If I were President and forced to go to war in your scenario, I certainly wouldn't play tittlywinks like all these Jackasses do. With our arsenal, you fight to win and get the fuck out.
Of course, if drafted, I would have gone. I would never sign up for that stupid shit, because the rich kids never have to go. They just benefit financially from all the poor kids' suffering.
Originally Posted by: DakotaT
The rich kids go also. They go to college, they go to what we call OCS (Officer Candidate School), then they get to go through TBS The Basic School. This process is very difficult. I went through Parris Island at it's worst, just subsequent to the Vietnam War. Those nam vets were killing recruits back in that day. A few years later I went to TBS with the "rich kids".
In that interim between my ass getting shot and going to tbs, the Marines sent me to college. My GCT (it's a military kind of IQ thing) got me sent to Dartmouth college. I went there with 6 sailors in that program. 3 of those and I graduated.
Those guys at Dartmouth were rich assholes. It's amazing I didn't kill someone there, but I was respected, and frankly, many were afraid of me. I did not tolerate rich-guy-assholeism. I was a Marine Staff Sergeant, at the time, to those in the Corps :)
My point being is that when I did go to TBS the OCS had already "Washed out" the rich kid assholes. I didn't go to the OCS because at that time "mustangs" like myself were exempt. (Mustang is former enlisted to be officer)
Here's my point. I have interracted with hundreds of Marine Corps Officers. Many of them are complete pricks. I can only reflect upon one being incompetent, and he was a RIO (Radar intercept Officer) a/k/a GIB (Guy in Back) One. That's a pretty good track record from a cynic and combat vet of too many places.
MOST were rich, in the classical sense. They came from good families. What should amaze is that they opted to serve. How would you know how to judge? I can't, and I served with these people. They amazed me.