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The Russians will never stop being dicks. They can, however, eat a whole bowl of 'em, for all I care. And for dessert, I would like to suggest that they eat an entire fleet of cocks.

This scenario is taking the question out of context. I don't think anyone on this board would resolutely condemn an individual for, in the heat of the moment based on intensely personal emotions, attempting to protect their children. This directly translates into heat of battle decisions In any war, you'd have to be completely naive to believe that prisoners are going to to be treated with kid gloves by the soldiers that initially capture them. Field interrogations discussed by other members of this board aka my buddy just got blown up by an IED, where's the next one or I'm kicking the shit out of you are going to happen with any military regardless of the level of discipline. Its a consequence of war and I'm not gonna judge guys for actions like that taken in the heat of battle. The difference here is that these enhanced interrogation techniques, torture, ass play, whatever you want to call it aren't being conducted by operators and soldiers in the field. They're being conducted by three letter agency personnel far removed from the battle field and combat. That's the equivalent, in Hannity's example above, of you capturing the guy who has your kids and then turning them over to the cops to get tortured. The government has screwed up my pay, travel arrangements and countless other things in my short 11 years in the military. Do you really want them given the authority to conduct these sort of actions, mostly without oversight from other parts of the government? I don't know about anybody else, but I sure as shit don't want to live in a country that officially sanctions shit like that. There's lots of countries across the globe where the government and police forces routinely torture and abuse both their own citizens and citizens from other countries. Countries like that make me glad I was born in America. There's a recent article on stripes that I'm too lazy to link that shows all the military JAGs that were consulted about enhanced interrogations had serious reservations or were downright against their use. McCrystal in Iraq was vehemently against stuff like that as well. If you want to say that terrorists aren't afforded the protections of the Geneva Convention that's fine, I'll buy your argument even though I strongly believe in continuing to kill them where we find them. Then we treat them like criminals and prosecute them. The last time I checked, even the worst criminals in our prison system aren't tortured. If these activities were so acceptable then why didn't we bring captured terrorists to Leavenworth and string them up by their arms there instead of doing it in countries like Poland, Romania, etc? The simple pendulum swings both ways. After 9/11, there was a lot of fear and a lot of uncertainty; I personally believe some mistakes were made. I think we're good enough as a people and a country to admit when we've ed up. Continuing to argue that torture is a viable and justifiable method to get information is only going to hurt us as a country.

Always glad when someone comes out the other side unharmed. Well done.

POC info is listed on the Wantscheck page.

An expert in human behavior will be more successful in far less the time. Look at the interrogation of Saddam Hussein. We got everything we wanted to know from him without ever laying a finger on him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrogation_of_Saddam_Hussein Also simply google "most successful interrogrator" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Scharff Aside from the conversation of which methond is more effective, I think this is a question of how far are we willing to go to survive? This theme is popping up in tv and movies quite a lot lately. I personnally think we are going about this all wrong. We should bring in their wives and show them pictures of their husbands in a strip club! In 15 minutes they would give up everything they know.

Since *American* movie theaters refused to air the premier for fear of reprisals? Besides which, I expect he was referring to the free world 'we'.

Yeah, you're right, we aren't. That's the point. We should be. And it's been quite a while since we've 'won' one. It has nothing to do with making our enemies love us. I know this is going to be taken personally, but I assure you I don't mean it to be inflammatory: This is exactly the problem. The country collectively acts selfishly when emotion is involved, but then a couple years down the road still tries to stand on the pedestal and say we're better than the rest. 'Whatever it takes to keep my family and I safe' with no regard for the bigger picture and the greater good. Tap the phones, torture the bad guys for intel, hastily invade Iraq. Then two months down the line we see some other entity acting selfishly and get all indignant about it. Beheading journalists on camera serves a purpose for ISIS, whether you believe it or not. Don't get righteous and bent out of shape over it when it happens, because they're just acting selfishly with no regard for others, same as us if we condone torture when it's convenient. It's just more personally painful when the shoe is on the other foot (and no, I'm not suggesting that if we set the example, ISIS will follow...it's not about that). The rules are that you accept the fact that living freely comes with a cost...and that the cost is worth paying. I don't point my fingers when something goes 'boom'. To the contrary, I would accept a 9/11 magnitude attack on a regular basis as the cost of living freely without concern...even if it affected me personally (I'm aware that I'm in the minority here, but I mean what I say...and I'm not saying I wouldn't support doing everything reasonable to prevent it, but it wouldn't involve subverting the Constitution or the ideals we claim to stand for). This country gave G.W. the keys to the cupboard post 9/11 because it was collectively acting on emotion. I'd wish that our politicians could be counted on to act logically under strain even when the citizens are delusional with emotion, but no. Instead we got the Patriot Act, and all other assortment of Executive mandates behind the scenes. They are collectively some of the most counter-Constitutional acts that we've seen in decades (I don't need examples of Civil War era government overreach...horrible behavior doesn't justify bad behavior, and if everything we did in the past was some sort of benchmark of acceptability, then I guess we need to bring back slavery and prevent women from voting). For god's sake, John Ashcroft eventually cried foul and made it known he thought the administration [that he was employed by] was way out of line, and he was about as far from a Constitutional savior as you can get. You know that guy, Gruber? We'll he was right. The American people are stupid. Despite what we're taught in elementary school, the governance structure in the U.S. is absolutely not a 'majority rules' Democracy. There's plenty of dumb shit we'd be doing if we acted on population surveys. The Bill of Rights is all about protecting minority positions against majority rule. The majority of people in this country would object to carrying a gun in a lot of circumstances, burning a flag, or being a Jew. There aren't laws reflecting that majority opinion for a reason. I don't follow your logic that because nobody has derailed the conversation by bringing up Al-Awlaki, it somehow indicates everybody's stance on the matter. There are a million different topics of conversation that could tie into this discussion; they can't all be addressed simultaneously.

