wow who asked Brian Stann about "killing generations of people"?

[trainharder]

No one comes close to the US.

In the entire history of the world.

What about God and the great flood. He wiped out the whole world, with the exception on Noah and a few critters.

 

[Selukrid612]

it means not using paragraphs when you write. didn't read that fucking gigantic wall.

I'll have you know I aced everything in high school with minimal/no studying or homework, and the teachers let me get away with things because of that. I would intentionally push the boundaries of this by doing weird things without any warning or reason:

-Turn my desk around to face the back of the class for the day.
-Grab a chair and sit right next to the teacher's desk facing the class.
-Make whale sounds.
-Play the end-of-class bell from a youtube audio clip on my phone at max volume 5 minutes before the end of class, for a week straight. In every class. (Worked 2/5 of the time.)
-Mimick a foreign accent for the entirety of a class period (my favorite was Indian).

I never got in trouble for doing any of these things.

 

[Davemeddlehed]

I'll have you know I aced everything in high school with minimal/no studying or homework, and the teachers let me get away with things because of that. I would intentionally push the boundaries of this by doing weird things without any warning or reason:

-Turn my desk around to face the back of the class for the day.
-Grab a chair and sit right next to the teacher's desk facing the class.
-Make whale sounds.
-Play the end-of-class bell from a youtube audio clip on my phone at max volume 5 minutes before the end of class, for a week straight. In every class. (Worked 2/5 of the time.)
-Mimick a foreign accent for the entirety of a class period (my favorite was Indian).

I never got in trouble for doing any of these things.

And? Welcome to the real world, kid.

 

[dmtpanic]

I'll have you know I aced everything in high school with minimal/no studying or homework, and the teachers let me get away with things because of that. I would intentionally push the boundaries of this by doing weird things without any warning or reason:

-Turn my desk around to face the back of the class for the day.
-Grab a chair and sit right next to the teacher's desk facing the class.
-Make whale sounds.
-Play the end-of-class bell from a youtube audio clip on my phone at max volume 5 minutes before the end of class, for a week straight. In every class. (Worked 2/5 of the time.)
-Mimick a foreign accent for the entirety of a class period (my favorite was Indian).

I never got in trouble for doing any of these things.

If you did that stuff at my high school you would've for sure been ostracized by your peers and possibly gotten your ass kicked.

Don't feel bad though, I went to a public school in the south. It was pretty fucked up.

 

[Selukrid612]

Indeed.

Thanks for the help in World War 2 old chap.....we were hanging on by the skin of our teeth at the end. Only the USA (Britain's unruly step-child....but we still love and will always support and will always fight for democracy alongside you. We love a good fight and so do the Americans) and the Ruskies, we were able to hold on and see off the forces of fascism.

My grandfather was a sniper who got injured and became a "mine-sweep" (going out into the ocean in front of battle ships with a sniper rifle and shooting mines out the water.), my other grandfather's house in Glasgow, Scotland, was bombed so he became an infantryman and ended up stationed in Berlin when the UK, the USA & Russia, all controlled a third each. Both of them worked alongside American servicemen and talked of the bravery and ferocity of the US military as we sent Hitler & Mussolini home (I love how everyone just forgave Italy.....get Germany and Japan take all the shit.).

Thanks for joining the UK & Russians in saving the world. Russia would probably have been enough but the USA's intervention sealed the deal. The UK was about to fold as we had fought the entirety of the Nazi empire on the Western front, completely on our own. Outgunned and outmanned.....but not out-thunk. As we cracked their codes and bombed FUCK out of Berlin.

We should all be grateful that the world will never again see a war like this. THANKS to the USA.

Our enemy now.....is terror cells and rogue individuals who hate and wish to destroy democracy in all non-Sharia forms.

I raise my next glass of red to the United States.

To the republic!

I used to have this roommate, and every morning at breakfast he said "Cheerio, mate".

That was many years ago in college. After college I joined the Central Intelligence Agency, for those not in-the-know, usually abbreviated as C.I.A..

I got my stripes fighting the Red's, but everything changed after 9/11. They moved me to the secret assassination division. So many dead, all to keep my nation safe.

On the day that I would retire from my thirty year long career with the agency (that's what we insiders call it), I was supervising a drone-mission over tribal Pakistan. The operators, code name "Cereal 1" and "Cereal 2" were running point on the mission, scouting the area till we knew if we had Jihadis in our scope, or a Pakistani petting zoo for toddlers. These locations have a similar layout.

