What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons…

– Wilfred Owen

  • @[email protected]
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    17410 months ago

    What’s wrong with writing poetry on an aircraft carrier? I can’t speak to being on an aircraft carrier, but on a submarine you are not in war mode 24/7; there’s time to do ordinary things. (usually).

    Let me guess: Tommy here hasn’t ever served in the military, right? All he knows about it is from movies?

    • at_an_angle
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      4010 months ago

      Talked to quite a few vets. My understanding is that outside of training, the military is like 90% waiting… I’m sorry, “assuming a holding pattern”

      • @[email protected]
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        1810 months ago

        I wouldn’t say 90% but it is significant. “Hurry up and wait” is a common phrase in the military - you don’t exactly have much “free time” (where you could do as you please) but you do have a lot of time wasted because you have to be at this location at 5:30 so you can wait for an evolution at 6 that doesn’t actually involve you doing anything until 7:30. So you just sit around waiting to do shit but can’t go anywhere else. Poetry sounds like a better way to pass the time than what I did in those situations, which was usually nap or BS with the others waiting around.

      • @[email protected]
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        2010 months ago

        Well, maybe free time doesn’t happen in the first year, but I was a nuke; quals weren’t all that bad from what I remember.

      • @[email protected]
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        210 months ago

        The chief’s quarters really need you to push out those Dive quals so they can go to a 15 section rotation.

  • @[email protected]
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    12010 months ago

    Reminds me of the quote by Thucydides: “The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."

  • @[email protected]
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    10710 months ago

    Alan Turing, a mathematician and gay man, is right up there with Oppenheimer, Churchill, Macarthur, and Stalin in level of importance towards the allied victory in WW2.

    I’m a veteran. A lot of really good troops in technical fields tended to not serve all that long due to better quality of life outside of the military. An ace technical troop is worth their weight in gold.

    Various types of mechanics and technicians, logisticians, network admins, equipment operators, pilots, various engineers, and other technical troops are the real power of the US military. Most of those are more technical than physical.

    It isn’t brawn that keeps around 100 USN ships deployed around the world at any given time. It isn’t brawn that gives the USAF a 48 hour turn around time for operating anywhere in the world. It isn’t brawn that keeps large ground forces supplied at bases all around the world. It is education, brains, and training.

    • @[email protected]
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      2210 months ago

      I agree with the sentiment here, but as a history fan I have to challenge MacArthur’s place on that list.

      He’s well known for his personality, speeches and statements, not his performance on the battlefield, which resulted in the needless deaths of thousands of American servicemen simply following his unwise orders. MacArthur was a brilliant politician but a mediocre general, and should be remembered as such.

      If you want to reach for an American WW2 general worth his stars, can go with Patton or Eisenhower. They did well, even with the benefit of hindsight. We also had a slew of amazing admirals around about that time. They weren’t all good of course, but we had enough.

    • Drunemeton
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      10 months ago

      I remember when Putin’s War started. Over on that other site someone commented that one of the things that’ll make or break the war for Ukraine is:

      Logistics!

      To paraphrase, “The U.S. is many things but they’re inarguably the masters of logistics. They can get anything, anywhere, across the globe in a shockingly short amount of time. If they back Ukraine, Russia’s in a whole world of hurt.”

  • swiftcasty
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    10 months ago

    right now, we are so woke in the military we’re losing recruits right and left

    Tuberville is blocking military promotions. If officers are not regularly promoted, they are discharged from the military. Tuberville is contributing to the discharge of US military persons and blaming it on “wokeness”.

    We’ve got people doing poems on aircraft carriers over the loudspeaker.

    Tuberville portrays this as a problem contributing to “wokeness”. As evidenced by this thread, there is a long storied tradition of war poetry. Including famous military persons.

    After Ingraham asked, “Could we confidently take on China?” Tuberville replied, “Oh no. Oh no. No, and we’re running Russia into China."

    This is false, China is warming to Ukraine. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-06/france-sees-china-easing-stance-on-ukraine-before-g-20-summit#xj4y7vzkg

    "They’re combining up and now BRICS is very, very concerning to me because they’re controlling all the petroleum in the world.”

    Blatantly false. https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/energy-investing/oil-and-gas-investing/top-oil-producing-countries/

    Tuberville is either lying or misinformed. Debunking these comments took some minor work and taught me how effective it is to spew bullshit.

    • @[email protected]
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      1810 months ago

      He’s a Republican correct? If so, you don’t need to ask if he’s knowingly lying, that answer is always “yes” especially if he’s a guest on Propaganda Now™©®

      • @[email protected]
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        1310 months ago

        This is false. Republicans don’t always lie. If they did, literally nobody would believe them.

