remarks, made during a panel discussion in California.

The general had agreed he should have chosen his words more carefully.

Gen Mattis is a hardened veteran of combat and appears to have developed a taste for it.

complete story>>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4234751.stm

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[hippiechick]

5. He shouldn't be 'counselled' about his remarks ...

He should be counselled about the ATTITUDE BEHIND the remarks !!!

:mad:

[The Zanti Regent]

32. Let me counsel this asshole

Let me take that sleazy chicken to the grave of my only child, my only son killed in his fucking war. Let me give him the asswhipping he deserves for killing my boy and tearing my heart out!

[Mari333]

43. amen.

[Cocoa]

6. straight-talking Rummy evades as usual

the blunt, plainspoken Rumsfeld turns to his favorite copout.

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=36849

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had not read Mattis remarks and deferred to Pace when asked about them.

[onenote]

11. WTF? These guys make me sick

From the article: "While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war," Hagee said.

Talking about it being "fun" to shoot people and how much he enjoys brawling is how he intended to reflect the "unfortunate and harsh realities of war"? Welcome to the land of double speak - black is white, up is down, and "fun" is the "harsh reality of war".

These guys make me sick...

onenote

[ashling]

37. The REALITY of war??!!!!

The reality on the ground over there is that we have people running things that think that fighting is a hoot.

I don't care about whether or not he 'misspoke'or not. The fact is that he spoke. Don't these people understand that words have power.
don't they understand the implications and power these types of things have? (Rhetorical questions - OF COURSE THEY DON'T - they are idiots!)

This guy has no business leading a troop of girl scouts, let alone people with guns. He has no business representing my country.

I remember a marine with that attitude coming home from another war. He sat up on top of the tower at the University of Texas and had a real hoot.

Can his sorry ass. End of story!

[Mr_Spock]

7. Hey, maybe "shooting people (in Iraq) is fun"?

These guys can be so silly sometimes...

[LibertyorDeath]

8. He should be stripped of his Command

In addition to being a Sadistic sociopath His judgment is fucked.

[chelsea0011]

9. "War is Fun"? That would be something for National Lampoon

Remember beginning of Animal House? "Knowledge is Good" on the campus statue. How about "War is Good" on a statue at the Pentagon.

[jdj]

10. The only thing Republicans are held accountable for is telling the truth.

Don't dare let the public in on the real reason behind your "patriotism".

That is a cardinal sin in their books.

But with anything else, anything is allowable.

[bluestateguy]

12. Sounds like something we would hear from Col. Jessup in "A Few Good Men"

"I eat breakfast every morning 4000 yards from men who are trained to kill me"

:eyes:

[Psephos]

33. I thought the same thing n/t

[comradebillyboy]

13. remarks were imprudent, BUT

you do want fighters as military leaders. the military exists to kill people and destroy things. they gotta be willing to kill and destroy or they are useless. i'd much rather have leaders like mattis than that crazy holy roller who thinks god elected bush thats now undersec for some mideast ops. i forget his name. mattis is better than any of the religious nuts in the pentagon

[chunkylover55]

14. I was thinking something along the same lines.

The military is trained to fight and kill, and the guy apparently likes his job. I don't see why he has to apologize for it. Thats the type of guy I'd prefer leading troops -- not somone who wants to sit around with his platoon singing "Kumbaya" and planning sensitivity training.

[onenote]

15. sensitivity training might help this clown

No you don't want a pacifist as military leader. Fine. But someone who advocates killing as "fun" is someone who will cause the next My Lai or some other atrocity where the fun he and his troops get from killing clouds their judgment as to who really is a threat and who isn't....

onenote

[Rose Siding]

17. No. There is something wrong with enjoying killing

and btw, that is not the only job the military has to do.

There would be something wrong with a veterinarian who enjoys euthanizing cats or a teacher who enjoys disciplining children.

The military solution of addressing just his words rather than his dangerous pathology is inept.

[tabasco]

18. I'm an Airborne Ranger with two combat tours.

I never had a leader that thought killing was fun. Killing is deadly serious business and I can only surmise Mattis has never been in dire straits in combat or it has been so long his senility made him forget. Make no mistake. A LTG hasn't fired a shot in anger in decades.

If you have an attitude that combat is fun, yoiu will come up with some half-ass plan that gets half your men killed. If you consider combat deadly business, you make a detailed plan that might get everybody home alive. Never underestimate your enemy.

Mattis is an idiot. I knew a Mrine officer, when he was a Colonel, who went on to be Deputy Cmdt. of the Corps. I'm sure he would consider Mattis an idiot too.

Mattis is getting old and trying to show some bravado to a roomful of execs. Total jackass.

[saigon68]

35. I agree with you

The war at a squad or platoon level is getting your guys out alive. They are the ones that end up doing most of the dying, and this guy was living a dream to some execs.

I'm sure he now regrets opening his pie hole and inserting his patten leather low quarters.

[Redstone]

42. Amen.

"Killing is deadly serious business and I can only surmise Mattis has never been in dire straits in combat or it has been so long his senility made him forget."

Well said, indeed. I hope everyone here reads and understands your post.

Redstone

[54anickel]

22. Your post got me thinking about the old Alice's Restaurant song by

Arlo.

