B. (because there's no v in Japanese)

[ish mailian]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Force_That_Gives_Us_Meaning

On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 4:47 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> nor does the myth of brotherhood, of fighting men with courage, of those
> who experience the horror. War is not a force that gives American fighters
> meaning. It may still give meaning to those who fight Americans, or to
> journalists, but not to the American soldier, the myth has been stripped of
> its mystery, or its ritual, of its force. It is no different from working
> at Home Depot.
>
> On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 11:57 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> My view is much more local I think--I'm only speaking of soldiers plunked
>> down in shitsville and how many of them cope--fighting for the guy next to
>> them which is pretty common with any army anywhere--I'm not talking
>> geopolitics, the brass bullshit of regime change and making the world
>> better for iraqis and afghanis--it's pretty obvious the level stupidity
>> gets heavier and heavier as u run up the chain of command. I'm also not
>> even talking about the inane way we treat returning soldiers from these
>> disastrous wars,patriotism reaching the level of a 7th inning stretch
>> recitation of god bless america.
>> the theatre of absurdity may be orchestrated but it doesnt much matter to
>> those at falluja helmand and other infernos.
>> who kills with dignity? no one. remorse maybe
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 4, 2015 at 8:40 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Rich, I may be overstating this because I have an obvious bias against
>>> the Americans and how they conduct their wars, glorify their heroes, such
>>> as Restrepo and  the American Sniper, the Special Forces...etc, but I think
>>> it is impossible to sustain the soldier brotherhood **On the American side"
>>> of these wars.**
>>>
>>> First, an inexperienced and naive soldier who goes to war has no real
>>> courage, his motives are not tested and so he or she is often shunned by
>>> the experienced combat soldier, and yet, in America, to counter the defeats
>>> in South East Asia, and the demoralized and abused soldiers and veterans of
>>> SEA, men and women in uniform are thanked for their service, made heroic,
>>> gathered into the family of the armed forces and told that they are part of
>>> a brotherhood, a band of fighters who are doing important and heroic work
>>> against terrorism, though they know, better than the American Citizen. that
>>> the muddled missions in Iraq and Afghanistan are imitations, are not a
>>> struggle for anything, not even for courage or brotherhood, the highest
>>> form of courage there is, but don't even rise to the level of the naive and
>>> inexperienced soldier's "courage" because the experienced ones know that
>>> the shunning of the virgins is a lie because the war the wage, are
>>> sometimes bloodied in, have friends die for, is a farce, a technologically
>>> orchestrated theatre of absurdity wherein the best equipped Americans
>>> simply use their superior machinery to kill without dignity or remorse.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 12:40 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> but you said it's impossible to uphold the band of brothers myth. that
>>>> whole men free to love in the trenches bit in GR well thats the extreme but
>>>> part of the same continuum of feeling. why is that impossible, men (and now
>>>> women, too) seeking comfort from shared harsh sacrifices?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Sep 3, 2015 at 11:18 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So did athletes and workers, slaves and gladiators...it's a cult, it
>>>>> needs a myth, a  creed, with rituals and so on. Btw, just happened to watch
>>>>> salt if the earth. The miners are not, according to the photographer,
>>>>> slaves, exploited workers, but men who want to get rich. I have a difficult
>>>>> time with this assertion, a cultural pathology in Brasil that romanticizes
>>>>> the plight of the people, the mythological struggle for paradise.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/movies/wim-wenders-on-sebastio-salgado-in-the-salt-of-the-earth.html?_r=0
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wednesday, September 2, 2015, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> whatever your rationale, I think guys in combat is a bit different
>>>>>> than working in a factory. throughout history soldiers bonded under
>>>>>> horrific/stressful conditions; those in law enforcement as well to a
>>>>>> certain extent. I dont believe its a myth
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Sep 2, 2015 at 11:05 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> But the modern mechanical unit worker, so easily replaced with
>>>>>>> automation, robots, is not all that different from the office worker who
>>>>>>> sits in a cubical.  One of the most misread, or should I say, misused
>>>>>>> texts, since by definition a classic is not read but only misused, is Adam
>>>>>>> Smith's TWoN, a book that, ironically, is forever married to conservative
>>>>>>> politics, and is one of the greatest arguments against the exploitation
>>>>>>> of modern labor. In the book Smith describes work, pre-modern work. We
>>>>>>> crossed over to modern work, as we readers of M&D know, long before Ford
>>>>>>> and Vibe. In any event, it's impossible to uphold the band of brothers myth
>>>>>>> on the American side. Restrepo is not a documentary of brotherhood or
>>>>>>> courage, but a film, an imitation, pornography.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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