The other side of the mirror

[Brenus]

I never ask my mother before joining the army.
Never ask before volunteer for paratrooper training and not even before to go in wars.
But these days I am on the other side.

My favourite nephew joined the Army like his grand father, father and uncles.
Thanks to Nicolas Zarkozy he will probably go to Afghanistan.

Nothing I can say, I would probably done the same at his age. His father, my brother did it. I did it. My father did.
But my first reaction was: He can't do that... Watch the 9th Company, think... Then I appeared to me That I never really knew what my parents thought about what I did.
Nothing really to comment.
I was just wanting to know if some experinced the same mixed feeling of... I don't know...

[InsaneApache]

You can't put an old head on young shoulders. Wisdom only comes with age. If you're lucky.

[rasoforos]

You can't put an old head on young shoulders. Wisdom only comes with age. If you're lucky.

Talking about Afghanistan and head on shoulders rearrangements literally gave me the creeps

That is how life is, people make good and bad choices and being young or old does not really make a big difference in the grand scheme of things. We all make mistakes and some we will make when young and some when old.

All the best for your nephew Brenus. You cannot curb the enthusiasm of the young to do brave and yet stupid things but you can always hammer some good reasoning and thinking into their skulls so that if he does go to Afghanistan he will do just fine.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

There is nothing wrong with joining the military. Best of luck to him.

[Sarmatian]

Nothing wrong with the principle of joining the military, but serving in Afghanistan and trying to achieve a goal no one can define isn't really something to be happy about.

On the other hand, I may be biased. I'm a pacifist and unless my country/family/anything else I hold dear is directly threatened, there's not a thing in the world that would make me take a gun and use it to kill another human being...

Good luck to your nephew Brenus. I know that I would worry very much if a person close to me got sent there...

[Tribesman]

There is nothing wrong with joining the military.

True , however there is something very wrong with putting your life in the hands of an idiot politician for them to throw away on a political whim or in the interest of cutting short term spending.

[Kralizec]

Rather than turning this into a thread about Afghanistan, I'll just say: good luck to your nephew Brenus.

[Tribesman]

Fair point. But then you can do the same by getting ill and going into a UK hospital.

Could be worse , it could be an Irish hospital

[Banquo's Ghost]

Could be worse , it could be an Irish hospital

Politicians spend on our hospitals?

[Tribesman]

Politicians spend on our hospitals?

Of course they do , after they close them and decide its a prime piece of land for their latest personal tax dodge swindle.

[KukriKhan]

It's funny you bring it up Brenus (best of luck and pluck to your nephew).

Thinking back, I didn't consult my family either in my teens/early twenties, just presented them with 'done deals'.

Yet I expected my sons to consult me. And the oldest did (well, sort of: he never asks me "What do you think?"; rather he says: "I gonna do this, or that." Then I ask "Is that a question?", LOL.) Still, it's better than what I did: "Oh, btw, I'm in the army", "Oh, btw, I'm getting married".

On putting one's life in the hands of poli's with dubious scruples and motivations: being drafted kinda solved that issue for me initially; then I served under 5 different CinC's voluntarily, finding that their politics didn't change my life as a soldier very much, only the geography of where I'd serve.

[Xiahou]

Watch the 9th Company, think...

You know that was just a movie, right? Yeah, it was based on real events- but only in the Hollywood sense of the word. Yeah, there was a battle on a hill in Afghanistan.... that's about it for accuracy.

Edit: From Wiki...

The film is based on a real battle that took place at Hill 3234 in early 1988, during the last large-scale Soviet military operation Magistral. In the movie, only one soldier from the company survives and the company is said to have been "forgotten" by the military command because of the Soviet withdrawal. But in reality, the story was different.

The 9th Company, 345th Guards Airborne Regiment was pinned down under heavy fire on "Hill 3234" between 7 and 8 January 1988. They managed to stop twelve attacks by an estimated 250−500 Mujahideen. The company lost 6 men. Another 28 out of the total 39 were wounded. Two of the killed soldiers were posthumously awarded the golden star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. The unit was in constant communication with headquarters and got everything the regimental commander, Colonel Valery Vostrotin, could provide in terms of ammunition, reinforcements, and helicopter evacuation of the wounded.

