Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Charleston shooting leaves many around world shaking heads at enduring US racism, gun violence [View all]sarisataka
(18,482 posts)1)General asks for widget, company offers to supply widget, politic an approves and authorizes monet for widget.
2)Company then delivers widget that does not perform as promised but has an upgrade that will make it into wonder widget. General isn't happy about under performing widget but likes idea of wonder widget. Politician approves wonder widget upgrade if company builds in politician's home state.
3)Company delivers wonder widget which is about as good as original widget promised but also makes tea. General is pissed because he doesn't have wonder widget just original widget at higher cost and prefers coffee to tea. He wants a different widget. Politician approves wonder widget 2.0 because canceling wonder widget will result in company closing production in politician's state and loosing jobs.
4)Wonder widget 2.0 is pretty good and makes coffee but company offers widget 3000, better than anything anyone in the world will have in the next 20 years. General is suspicious since widget 1 didn't work as advertised but agrees to support it when company offers a "consulting" position when General retires. Politician balks at widget 3000 because it costs 8x as much but changes mind when company offers to keep a lobbyist position open for when politician gets voted out.
5) got to #2
edit> Forgot to include, Sergeant wonders why the fuck he and his troops are saddled with fucking widget because they have fucking gizmo built in 19 fucking 78 that does the fucking job better, requires less fucking maintenance, doesn't fucking need field modification to keep the fucking sand out so it will work in the fucking desert and doesn't fucking need to be fucking sent back to the fucking factory for repair every fucking time fucking Private fucking Rockhead fucking drops it.
As for responsibility- if the military called the shots we would have taken Baghdad in '91. It was a defenseless city and Hussein would have been captured or forced into exile. Politicians (Bush I) said no; we predicted we would return in 10 years.
Twelve years later we returned. We told TPTB invading was stupid because A) Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 and B) the plan was shit. Defeating the Iraqi army was a given but the assumption that the population would throw flowers at our feet was idiotic. Politician (Bush II et al) said "we know better"; they didn't.
In both cases abstract "politics" backed by voters at the time overruled military advise. we knew they were wrong in both cases but the orders were legal. To refuse in either case would have been mutiny.
Maybe you pat yourself on the back saying 'I hate the military' and 'I didn't vote for either King Bush' but you are still a member of the electorate that did. Blaming some dumb private for the war is like blaming the janitor at Ford for gas prices because you like driving an SUV.