The Era of Biden

[pineapplemike]

i turned 18 in 2007 during the surge or whatever and i knew there was no fucking way i was going to let myself end up in afghanistan or iraq, so the military was a sir no sir from me

[Smitty-48]

there was only one thing that made me envious

eventually Canada had to send some helicopters for the troops, it took years, but finally they had to do something about the IED's

and for the first time, Canada put door gunners from the infantry on the helicopters

if I could have gone as a helicopter door gunner when I was still in, I would have tried hard for that

I spent the end of my career posted to an air force base, where I discovered that the air force was fun, and the army got the cock

but they didn't have any of this back in 2002-2006, it only came later on

[Smitty-48]

i turned 18 in 2007 during the surge or whatever and i knew there was no fucking way i was going to let myself end up in afghanistan or iraq, so the military was a sir no sir from me

I was in the army and they didn't even order me to go

Canada only sent three rifle companies of about 150 infantryman each, to cover all of Kandahar

out of 10,000 infantry in the army at any moment, only a small number actually got deployed, guys had to compete for spots

of the 40,000 troops Canada sent over 12 years, the vast majority were service support troops who never left the FOB

they were asking for lots of troops, but not for combat roles, they mostly wanted service trades personnel to work at Kandahar airfield

at one point they had 6,000 troops in theatre, but 5,500 of those never went outside the wire, so it was close to 90% non combat role

they wanted mechanics, clerks, signallers, supply techs, medics, the last thing they were asking for was combat troops

actually getting over there in a combat role was like a lottery, there were only a tiny number of slots available for those roles

the major part of the operation was the "Provincial Reconstruction Team", which was a support unit, the combat role was minimal

in terms of the battalion getting into combat, what struck me most was how bad the battle plan was

I was shocked by how cocked up it was right from the start

like they didn't run it like it was war

they didn't really do reconnaissance, they didn't attempt to shape the battlefield, they didn't do anything by NATO doctrine

they basically just drove across the Argandahb riverbed into Pashmul until they ran into an ambush and were peppered with RPG-7's

I always thought when they go actually go to war, they will have to get into a warfighting mode

but it turned out that even in a war, they ran it like a poorly planned exercise back in Canada

the same sort of clown show we would have on exercise in Canada, except with live ammo and guys getting killed

but when it comes right down to it, the Taliban laid a whupping on the Canadian battalion, and the Canadians were forced to retreat

that was an eye opener, just the way they never came out of administrative peacetime mode, even in a real shooting war

they just were not prepared as a command to deal with it, it was too many years of Peacekeeping, so they didn't have a warfighting mode

they gutted the army back in the 90s, and when the war came, they couldn't get it back

it had collapsed below the level of a warfighting army into a glorified armed constabulary

there just wasn't the capacity to even over match lightly armed Taliban, the Peacekeeper army got mauled by the goat herders

I thought the army was broken at the end of the 90's, but it turned out to be even worse than I had predicted

this was not a large force of Taliban they were engaging, we're talking like a platoon of Taliban laying a beat down on a NATO battalion

but it wasn't really NATO, because the Canadians went in without any support

they didn't have air support, they didn't have helicopters, all they had were jeeps & armoured cars

so when those got bogged down in the kill zone, the Taliban just kept firing RPG-7's to win the battle

[DBTrek]

my old battalion really only got in one big battle in the whole 12 years of rotations

that was Operation Medusa in the late summer of 2006

but both my old Section Commander & my old Platoon Warrant, were killed within minutes of each other

and it was both for the same reason, which was tha lack of proper equipment, particularly effective armoured vehicles

they were both super soldiers, the best of the best, years of developing them into that

one was killed in a jeep by an RPG-7 through the window because there wasn't enough armoured vehicles to go around

the other was killed advancing on foot by another RPG-7, because the cheap wheeled armoured vehicles couldn't cross the grape fields

so it was one after another, guys getting killed; not because the Taliban were so great, just because Canada was too cheap to provide kit

at which point, I pretty much wrote Canada itself off : why would I support a country which treated its troops this pathetically ?

they were so poorly equipped, in their "Peacekeeping" mode with jeeps & armoured cars, so they couldn't even handle the Taliban

lightly armed goat herders with AK's & RPG's handed a Canadian NATO battlegroup a humiliating defeat

it was just like Mogadishu, where the troops are getting cut to pieces because the force was too lightly equipped

Fuck, man.
Sorry to hear that.
To the section commander and platoon warrant
May the long arc of history justify your sacrifice.

[C-Mag]

A new chant appears to be popping up amongst Zoomers and Millenials

Fuck Joe Biden
Fuck Joe Biden
Fuck Joe Biden

Several locations, sporting events, parties https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status ... 2108466188

[Smitty-48]

my old battalion really only got in one big battle in the whole 12 years of rotations

that was Operation Medusa in the late summer of 2006

but both my old Section Commander & my old Platoon Warrant, were killed within minutes of each other

and it was both for the same reason, which was tha lack of proper equipment, particularly effective armoured vehicles

they were both super soldiers, the best of the best, years of developing them into that

one was killed in a jeep by an RPG-7 through the window because there wasn't enough armoured vehicles to go around

the other was killed advancing on foot by another RPG-7, because the cheap wheeled armoured vehicles couldn't cross the grape fields

so it was one after another, guys getting killed; not because the Taliban were so great, just because Canada was too cheap to provide kit

at which point, I pretty much wrote Canada itself off : why would I support a country which treated its troops this pathetically ?

they were so poorly equipped, in their "Peacekeeping" mode with jeeps & armoured cars, so they couldn't even handle the Taliban

lightly armed goat herders with AK's & RPG's handed a Canadian NATO battlegroup a humiliating defeat

it was just like Mogadishu, where the troops are getting cut to pieces because the force was too lightly equipped

Fuck, man.
Sorry to hear that.
To the section commander and platoon warrant
May the long arc of history justify your sacrifice.