Sure, why not. Does nK have any companies? Torture. The CIA. North Korea connected to Sony attack as company cancels Dec. 25 release of 'The Interview' https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/12/17/us-government-saw-interview-approved-theaters-upping-security/ Good. We're giving in to the demands of the terrorists. How about a big F YOU to the Jonger and release it for free to anyone who will air it over the airwaves, post a free download on their website, etc.

Just for the record, I have never said anything bad about the communists in North Korea. ...hopefully that posted statement now keeps my bank account from getting hacked into. It's like when people copy and paste those privacy statements or whatever on their FB pages, thinking it will stop FB doing whatever they want with your information (which I'm sure they agreed to when they clicked 'I agree' before signing up).

AMEX Platinum. Search for the particulars on previous threads. Bennies are fantastic for zero fees annually.

Here's to hoping for some hefty use of VSP and TERA!

You can contribute up to $53,000 in 2015 to TSP with your tax exempt pay, but I think that the money beyond the normal cap of $18,000 has to go to the traditional TSP (18K to Roth, 35K to Traditional). You can move your traditional TSP tax exempt contributions to a Roth account after you leave the service so that the earnings are also tax exempt when you withdraw instead of only the contributions (Earnings on tax exempt contributions in TSP are taxable.). Put the rest in Vanguard or 529? TL;DR: Max out TSP

Yup. Got a confirmation that they received my packet too. Invitations should be out the first week of Jan. Cant wait.

Split from Track Select thread so as to not have it be buried, with update on the article. Best part of the night was the student who got cancer....pulled from training for 15 months...beat cancer...came back, kicked ass, got a Raptor. Fucking awesome.

Fuckin A, Mr. Rogers.

Or how sad it is that we kill people we have in custody, or that we tortured two dozen innocent people. Totally worth it because someone ELSE, who is not the person we've been torturing for a decade, killed some people?

Can't speak for Cleared Hot...but I didn't read anything wrong with your words. Every officer's career path is unique and special...just like everyone else's. My standard advice: try to do what you want to do on each assignment: that was your motivation to get to UPT/UNT--to get to fly--and that motivation got you where you wanted to be. Look around at your former peers and at your former shop Chiefs/Flt CCs..where are they now? Are they doing what they love? Are they doing what you want to be doing? If so, follow them...if not, choose another path. I think it's great you're looking for options...but, bottom line, first figure out what you want to go do...then ask your Cc to help you get it.

Swing and a miss. If it makes you feel any better, I actually thought Romney had a chance the last few weeks before the 2012 election. And no, I did not vote for Romney. It looks like 2016 is already starting--Jeb Bush has more/less thrown his name in the ring. I look forward to voting Libertarian again if he is the GOP's nominee.

The more we are willing to torture people, the more the terrorists win. Their goal is to make us so afraid that we are willing to change our behavior. In this case, they've convinced us to discard the morals, treaties, and laws that we've taken decades to build. Face it guys...the terrorists are winning. All it takes is a tweet from a terrorist to the FBI to make our senior leadership warn us about our online presence. We're not only willing to torture people, we're now willing to scream that people opposed to torture are siding with the terrorists. We've spent the last decade trying to work with the Afghan people to craft a government, and yet we can't refer to them as anything other than savages. The terrorists have certainly gotten into our heads at this stage. We're so terrified of another attack that people shrug when we torture detainees, many of whom have no known ties to terrorism, and in spite of the fact that torture produces poor intel. We're so terrified of another attack that we sheepishly gather in long lines to remove our shoes, belts, and watches so that TSA can scan our junk in a high-end X-ray machine. We're so terrified of another attack that we believe the government is justified in scooping up all the data about every phone call, email, and text we send. The terrorists are winning, and unless we are willing to say that we are not going to change our way of life every time one of them puts out a video, that we are going to keep our moral compass no matter how angry or hurt or sad we are, then they will continue winning. Sure, we'll pile up the body count...but it's going to cost our soul.

The 2014 program worked as it was supposed to, hence no need for the programs in 2015. Personnelist brothers on this forum: I know you don't get a lot of love here, but thank you for what you do every day- this announcement validates your efforts. And for everyone else...Gen Welsh's vision of quick cuts has paid off, as the spectre of cuts no longer remains as the elephant in the room. Enjoy your careers--it's a good time to serve our country.