Should Soldiers Be Considered Heros?

[LiberalMike]

With the United States not having been invaded since 1812, and millions of civilians having been killed in Vietnam, Korea, and Iraq. We also spend about 750 billion on defense against middle easterners with ak-47s. I am tired of people yelling out ignorantly how we should support our troops. When they fight these useless wars(Vietnam, Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan, Panama, Grenada). All for political gain and also another factor is the military industrial complex. All the companies that build the tanks, body armour, fighter jets, rifles ect... Do you think we should glorify war and our soldiers as hero's?

 

[Omgitsme]

With the United States not having been invaded since 1812, and millions of civilians having been killed in Vietnam, Korea, and Iraq. We also spend about 750 billion on defense against middle easterners with ak-47s. I am tired of people yelling out ignorantly how we should support our troops. When they fight these useless wars(Vietnam, Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan, Panama, Grenada). All for political gain and also another factor is the military industrial complex. All the companies that build the tanks, body armour, fighter jets, rifles ect... Do you think we should glorify war and our soldiers as hero's?

The troops should be supported and a huge portion of them are heroes. The wars are a different story though. Some wars should be supported and some shouldnt.

 

[LiberalMike]

I don't support any overseas war. I would only support a war if America was invaded.

 

[Thrilla]

With the United States not having been invaded since 1812, and millions of civilians having been killed in Vietnam, Korea, and Iraq. We also spend about 750 billion on defense against middle easterners with ak-47s. I am tired of people yelling out ignorantly how we should support our troops. When they fight these useless wars(Vietnam, Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan, Panama, Grenada). All for political gain and also another factor is the military industrial complex. All the companies that build the tanks, body armour, fighter jets, rifles ect... Do you think we should glorify war and our soldiers as hero's?

well, it's obvious you don't support the troops, and conflate them with civilian political leadership... and I think you should keep on doing that.
I'll go ahead and support the troops and not confuse them with civilian leadership.... that what i should keep doing.

 

[LiberalMike]

You can't just say well the soldiers dropped napalm on innocent citizens only because their political leadership told them too. They had a choice.\

 

[Thrilla]

You can't just say well the soldiers dropped napalm on innocent citizens only because their political leadership told them too. They had a choice.\

if leadership orders them to drop napalm on innocent civilians, they have a choice.. as that order could be construed as an unlawful order.

in all my years in the Corps, i've never heard and order come down like that , though.... ordered to take out valid military targets come down all the time... and yes, they do result in collateral damage.... but those are still lawful orders and must be followed.

it ok, though, you don't have to rationalize why you confuse troops with civilian leadership.... it's enough for me to know that you do it.

 

[SmokeAndMirrors]

Personally, I don't see anything destructive as being heroic. In the best case scenario, what I might compare it to is a necessary amputation. That doctor isn't a hero. What they did is sad and terrible, but it just needed to be done.

And that's the best case scenario. That's assuming the war itself is just, which most wars aren't in my opinion, and that the actors within them are being consistently ethical. Most of the time, it falls dramatically short of the "sad and terrible, but necessary" mark, and falls somewhere in the "wow, this is senseless" category. Individual soldier will vary, but without a just case, nor any way of acting within it that isn't in itself destructive, I don't see much potential for heroism. What heroism may be committed would be antithetical to the purpose of war, so that person wouldn't really be acting as a soldier.

I will never understand what motivates people to go to war in the first place, but most of them come back with a very different perspective than what they had going in, and they do deserve our support and care. Not because I think the cause is at all just, but rather because they're human beings who are coming back with broken minds and bodies.

 

[LiberalMike]

It's obvious you have been conditioned to this national security state.

 

[Risky Thicket]

It's obvious you have been conditioned to this national security state.

It's obvious you know nothing at all about the military or war.

 

[Thrilla]

just an observation.. if you don't support the troops and don't consider them heroes.... why are you quoting Gen. Butler in your sig?.. he was an outspoken advocate of the troops

 

[TheDemSocialist]

We should support the troops. Now the mission the troops are ordered to go on we dont have to support.
But we should support the troops as a whole.