I appreciate the sentiment on behalf of the regiment, but I don't see them as victims

they were both gung-ho super soldiers, volunteer professionals, they wanted to be there, they wanted to be in that battle

it was just shocking how bad the plan was

like the chain of command just assumed they could get away with doing it half assed, but that turned out to be a gong show

by this time I was cynical about the army, I had already given up on it, but it was pathetic even by what I predicted

like the media didn't really have the perspective, they just lionized the guys as heroes

but Canadians only love you when you are dead, they don't give a fuck about the military otherwise

they'll show up for your funeral, but they will never give you the firepower to fight & win so you don't die in the first place

[Smitty-48]

like it's not that the Taliban were so formidable

it was just that NATO, particularly the Canadian Forces, were in such pathetic shape

the whole NATO Cold War force had been disbanded, Canada has literally dismantled the army leading up to 9-11

it wasn't really NATO anymore, this wasn't like NATO CENTAG in 1989

like another guy from the Patricia's, Sergeant Vaughn Ingram

he ended up launching a section attack across open ground dismounted against a numerically superior Taliban force

he had like 14 guys, and they had to attack something like twice as many Taliban

and they had no vehicles, they had to launch this attack accross open ground on foot

of course the Canadians were massacred, and Sgt Ingram died with valour leading from the front into a forlorn hope like it was WWI

but that's not the "Graveyard of Empires", that's just the sheer corruption, incompetence & apathy of Canadians

they don't give a fuck until you're dead, they don't really care, except when they can pat themselves on the back for crying over you

then they will honour your sacrifice, as if they the Canadian people did not cause your death by their utter negligence & disinterest

this is why I had no interest in going to Afghanistan, I had no motivation to fight for shitty fucking Canada anymore, nor ever again

I already knew what Canadians were really about, which was preening at your funeral after they got you killed

I wasn't going to be a chump of the Liberal Party of Canada and their bullshit Peacekeeping myth anymore

by the time 9-11 came along, I just knew too much about what a bunch of bullshit Canada was, and how it wasn't worth dying for

[C-Mag]

it wasn't really NATO anymore, this wasn't like NATO CENTAG in 1989

The Persian Gulf War showed how good that Army was.

Now, we have an Army that's so woke we were painting George Floyd shit in Afghanistan.

[Smitty-48]

it wasn't really NATO anymore, this wasn't like NATO CENTAG in 1989

The Persian Gulf War showed how good that Army was.

I was gung-ho to go to the Gulf War

but Canada didn't send us

4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group was part of an US Army Corps which was deploying from West Germany to the Gulf

but the Canadian army didn't have modern tanks, we only had aging Leopard 1's

there was even a plan to equip our brigade with Abrams so we could go to the Gulf

Washington offered to "sell" Canada Abrams tanks for $1 dollar each, but Canada turned them down

so we actually tried to quit the Canadian forces to join the US Army so we could go to the war

but they wouldn't let us out of our contracts and the US Army said that we would have to start as buck privates and go through boot camp

so we missed the Gulf War

but then the few Canadian guys who did deploy to the Gulf came back and said it was the worst go ever

they were stuck in the desert for months, then never saw any action at all

they were sent to guard an airbase in Qatar, deep in the rear with the gear

then they were used to guard Iraqi prisoners, still in the rear with the gear

they only danger they were exposed to, came after the was over

a bunch of Abrams parked near to them caught fire and the ammo started cooking off

so they got exposed to burning depleted uranium, but not in combat, just an accidental fire

they said they didn't even really know what was going on, we actually knew more than they did, because they didn't have tv's in the field

we were watching the whole thing on CNN in Europe, while nobody was telling these guys in the Gulf what was happening around them

they only found out what happened when they got back from the war, in real time they were just staring at empty desert

[Hastur]

I remember thinking at the time that a ground invasion of Afghanistan seemed extreme.
We just wanted to wipe a few camps, right?
OBL's little training sites had to go. We didn't have to physically secure the real estate of Afghanistan.

Why not cruise missiles and Reaper drones? Maybe some Spec Ops if necessary.

But instead, we occupied the place for two decades and allowed billions to simply vanish over there, no questions asked.

Whatever. No more terror attacks. Afghanistan was mostly complacent, no big body counts. Didn't really think about it much.

But now that we've pulled out, bulked up their military might, and put the very people we chased into the hills back in power - I'm back to thinking Cruise Missiles and Reaper drones was the answer.

I had it right the first time.

Heroin is a hell of a drug, and the CIA has been addicted for a long time. Can't control the poppies without ground force.

https://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/afg ... e-cia-519/

Maybe opium is less profitable now, on account of all the cheap synthetic opioids like fentanyl from China flooding the US market. Time to get out of Dodge