Your CdM's China Warmongering Thread du Jour

[Razgovory]

You do see a shift in tone after Vietnam, but that shift seems to have been temporary. 

Eh before WWII the US was dealing with the trauma of the Civil War.  After a few decades of mutual accusation and bloody shirt waving we decided to invent the myth that the war was nobody's fault, it seems those states were forced to secede by like the Demi-Gods of history or something, and we had all these Blue-Gray reunions to try to get the veterans to kiss and make up.  The first couple meetings were really tense but eventually they got with the program.  Which led to a period following WWI where we decided the whole Civil War was a mistake and a huge waste of life for no reason at all and a tragedy...which was totally not influenced at all by the experience of WWI.

I think the super-patriotism that followed WWII was another attempt to finally end the sectional divide and trauma of the Civil War.  Then Vietnam brought up a whole bunch of new issues that we are still dealing with, the culture war and all that.  And I think the return to American 'rah-rah' is an attempt to deal with that issue.

I am pretty amazed the 150th anniversary of the ACW has come with barely a peep from anybody.  It looks like the burden of it and slavery is finally being lifted from the US' shoulders.

I think the shift in thinking on the Civil War occurred before WWI.  People pretty rah-rah during the Spanish-American so Americans had gotten back their patriotism by then.  Still Americans were kinda anti-war before the entry into WWI, but they never reached the pessimism that Europeans had after WWI.

[The Minsky Moment]

All those pictures tell me is that Seoul has some pretty fucked up rush hour traffic, while I could be home in Pyongyang in 7 minutes.

3 minutes to get halfway there, then another hour to walk after you run out of gas and find out you can't refill.

[Siege]

I always taught my guys the right way to do it, and get away with it:
1- No women, no kids, unless they got guns.
2- MAMs (military age males) are fair game, even without guns, as long as you can talk your way out it, convincing your chain of command the dudes were a threat.
3- Never kill 16 at ONE TIME. I mean, come on. You can get away with 40, in twos and threes, but not with SIXTEEN at ONCE.

(It seems that Yi, using selective memory, 'forgot' the thread: it's always 'forgotten' if it involves GIs)

Are you really quoting siege?  I mean really?   He's an old mediocre soldier from Israel, and an E-4(maybe E-5 now?) to boot.  Nobody listens to him, he has no sway and maybe is able to influence 3-4 soldiers if they don't already realize he is batshit crazy.

It's like referencing the crazy hobo on the corner holding a sign saying the world is ending.  He's either completely talking out of his ass or insane.

Whoa, this is uncalled for.
And I have been an E-6 for almost 3 years now.