What were your best and worst moments of the week?

Give it a rest. I gave an explanation of why I joined the military and wrote a fair bit of other stuff which was ignored. For a pacifist you're very agro.

The old Nuremburg defence. They all got the firing squad.

Hey Kris2040, in all due respect, this has been OMM - and I have been thinking about it a lot outside of the military setting in fact.
A lot of the financial crisis stuff could have been avoided if more people had given their job a bit more thought for example. It goes in many different contexts and I think it is interesting.

I do understand that you have what you, and many, believe, to be good reasons for being in the military. I do understand that you have never been faced with any situation in the Australian military where you have been asked to do something you deem to be unethical. This is great. I know it is not a black and white situation and that the Australian military does a lot of good work around the world.
You seem to have missed the fact that the majority of my comments were discussing the US military and US politics, not the Australian military.
I know you are a smart person as I have read many of your comments of many of Mamamia's posts, in fact I look forward to reading them and will continue to do so.

It is a pity that you are so quick to shoot me down for just saying what is OMM on this public forum.

Hi Me

I read what you said on the soldier post and I was worried to see that people gave you a hard time because you did not have the 'correct' emotional response and 'get all teary' ect. I think its very dangerous when there becomes a way that you 'have to' react... because that is how propaganda can be used to control.

( The situation reminded me of Mersault in Camus's 'Outsider' having witnesses at his court trial to say that he didn't cry at his mother's funeral - and so he becomes judged for that rather than just his crime. I'll never forget the part where his lawyer objects ("'Come now, is my client on trial for burying his mother or for killing a man?) By ensuring the emotional response of 'the many' everyone else who fails to oblige becomes 'the outsider'. And propaganda can be very effective.

I did feel strong emotion watching the video myself but I tried to be thoughtful still because I think we always need to be critically engaged with material about war. I don't know about 'personal responsibility' for the soldiers - in part yes I agree that 'just doing their job' is not good enough - but also if you look into the American army (different from Aus)

- I think you will find many join up because they have very few options open to them- they are usually from very poor areas and have very limited education. They have been fed a lot of powerful American propaganda for a long time and have had little access to material outside of the accepted paradigm.

I'm convinced most of them honestly believe that they are fighting for 'freedom and democracy' not only for Americans but for the whole world. So in a sense they are acting on a moral good - even if it not well placed - I think its a real tough one.

It was brave of you though to speak your thoughts openly.