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Sniper

I'm not defending the Somalis involved, so please don't try to start an argument on that point.

Like I said - I'm assuming that you simply didn't know that "skinnies" is offensive. I'm not going to belabor it, but it is an ethnic slur. Your call as to whether to edit it or keep it; you own your words.
 
I'm not defending the Somalis involved, so please don't try to start an argument on that point.

Like I said - I'm assuming that you simply didn't know that "skinnies" is offensive. I'm not going to belabor it, but it is an ethnic slur. Your call as to whether to edit it or keep it; you own your words.
I have never heard the word used in reference to anyone other than a combatant from Somalia. I certainly did not mean it as an insult to an entire race, only to those involved in the conflict I was describing.
 
I totally understand that. SC is not exactly a nexus of east-african emigration. (Toronto, on the other hand, has a large Somali population; my impression of them is that they're quiet, family-oriented, conservative, devout, and work 18 hours a day at crap jobs). It's not as forceful as "n*****", nor as common, but it is negative.
 
The problem here is that pirates had evolved into an amusing anecdote and movie theme, and it was something where if my kids were playing pirates on their playground we'd all look and say, "How cute, they're playing pirates".

But now these real pirates, as they're being called, have taken all the fun out of the games that kids play now. I just can't picture my kids playing games and saying, "OK, I'll be Jack Sparrow and you can be Abdikarem..."
 
Getting off track here. Take it to PM if you need to.
 
I don't quite understand the direction of this post you wrote. It seems a little to close to the adoration of a highly proficient dealer of death. 'Golden age of the sniper'? 'Chivalric hero'? Come on mate. Part of the army or not, you are talking about a killer like they are some sort of 'ultimate' being. A paragon of society that we should admire.

I am not saying that the armed forces deserve our scorn, but neither do I think we should revel in ANY death, whether it is carried out in our name or not.




Edited for spelling
 
You seem to have missed the point that I didn't write it, just posted it.
 
You seem to have missed the point that I didn't write it, just posted it.


Sorry mate, I did miss that.

That was in a professional newspaper? Dear me. Encouraging that sort of idol worship for a sniper is disconcerting. We should be relieved that they are on hand to diffuse potentially disasterous situations, of course. I would draw the line at glorifying them though. That seems wrong.
 
Yes, it was an opinion piece from The Washington Post.

You seem to have missed the point that I didn't write it, just posted it.


Sorry mate, I did miss that.

That was in a professional newspaper? Dear me. Encouraging that sort of idol worship for a sniper is disconcerting. We should be relieved that they are on hand to diffuse potentially disasterous situations, of course. I would draw the line at glorifying them though. That seems wrong.
 
That was in a professional newspaper? Dear me. Encouraging that sort of idol worship for a sniper is disconcerting. We should be relieved that they are on hand to diffuse potentially disasterous situations, of course. I would draw the line at glorifying them though. That seems wrong.

Uhmmmm . . . have you seen any American movies?

We do that here.

~Boar
 
I've been thinking about this since it was posted. A lot of people, myself included, have never thought kindly toward snipers. I could never get my head around the fact that they work in secret, from cover, and kill without warning. My feelings surely come from the stories from Southeast Asia where the CIA and other covert types took out village chiefs and other operatives... guys that were seemingly noncombatants. The public, of course, simply had to take the word of the government that these people were bad guys and considering what we now know about our government then, it's not beyond reason to think that not all of those kills were justified. That was then.

Now we are engaged in a whole other kind of world. We've got pirates taking US citizens at gunpoint and demanding tribute for their return. We've got suicide bombers and religious zealots who will do anything to kill Americans. We've got the low rent types cooking up Castor beans to extract Ricin to poison as many as possible. These people kill everyone, women, children, the handicapped, each other... it doesn't matter to them. The only defense against an enemy like this is to kill them before the fact.

Having considered these things for a few days I have to say that I'm extremely proud of the Navy Seals and the professional job they did, particularly their frugal use of ammunition. It seems to me that we have come into the age of the sniper. While there are people who ignore any kind of respect or the rules of common decency then it is justifiable to have snipers around to blow out their candles. You get what you give.

NA
 
It's plainly simple in my opinion... Pirates played their hand, US Navy played theirs!


Paying ransom is not a very good deterrent to future actions, I'm extremely proud of our guys ending this, regardless of the means.
 
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