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

  • joe@lemmy.world
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    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@lemmy.one
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      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”

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        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.

      • joe@lemmy.world
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        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.

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

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    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."

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    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.

    • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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      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@lemmy.world
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      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.”

  • Cjwii@lemm.ee
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    Didn’t Francis Scott Key write the Star Spangled Banner on a military ship during wartime?

  • swiftcasty@kbin.social
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    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.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      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™©®

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        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.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          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

        • bemenaker@lemmy.world
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          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.

    • betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world
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      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.

      • stigmata@lemmy.world
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        Breaking shit and blaming it on Democrats has been the Republican MO since I’ve started voting.

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

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      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.

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

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    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.

  • Murais@lemmy.one
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    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.

  • Fuck Yankies@lemmy.ml
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    Caesar, Alexander and Tzu wrote poetry, you absolute troglodyte, and you think you’re more man than them? GTFO here…

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        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.

    • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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      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.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      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.