[TheWastelander]

(01-26-2015 11:48 AM)RockHard Wrote:  

That's a nice piece of fantasy he contrives there, but let's be real: these are soldiers who do what they're ordered to do. Soldiers were complaining about the lack of support, bad equipment, lack of body armor, etc. But they still carried out their missions for the most part. When a Colonel can't order a regiment into combat and get a "yes sir!", then we don't have an army.

There's are major cultural differences between the two militaries due to the different eras, what was going on, the environment, etc.

In Vietnam, the military had plenty of draftees who didn't join up willingly and didn't want to get their asses shot off. As the war progressed they'd often frag NCOs and officers who they thought were recklessly exposing them to risk. This also happened in WWII to a limited extent (because doing such a thing could get you executed if you were caught) and probably Korea as well.

My father was a draftee and not only told me about his attitude, but also the attitudes of the volunteers. The volunteers were, in his experience, more unquestioningly patriotic and more willing to go along to get along. He was a pretty average soldier who got into trouble occasionally for not keeping his mouth shut when higher-ranking soldiers said or did stupid shit.

But honestly the threat of a brig sounds better than getting blown apart or shot because of someone's shitty ideas.

Then there's also the fact that by the time that most of the guys who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq joined, the military was pretty much already wed to the misguided "hearts and minds" mentality and nation-building. They'd seen it all throughout the nineties with the disastrous, limited military interventions Clinton engaged in.

Vietnam vets, on the other hand, were raised by men who joined or got drafted into the army when soldiers fought from day one through a whole campaign. They either came home in a box or to a victory parade. They expected a total war that was quick and were instead told to fight a war of attrition with one hand tied behind their back despite having the power at their disposal to annihilate the communist enemy. So you can imagine that plenty of them would be disillusioned and a little pissed off.

Anyway, not trying to derail but I thought your point deserved a reply.