<snip>
Lots of whine, whine, whine.
OK, you Aussies and Canucks can shut the fuck up now and get over yourselves.
The US has 150,000 troops in Iraq and 32,000 in Afghanistan, more or less. The
UK has roughly 6,000 but that's changing, plus another 8,500 in Afghanistan.
Georgia (the Republic that most folks couldn't find on a map) has over 2,000
men in Iraq.
In raw numbers, the Poles (2,300 in Iraq, 1,100 in Afghanistan) are about even
with you all combined, are in a more dangerous sector, fight harder, and get
far less credit in the American public's eyes or media attention.
For percentage of your military deployed, you're behind such major
powers as Tonga, most of whose Marine Corps guards the al-Faw Palace.
Canadians... pulling your share? Your military is undersized compared to
either your population or your economy (normal for NATO
nations other than the US--since we subsidize your national security),
and the 2,500 men in Afghanistan is less than the Germans and on a par with
the Italians.
Aussies? Used to be roughly the same contribution as South Korea, 850 men
counting all sorts of support and HQ folks. But all but roughly 300 have been
withdrawn as of 02 JUN 08, and what's left are largely headquarters and
support folks. 1,100 are in Afghanistan counting air traffic controllers and
so forth.
For comparison, Denmark is smaller than most American states (and some
counties in Texas) and has 690 men in Afghanistan.
As for credit, you don't think you get any? The only way American Soldiers get
noticed is by getting killed or by misbehaving badly enough to get arrested.
The state of your average American's knowledge of actions in Iraq or
Afghanistan is pretty minimal. It is largely formed by older news stories (I
needn't cite the studies showing media coverage dropping off in the past two
years) which were at best slanted, and at worst utterly fictional. Case in
point would
be the so-called "massacre" in Haditha, where as it turns out, the
only source used in the initial media reporting was an al-Qaeda in
Iraq operative. The reporter refused to even interview any member of the
Marine Corps or visit the base before running the story. Compare the number of
stories run on SFC Paul Smith vs. the number of stories run on some stupid
photos of a Reservist prision guard PFC.
If your nation is fighting for good press in the United State's mainstream
media, you need to switch sides and start killing US troops, because that's
the only people the MSM really supports.
Er, what has this got to do with GZG gaming? If there was left some comments
for relevance this might be understandable.....
Why the direct obscenity?
I think you should get over yourself......
> -----Original Message-----
Hey mate, be fair. Atkinson was responding to *other people's* non-
GZG pissing on American attitudes. I didn't see anyone jumping down *their*
throats. So he used a naughty word. What are we, maiden aunts?
Best regards, Robert Bryett.
> On 26/07/2008, at 19:28 , Owen Glover wrote:
> Er, what has this got to do with GZG gaming? If there was left some
So Robert,
If I say "Fuck You" will you respond in a considerate, non-personal way?
How many people on the list consider directed abuse acceptable?
And I don't think that anyone was "pissing" on anyone's attitudes??? In any
case the GZG offer was on British as well as American forces so why didn't you
include "pissing on British and Amarecian attitudes"???
Jon's choice to offer a special to anyone he wishes and in any case there
isn't an easy address to send to a lot of other services anyway...
Can we just leave this off the list?
My last word, but I guess that gives you a free slug at me now.
BTW I'm also an Australian (and nearly 20 years infantry service under my
belt) and although I didn't agree with the original sniping only decided to
comment when it did get abusive.
> -----Original Message-----
Well said.
Bob Makowsky
----- Original Message ----
From: Robert N Bryett <rbryett@gmail.com>
To: gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 7:41:15 PM
Subject: Re: [GZG] Grossly Off-topic ANZAC Whining, was Re: [OFFICIAL]
GZG: FREEBIE OFFER FOR BFPO/APO TROOPS!
Hey mate, be fair. Atkinson was responding to *other people's* non-
GZG pissing on American attitudes. I didn't see anyone jumping down *their*
throats. So he used a naughty word. What are we, maiden aunts?
Best regards, Robert Bryett.
> On 26/07/2008, at 19:28 , Owen Glover wrote:
> Er, what has this got to do with GZG gaming? If there was left some
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=take+the+piss
An artform to which I was introduced by CPO Harvey, RAN.
Who happens to be our NCOIC back in Baghdad. Our OIC is an Aussie Major as
well.
The point remains--on the internet, in forums containing a fairly
mixed group of 'Mericans and furriners, bagging on the US seems to be
acceptable in a way that bagging on furriners isn't. Every now and
then it gets old, and a broadside in my now-traditional form will be
forthcoming when I get tired of it.
To be fair, I did concede the point about the tendency of the average American
to be ignorant. I just pointed out that if the average American is more or
less ignorant of what is being done with his tax money by 185,000 fellow
Americans, it should neither surprise nor shock anyone if the same person is
fairly ignorant of what 2,500 Canadians or 1,000 Aussies are doing. One
wonders if those survey where it is clearly demonstrated that your average
American can't find Afghanistan on an unlabeled world map have ever been
conducted elsewhere, and what the results were.
One might even (if we drag the topic back to GZG for a moment) suggest that if
the majority of the combat in the 3SW involves largely professional armies
fighting on colony worlds, then the apathy would be magnified by an order of
magnitude. This, along with the lack of
real-time or near-real-time media coverage would permit wars to drag
along inconclusively for years rather than being driven by electoral politics.
Even autocratic governments can't fight forever without
something to show the population for a result--just ask Nicky II.