My friend from college suddenly called, but damn it if I didn't have my phone on speaker. "Cheerio, mate". Cheerio, the god damn go-signal for Cereal 1 and 2. They lit up that Pakistani petting zoo for toddlers so fast you wouldn't believe. That's why the CIA now includes goats between the ages of 4-9 as enemy combatants.

 

[dmtpanic]

I used to have this roommate, and every morning at breakfast he said "Cheerio, mate".

That was many years ago in college. After college I joined the Central Intelligence Agency, for those not in-the-know, usually abbreviated as C.I.A..

I got my stripes fighting the Red's, but everything changed after 9/11. They moved me to the secret assassination division. So many dead, all to keep my nation safe.

On the day that I would retire from my thirty year long career with the agency (that's what we insiders call it), I was supervising a drone-mission over tribal Pakistan. The operators, code name "Cereal 1" and "Cereal 2" were running point on the mission, scouting the area till we knew if we had Jihadis in our scope, or a Pakistani petting zoo for toddlers. These locations have a similar layout.

My friend from college suddenly called, but damn it if I didn't have my phone on speaker. "Cheerio, mate". Cheerio, the god damn go-signal for Cereal 1 and 2. They lit up that Pakistani petting zoo for toddlers so fast you wouldn't believe. That's why the CIA now includes goats between the ages of 4-9 as enemy combatants.

This conversation is amazing.

 

[TronSpecial]

I'll have you know I aced everything in high school with minimal/no studying or homework, and the teachers let me get away with things because of that. I would intentionally push the boundaries of this by doing weird things without any warning or reason:

-Turn my desk around to face the back of the class for the day.
-Grab a chair and sit right next to the teacher's desk facing the class.
-Make whale sounds.
-Play the end-of-class bell from a youtube audio clip on my phone at max volume 5 minutes before the end of class, for a week straight. In every class. (Worked 2/5 of the time.)
-Mimick a foreign accent for the entirety of a class period (my favorite was Indian).

I never got in trouble for doing any of these things.

dang man thats sick. You sound really cool and exceptionally smart. You did well in hs without studying? say what, get the hell outta here.

 

[Deleted member 409801]

If I was Stann, I would ask them if they have such a problem with the US, then how do you justify working for an American company. Stann signed up to defend his country, he followed orders and that is what he did. Some of the other guys money has gone to the same government that he detests, so he sounds like a bit of a hypocrite. If whoever said that was not truly offended, and was just curious on Brian's stance on the matter, then he probably could of asked in a better way. Sounded more of an accusation than a question.

This is a common conflation that I don't get.

It is possible you know to be critical of your government and still love your country. Why do people act as if they are one in the same all the time? As if being critical of your govts actions means you hate every man ,woman, child everything about the country as well.

 

[the ambush]

What's sad is that soldiers are left answer questions they can't possibly answer. Especially inflammatory questions, without context, meant to accuse and incite. There is a stage for (better informed) questions like this but it is not backstage at weigh ins before a fight.

The problems in this region are multifaceted and predate Islam. Just ask Alexander the Great. You can't place all the blame on Western Imperialism, ethnic tribalism nor Islam because they all have a hand in the region's problems.

Our foreign policy in the 20th and 21st century has had away of coming back to bite us in the ass. After World War 2 western powers came in, carved up and installed puppet governments sowing many of the seeds that let Islamic extremism flourish. Then we fought proxy wars with the USSR in places like Afghanistan and ended up arming the people who who would one day be our enemy. Not to mention invading a relatively secular state in Iraq (I know Saddam was a brutal dictator). So what happens, you have an insurgency flood in to fill a power vacuum we helped create. Who get's caught in the middle? As always civilians. Non combatant are always the people who suffer the most.

That does not mean people like Stann were walking around using civilians as target practice. The US was and is facing a deadly enemy in the region and Stann was executing his mission. The fact that there was collateral damage is a horrible fact of war. That does not make Stann the de facto person answerable for everything that went on there. Whether or not a veteran can live with their actions is personal and something many struggle with for a lifetime. What they were doing there is the question we have to ask our leaders.

In the end I don't think war in the middle east can be won by force of arms. It is going to take Islamic countries willing to renounce the actions of the extremists and start policing themselves. Something up until now they have seem unwilling to do. If your religion is the religion of peace start proving it.