 

[Jetboogieman]

If you wish for peace, prepare for war.

I believe in a strong national defence.

I believe in supporting the members of our armed forces all we can.

HOWEVER.

I don't think simply being a member of the military automatically makes you a hero, you do a great service to the nation BUT I think the word hero has become too politicized first of all, and secondly I've seen literally thousands of interviews with soldiers who served with the British, Canadian and American armed forces and I've never heard a single one of them refer to themselves as a hero, their buddies perhaps, but never themselves.

But I'll let these guys speak for themselves.



All in all OP.

Support the troops always, but I think you're quite entitled to be upset about where and why they're sent places.

I believe opposing wars sometimes is supporting the troops.

Iraq and Vietnam are great examples.

 

[LiberalMike]

I agree he was. But he realized that the wars he fought in where for the bankers, and the special interest.

 

[Thrilla]

I agree he was. But he realized that the wars he fought in where for the bankers, and the special interest.

there should be a lesson in that for you.

if Butler can differentiate between troops, leadership, backers, and special interest( whatever that is).. so too can you.

 

[Risky Thicket]

I agree he was. But he realized that the wars he fought in where for the bankers, and the special interest.

When I was in I never met a banker or a lobbyist or a diplomat in uniform. I did know one Congressman's nephew. He was a decent guy, to be honest. But, he never shipped over. He stayed stateside, one assignment and never left it until he was discharged. None of those people and their civilian friends and neighbors ever wear a uniform, Mike. They are never in harm's way. They never sacrifice years of their lives. They don't hump. They don't sweat in the bowels of a ship. They don't spend endless hours frying or freeing on the flight line. There is a vast difference between the ones who benefit from wars and the ones who die.

 

[PirateMk1]

there should be a lesson in that for you.

if Butler can differentiate between troops, leadership, backers, and special interest( whatever that is).. so too can you.

I think William Tecumseh Sherman said it best "War is Hell." As true a saying as there ever was. War is the organized destruction of property and murder of people. There can be no honor in such heinous acts. War can only be justified in self defence, all other reasons are just excuses. That said, soldiers can be heros, not from the killing but from the sacrafice of their bodies and more importantly their souls. Wars dont just break bodies, they break the soul. Every time a soldier takes a life they kill a piece of themselves. They dont even have to take life to have their souls battered, just from being in a shelling or a bombing. Or the prolonged stay in a combat zone under threat most of the time, has a way of changing a man.

From the crucibal that is war, heros can emerge. Women and men with concern for others do what they would not ordinarily do, to save others, to stand in the face of insurmountable odds and look death squarely in the eye and say"Do your worst." From that same crucibal evil and cruelty is born.

War is a nessisary evil. Hard men and women must stand between us and the evil outside. So yes soldiers should be considered heros.

 

[Sarcogito]

A small minority of soldiers are heroes. A small minority are monsters. Most are neither.

 

[Dragonfly]

Are policemen, firefighters, and emergency responders heros? In many ways yes. Anybody who volunteers to put their life on the line so that others do not have to have a hero-like quality to them.

Certainly more hero-like than athletes.

I'd love to see the day when teachers are granted hero-like status too. As well as scientists, engineers, and those involved in research and development.

We all need everybody to pitch in and be productive. In the best way they can.

Somebody who can actually parent should be considered a hero.
Not the ones who re-produce, but the ones who parent.

I think it all comes down to making a difference. Anybody can be a hero if they make a positive difference in somebodies life.

Just being a soldier might not make somebody a hero, but if they join with the right intent, they sure can achieve that status rather quickly.

Last year at the age of 15 my youngest daughter was a lifeguard at a pool. She had to pluck a kid who couldn't swim out of the water when it became obvious he was in some deep trouble. Is she a hero? I bet that young boy thought so. Kids parents might think so too.

We should all try to be a hero in somebody's life.