[Brenus]

"You know that was just a movie, right? Yeah, it was based on real events- but only in the Hollywood sense of the word. Yeah, there was a battle on a hill in Afghanistan.... that's about it for accuracy..." Yes, I know. Well, it is as accurate than all war movies...
Yeah, the Thin Red Line never was as described, the Charge of the Light Brigade same...

[Vladimir]

I understand how you feel even if I can’t sympathize. It’s all about perspective. Yes, Afghanistan is dangerous; but so is crossing a street. Remember to look both ways. Your concern is justified, even expected. Hopefully he is going *to* the military and not *away* from something. Keep in contact with him.

[Vuk]

Well, I am planning on joining the USMC when I get back home, and I have not told my ma yet. I do not live at home now, so it is not like I am her responsibility. (in fact, she has been mostly my responsibility for the last few years :P) I know that if I told her she would just freak anyway, and I do not want to tell her now just in case I change my mind within the next month. (I don't even know if they will take me with my nearly useless right arm anyway :P) By not telling her, I am at least saving myself some shame if they will not take me. It would really stink to tell my family that I am joining up, then come back rejected. :P

Anyway, best of luck Brenus, I am sure that you must be proud. And don't worry, it is just the French military that he is joining, so he will probably never encounter anything more frightening than a lace-covered snail.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Take a deep breath - STOP - notice the smiley, laugh.

Seriously though, your chances of dying in the military today are actually barely any higher than a civilian's.

[Louis VI the Fat]

it is just the French military that he is joining, so he will probably never encounter anything more frightening than a lace-covered snail.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Take a deep breath - STOP - notice the smiley, laugh.

I know it's a joke, and I don't mind. However, this form of mockery has become so omnipresent that it now seems to have fully replaced real history. This is a problem.


France, the UK and the US were allies during pretty much the entire 20th century - both ideologically and through varying degrees of official treaties. The UK has been slightly more populous than France for most of the century, the US from three to five times. Yet, in wars in which all three were actively fighting on the same side, France alone has lost as many men on the battlefield as these two combined.

This excludes civilian and material losses. Both hugely outnumber those of the other two combined, especially those of the US. This is the price France has paid in blood for the freedom of France and of her Anglo allies. A price, many multiple times larger than that of the US. (Britain too, for its part, paid a far heavier price per capita than the US).

So yes, French soldiers have encountered things more frightening than a lace-covered snail. More frightening than anything America has ever seen. And faced it. To a huge cost in lives, on a scale that Americans only know from their worst nightmares.

Currently, French men and women are risking their lives in missions in Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Chad, former Yugoslavia, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. Protecting the interests of France and of her befriended countries.

[Vuk]

I know it's a joke, and I don't mind. However, this form of mockery has become so omnipresent that it now seems to have fully replaced real history. This is a problem.


France, the UK and the US were allies during pretty much the entire 20th century - both ideologically and through varying degrees of official treaties. The UK has been slightly more populous than France for most of the century, the US from three to five times. Yet, in wars in which all three were actively fighting on the same side, France alone has lost as many men on the battlefield as these two combined.

This excludes civilian and material losses. Both hugely outnumber those of the other two combined, especially those of the US. This is the price France has paid in blood for the freedom of France and of her Anglo allies. A price, many multiple times larger than that of the US. (Britain too, for its part, paid a far heavier price per capita than the US).

So yes, French soldiers have encountered things more frightening than a lace-covered snail. More frightening than anything America has ever seen. And faced it. To a huge cost in lives, on a scale that Americans only know from their worst nightmares.

Currently, French men and women are risking their lives in missions in Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Chad, former Yugoslavia, the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. Protecting the interests of France and of her befriended countries.

lol, I was only joking. I am aware that French people risk their lives. I was only playing on an overused cliche. :P