I thought Stann answered the guy's loaded question pretty modestly. I commend him for a straight forward and genuine response. To be honest with you, I get a little pissed off when people think political debates are ok everywhere. To me it's like talking about religion and beliefs, there's a time and setting for it. I have seen people respond to a question like that with lesser restraint and I am sure some of them regret what they end up saying.

And to people that do not know, Stann was highly decorated in the Marines. He wasn't just an ordinary single-term troop, he earned a fucking congressional Silver Star medal. Those are not handed out.

 

[kenetics]

Stann killed for flag and country. Which is very commendable and he was right, it's not the place or time.

He also got in trouble for sexual harassment...

 

[Scrody]

Scary thing is Stann probably thought...Why don't I kill you?

 

[HOLA]

Front Row Brian said it was Mark Hunt

You mean the guy who posted the video of some dude getting his hand chopped off and wrote "lol." ??

Didn't exactly seem the humanitarian type there.

 

[HOLA]

I'll have you know I aced everything in high school with minimal/no studying or homework, and the teachers let me get away with things because of that. I would intentionally push the boundaries of this by doing weird things without any warning or reason:

-Turn my desk around to face the back of the class for the day.
-Grab a chair and sit right next to the teacher's desk facing the class.
-Make whale sounds.
-Play the end-of-class bell from a youtube audio clip on my phone at max volume 5 minutes before the end of class, for a week straight. In every class. (Worked 2/5 of the time.)
-Mimick a foreign accent for the entirety of a class period (my favorite was Indian).

I never got in trouble for doing any of these things.

I've heard they tend to be more lenient in special ed.

 

[Ruprecht]

I saw that bit. Brian Stann didn't come across as GI Joe as I was expecting, thought more of him afterwards than before.
It might of been Hunt. New Zealand is like Australia's Canada, except Australia is already pretty close to Canada politically. So it's like Canada's Canada. Canada squared...

 

[Scrody]

People often ask me what it means to be an American. I tell 'em it's triumph. Triumph. Triumph when we nuke our enemies. Triumph when our flag flutters in the wind on the moon. Triumph when we peer down from the moon and laugh heartily at Russia. Triumph when we depose one dictator after another. Triumph when we break into the homes of terrorist kingpins on the other side of Earth and shoot them in the face. Triumph when we use flying robots to bomb other terrorists in Afghanistan. Triumph when we were the main reason the Nazis were defeated in WWII. Triumph when we freed Europe twice. Triumph. Triumph. Triumph. But it's not just the the big things, see? It's the way I can set up lawn chairs at my friends house on the Texas Rio Grande and share a toast to freedom while watching Mexicans charge into gunfire to enter my country. It's the way an Italian cabbie sits up straight and floors the gas when he hears my accent. It's seeing the wide eyes and bead of sweat running down the forehead of a German customs agent when he opens my passport. It's the way a French waiter hangs his head when I refuse the wine and ask for Coke instead, in English knowing full well he understands me (and that they have it). The way an Aussie blushes and leans into the urinal next to me in the bathroom, or the scowl that meets my smirk when I tip an English waiter in US dollars covered with Washington's face. The way small mobs of Canadian school children follow me from a distance to see what a free man looks like, or how heads timidly rise and women gather when my accent stops the music in the clubs of Amsterdam. Triumph. Every bit of it, triumph. That's what it means to be an American.

lol

 

[Rusk]

What is his reason/rationalization for being part of the invading forces? Brian is a good guy.

 

[Rusk]

This is a common conflation that I don't get.

It is possible you know to be critical of your government and still love your country. Why do people act as if they are one in the same all the time? As if being critical of your govts actions means you hate every man ,woman, child everything about the country as well.

Every government strife for that, so that citizens cant tell the difference, the more successful they are the more dictatorial the country is imo.

I cant tell how many time i being called anti-american for criticizing US Government.

 

[AlucardNatasrd]

He should've asked back:

How does it feel supporting the murder of tens of thousands of innocents in a given year?

 

[liljoe]

Much less than the Taliban and Saddam.

 

[Zap]

He also got in trouble for sexual harassment...

It's too easy to get in trouble for sexual harassment these days, especially in the military. I know from experience while serving myself. Seen it happen for various reasons, some were justified others not.

Too many members on this board hold celebrities to this extremely high moral code of ethics forgetting they're just human too and make mistakes they are not always proud of and no Stann serving his country honorably is not one of them.