"I wanna see viens and blood and gore stuck between my teeth. I wanna kill, kill, KILL, and the next thing I know we're all jumping around yellin' KILL, KILL, KILL. Sargent pointed me out and said he's our man"
or something to that effect. :shrug:

[Sterling]

30. No I think he is just a dumb ass and does not know when to STFU.

Seriously, this is the kind of guy that will get his men killed to show how big his dick is. This makes all Americans look bad. Not just the Jarheads. We have already been caught molesting people like perverts. We don't need morons like this going around making us look worse.

The brits seem to have a lot more class than our military leaders do. They kill just fine. They may even enjoy it but they are smart enough not to gloat about it in public. Maybe that is why they are not being targeted as much as our troops? Maybe they just deal with the situation more rationally?

[Orsino]

19. I want fighters, not "bring it on" poseurs.

Any fighting this general did was twenty years ago. Any enjoyment he's getting now should be interpreted as, "I love sending other people out to fight."

*Real* soldiers don't think fighting is fun, unless they have been damaged beyond the point at which they should still command. *Real* soldiers don't sleep in air conditioning while their troops are sniped one by one. *Real* soldiers know that they must train to fight, and nightly pray that war will be avoided.

Heck, even an enlisted REMF like me enjoyed combat training. To generals, real combat resembles training exercises just a tad too much, I think. This fella's drunk that Kool-Aid.

[DrZeeLit]

16. I had a history professor once who agreed with ROTC

at a time when ROTC was vanishing from campuses due to protest. He said in essence, he would rather have an EDUCATED military. Who do you want to "push the button?"

While fighting is the main gig, I'd hope they would also be trained to THINK. And this guy, under the lights, didn't think.

I'd seriously wonder about him taking troops into battle, if he can't discern when to act and when to use tact.

[BrightKnight]

20. He should be court-martialed for conduct unbecoming.

He dishonored the Marine Corps and he dishonored his country. Generals must be held to a high standard. It is simply not acceptable for someone in his position to say these things. Letting this pass only makes the situation worse.

A general that actually believes that enemy is less that human and that killing is fun is not fit for command. I understand that it is necessary to desensitize soldiers to enable them to do their jobs. A general should know the difference between basic training and reality.

I think that military academies should be teaching American exceptionalism. George Washington always gave quarter to British and Hessian troops even when they refused to do the same. He did this because he believed in American exceptionalism. If military academy graduates understood and practiced this we would not be plagued by so many incidents of appalling conduct.

[flaminbats]

27. Why are Generals even making public statements about the war?

Imagine if Bush had been the one to change the policy regarding gays in the military. He would have found every General in the Pentagon who opposed the new policy..demoted and court-martialed them. Then he would have found his biggest advocates, promoted and ordered them to make statements to the press in favor of the new policy.

Unlike Clinton, Bush would not have listened to his peers or changed his policy. Republicans view the Pentagon as nothing more than a public relations office. Strategy and complex security decisions are confined exclusively to the Oval Office and RNC.

Soldiers follow orders, and this administration exploits that in every way possible. Bush orders our troops to risk their lives for his personal agenda, then they get blamed for his insanity.

[BrightKnight]

21. Alice's Resturant: I want to kill...

"And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I
wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill,
KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and
he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down
yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,
sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy.""

[54anickel]

23. HA, yes that's how it went. Tried to remember that part in a post above

Thanks! Gotta dig that old record out one of these days, think I still have a turn-table somewhere around here.

[drummer55]

24. everyday in everyway we seem more and more like germany in 33 n/t

[tsuki]

25. I was wondering how long it would take the Marines to get him. The US

Marine Corps is serious about their integrity.

[dave123williams]

26. This is the kind of guy you want to pursue a career in the Corps.

Better that than the lunatic has a regular job...

[w4rma]

28. Weaponry and a position where he can train others to emulate his attitude?

That's the best place for him to help our society? Are you sure you don't want to rethink that?

[dave123williams]

34. We actually need people who are willing to kill, and....

moreover, we need people who like to do so. Sad, but true. You'll find his murderous glee has its place in any society, sickening as it is, and that place is deployed forward.

[ItsThePeopleStupid]

41. our troops have often been criticized for being trigger happy

I don't know where people like this belong, but certainly not in a position with a lot of authority.

[Sterling]

31. Maybe prison. I would rather see him there than pot dealers.

I would feel more safe that way.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

29. I offer you a part of the Brazilian Soldier Song:

We fervently want peace
War only causes us pain
However, if the beloved Country
Is one day attacked
We'll fight fearlessly.

[Earth_First]

36. The only reason they backtrack on the statement...

is the ensuing PR nightmare that this statement created.

[croat]

38. What a creep

As a combat veteran, I can tell you that for any normal human being, killing is never "fun". Enjoying dealing out death does not equate with bravery; as a soldier, you abhore death, and inflict it out of necessity, not 'enjoyment'.

[natrat]

39. they should retire that shrivled up mean bastad

[LibertyLover]

40. Marine general

I have to admit that until I heard the tape of Gen. Mattis actually saying that it was fun to shoot people I had hoped it was a comment taken out of context. But it definately wasn't. I was appalled to hear this morning on the way into work that Gen. Pace had "counseled" him about the remarks. Comments such as the ones Gen. Mattis made are, at best, irresponsible and should have drawn a stiffer penalty than 'there, there, you've been a bad General - so, no cookie today'. But, given who the president is, I'm not holding my breathe.