US Doesn't Trust Its Deployed Marines Not To Shoot Secretary of Defense

[Elijah Craig]

I've worked in religious institutions and I've worked in the kind of government agencies that leftists and anarchists hate. There is a certain amount of propaganda everywhere, but day to day, people are just going to work like the rest of us. Someone not familiar with defense/intelligence/law enforcement would probably be surprised at the lifestyles and political persuasions of the people inside them. Employees of religious institutions are probably more concerned with self sacrifice, right vs. wrong, etc., than people in the army or police forces. It's nice to have a job you believe in but the great majority of people are just doing it because it pays the bills.

[exOBCstudent]

(03-19-2012 09:25 PM)tiarali Wrote:  Alright, well remember that I went through a completely different history program in education than the rest of you, but it seems to me that in the world wars propaganda played a huge role, both in trying to teach our troops that they were on the side of right, and to try and demoralise the enemy. Of course, back then communication was a lot slower than it is today all round, so it was probably a lot easier to keep people isolated from an intelligence point of view.

I think that some people picked up those ideas and assumed that the military still works that way.

Also, I think that fundies spend a lot of time focusing on how propaganda will cause people to turn away from godly values. That's one justification they give for the level of separation they practice. It's possible that those of us who left fundamentalism still see the actions of those around us that believe differently to us as being the result of propaganda; it can take time to realise that different people are able to see the world in different ways based on different personalities and experiences.

I'd agree that you're right to an extent about the role of Psyops during the World Wars but it can only reach so far. It got to the point where folks even back then would view it as what we call SPAM today. It became less and less effective especially when communication improved.

But these factors are kept in check within the IFB as I believe thay are MASTERS at Psyops and brainwashing the masses. We used to have so many conspiracies and far out ideas taught to us and those who shirked it off in disbelief were scorned. I now understand how folks who come out of the IFB are still susceptible to such nonesense as they were likely conditioned to believe it for much of the time they were in.

[Bill]

(03-18-2012 02:55 PM)SomethingFundy Wrote:  When Nobama calls the troops on citizens under the NDAA, hopefully a lot of guys will say no.

You think this is a viable possibility, yet you're training to be a leader of the very troops you mention? Seems like an interesting career choice, SF.

[lucrezaborgia]

I'd say that the longer we've been in Afghanistan, the more our troops over there understand about the culture, people, etc. That wasn't true when we first got over there and even now, I'd wonder just how much the average front-line troop knows about the history of how the region got that way in the first place. I'm taking a class on the Modern Middle East and we have quite a few troops who were in both Iraq and Afghanistan and while they have superior knowledge of where they were based and where they went on missions, they are somewhat ignorant of the long-view of things. I was a member of a forum where the majority of members were either military or ex-military and when we went into Afghanistan after 9/11 most of them espoused the view that we'd go in, get out, and that we'd transform the Middle East. When we got into Iraq a few years later the same views were said again.

The few voices of dissent were people who were in Desert Storm and yours truly (I had friends from the Middle East growing up). None of these pro-war people had any idea that there were different sects of Islam just like there are Christians. None of these people understood tribal culture. None of these people understood why the some of these countries were so underdeveloped. The biggest thing none of these people understood what that, more often than not, while people in the Middle East generally appreciate Westerners on an individual level, they are highly suspect of us as a nation and with damn good reason. The West has a long history of using the Middle East as its personal playground for power plays and resource grabs and the people there have not forgotten that.

[Bill]

(03-20-2012 12:40 PM)lucrezaborgia Wrote:  The West has a long history of using the Middle East as it's personal playground for power plays and resource grabs and the people there have not forgotten that.

This sums it up tidily. Considering the British exploitation, colonialism, and the long term impact of their random nation-shaping cartography... It's amazing it's as "good" as it is these days.

[lucrezaborgia]

(03-20-2012 07:21 PM)Bill Wrote:  Considering the British exploitation, colonialism, and the long term impact of their random nation-shaping cartography... It's amazing it's as "good" as it is these days.

The fall of the Ottoman and Russian empires left a huge power void in the area that Britain and other European powers jumped in on. Then WWI (President Wilson should have shoved those 14 points up his ass for all they were worth.) and Nationalism (pre-WWI but cemented with it) came along and kept the chaos going. It's almost comical until you realize how many people have died over all this over the past 100 years.

The #1 response I wanted to say to people who spouted over and over that Saddam had "weapons of mass destruction" was DUH! Of course we know he has them, we gave them to him. We also informally supported Osama. Shall we make a list of governments and leaders who have been propped up in the Middle East that have later become a nuisance to us? It's a lot longer than most people think!

The trees of colonialism and Communist proxy wars have borne some awesome fruit!