 

[tessaesque]

I considered the army for a very brief period of time. The idea of serving my country appealed to me....but the thought of leaving my family and friends behind, of being shipped overseas, of being allowed only limited contact with people I love, of battle...it all terrified me. I couldn't muster up the gumption to make a commitment like that.

So for me, any young man or woman who decides to join the military despite that fear and trepidation...they're already half-way to heroes. They're giving up a LOT for a chance to serve their country. They may be sent to wars they don't particularly like; they may be sent to lands where they aren't particularly welcome; they may see the very worst in people on full display time and time again. But they still go, marching in line with their fellow soldiers, doing their best to support the ideal of American freedom and safety.

Sometimes the decisions of our leaders are misguided. Sometimes bad things happen on the field of war. Sometimes soldiers lose their grip on reality and do terribly things. But mostly we have several million troops and veterans who gladly donned the uniform and fought fiercely to keep the rest of us safe. Without their sacrifices none of the people who speak so fiercely against them would be able to do so.

So mostly, on a grand scale, military men and women are heroes. So long as I'm capable I'll do my best to let our troops know they're appreciated and that most of us really and truly care about them, their families, and their legacies. 'Cause at the end of the day we wouldn't be who and what we are without them.

 

[Nµx The Witty]

A soldier can be, but is not always, a heroic warrior. Even soldiers can choose to do something bad, and when they do so, they are clearly not acting as a hero. Being a soldier is not heroic, doing brave and honorable things as a soldier is heroic.

 

[PirateMk1]

A small minority of soldiers are heroes. A small minority are monsters. Most are neither.

I beg to disagree. Anyone willing to go into harms way is a hero. Most people go the opposite way, away from the sounds of the battlefield. Thats my take.:twocents:

 

[PirateMk1]

I have a question for the vets out there. I have worked in Iraq from 2003-2006 as a convoy commander leading fuel convoyes. I have been bombed, rocketed, and shot at more time than I care to count or want to remember. Was once in chemical attack. Lighting, Lighting, Lightning. Frightining, and unnerving more like. (The vets that were there will know what I speak of.) I could have left at any time I liked and I ended up there for 3 years. That sort of puts me into a quasi vet status I think, but aint sure. How do you guys see that? What sort of status if any, does that put my friends who were there, and me in? My curiousity is finally overcoming my reticence on the subject of the whole Iraq conflict. I would like know because I have friends of mine who didnt make it home and wonder how they are viewed considering they gave everything just like the soldiers who didnt make it home from there. I know how I view them, which is bloody fine people and heros. I thank you in advance for your candor. Cheers.:cheers::thanks:

 

[SmokeAndMirrors]

I beg to disagree. Anyone willing to go into harms way is a hero. Most people go the opposite way, away from the sounds of the battlefield. Thats my take.:twocents:

Why is running towards bloodshed inherently good? Most battles are not worth fighting, frankly. Most wars are unjust.

What is heroic about into running in to senseless conflict?

 

[PirateMk1]

Why is running towards bloodshed inherently good? Most battles are not worth fighting, frankly. Most wars are unjust.

What is heroic about into running in to senseless conflict?

Your right about war. Most of the time it is unjust if not all the time.

The heroism isnt about the fighting its about doing something that must be done regardless the price to oneself. Self sacrafice.

 

[SmokeAndMirrors]

Your right about war. Most of the time it is unjust if not all the time.

The heroism isnt about the fighting its about doing something that must be done regardless the price to oneself. Self sacrafice.

But if it's unjust, then so is fighting in it. Sacrificing yourself for injustice doesn't change that it's injustice.

Furthermore, most people I've known who went into the military don't think of it that way. They think of it as the only way they can afford college, or that it will be fun, or that they'll get to travel. Maybe that's a cultural thing up here - it could be. But even my half-sister, who's from down South, went into the military so she could afford college. Unfortunately, she had such severe PTSD when she came back that she couldn't even hold down a part-time job, let alone go to school.

And finally, I don't see how destructiveness can possibly be heroic in any circumstance. As I said in my first post, at best, it's a necessary tragedy. But that's not heroic. It's just sad. And you "liked" that post.