        What they do is actually far worse. They tell just enough truth to make their lies seem believable. That’s why they end up being dangerous: because they’re believable.

        I know you don’t believe them or find them believable, but enough people do that they keep getting elected.

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          I know you don’t believe them or find them believable, but enough people do that they keep getting elected.

          More accurately enough people blindly vote with party lines to keep Republicans in power

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          The republicans don’t write the talking points, right wing media does. The politicians just parrot them. Right wing media dictates what the party is saying.

    • @[email protected]
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      1210 months ago

      Break the system, complain that the system is broken and blame it on the Dems, repeat. He’s only fooling the morons but unfortunately, they vote too.

      • @[email protected]
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        610 months ago

        Breaking shit and blaming it on Democrats has been the Republican MO since I’ve started voting.

  • @[email protected]
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    5810 months ago

    Yeah cause a Warrior Poet is something that nobody has ever aspired to, or claimed is the peak of masculinity.

    • @[email protected]
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      10 months ago

      Mad Dog Mattis, the supposed most well known recent iteration of the warrior poet/scholar archetype, is probably pretty pissed while reading about this.

      As a young Marine this guy was one of those guys you learned leadership examples from, I had the chance to hear him speak on several occasions while I served. It was pretty disappointing seeing him join the Trump administration, but made sense when you could plainly see that he and Trump absolutely did not get along, because Trump isn’t a real leader by any stretch of imagination.

      Tuberville is just another ignorant know-nothing Chickenhawk piece of shit, with extra racism and potential treason thrown in the mix to make him an extra large pile of shit.

  • @[email protected]
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    5010 months ago

    I’m willing to bet he has zero evidence of anything he’s said. He probably cruises a CCP run website for his info.

  • @[email protected]
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    4610 months ago

    Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville is waging an unprecedented campaign to try to change Pentagon abortion policy by holding up hundreds of military nominations and promotions, forcing less experienced leaders into top jobs and raising concerns at the Pentagon about military readiness.

    A piece of shit through and through. Another day another member of the GOP weaponizing congress by holding random unrelated shit hostage to get their ways. This shit to fuck with womans right to healthcare out of all things.

  • Staark
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    3910 months ago

    doing poems”? Who does a poem? Don’t you write a poem?

    • @[email protected]
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      1010 months ago

      In the article, his quote mentions reading them over the boat PA systems. Probably just jealous of their literacy.

      Something something ship not a boat. Come at me, squid-bros.

        • @[email protected]
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          410 months ago

          Kinda wish I’d been on a ship just for the experience of it but the closest I got was a grudging admission about being under the “Department of the Navy” umbrella and a dangling carrot of a MEU if I’d been willing to reenlist. Sorta regret not doing it but I’d had my fill of the routine daily bullshit and was ready to move on. All the Navy guys I knew with the first name “Doc” were cool as hell though, the rest were probably at least all right.

          • @[email protected]
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            210 months ago

            I got about a week’s worth of boat time. Definitely not for me glad I just joined a department of the navy too.

    • @[email protected]
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      10 months ago

      That’s the intelligence of this stooge on full display.

      Tommy Tuberville everybody!

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        Fucking Cervantes was a badass marine who was shot three times in the battle of Lepanto, twice in the chest and one in his hand, which he lost. He was very proud of his military career, and considered th battle of Lepanto one if not the highlight of his life. He went on to write one of the most important novels of all times, Don Quixote, many others, as well as copious poetry.

        If Cervantes were alive and heard this, he would probably beat the crap out of this asshole with his lame hand.

    • @[email protected]
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      1910 months ago

      Tolkien was writing poetry in the trenches. The tradition of writing poetry in your spare time while serving in a military is probably as old as poetry itself.

      Fuck Tuberville. UnAmerican blowhard asshole. Probably being blackmailed by someone.

    • @[email protected]
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      1710 months ago

      Patton was a lot of things. Poet. General. Abusive asshole. Dumb enough to sincerely suggest putting the Nazis back in power and the Jews back in the camps. Car enthusiast. Woke sure as hell wasn’t one of them.

  • @[email protected]
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    3710 months ago

    Caesar, Alexander and Tzu wrote poetry, you absolute troglodyte, and you think you’re more man than them? GTFO here…

  • @[email protected]
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    3610 months ago

    The fuck does this dude think soldiers did in the Civil War and World War I?

    They had nothing but time and laudanum. You do the fucking math.