Shit excuse. It takes more effort not to march in unison.
It’s also something that is taught in UK army, since the collapsing bridge incident.
Wild first point but we’ll ignore it.
What is the collapsing bridge incident?
London Bridge falling down, falling down, falling down?
It’s common knowledge that soldiers don’t walk in unison on bridges. It dates back to 1831.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughton_Suspension_Bridge
Same thing happened in France twenty years later:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughton_Suspension_Bridge
It also postponed the opening of a bridge in London by two years in 2000:
I think this is what they are referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broughton_Suspension_Bridge.
TL;DR: The bridge collapsed because soldiers marching on it created force they hadn’t anticipated, soldiers breaking step supposedly don’t have as much of an impact.
You mean they spend zero time on showmanship training and thus twirling rifles serves a practical and essential combat purpose?
“Defend our nation” by starting wars to keep rich people rich?
Unironically yes. You don’t get to be the center of the universe without showing up on the periphery to kick someone else’s nuts in from time to time.
no sometimes they start wars to get rich people richer
but for reals its not the soldiers starting wars its the higher ups and the people who make weapons who start wars
It’s crazy that the people involved for the most noble (to them) reasons are the ones most likely to be pulling triggers and/or getting killed, while the ones starting the war for evil reasons typically come out ahead as long as they are willing to ignore the mountain of bodies in their wake. (cue narrator)
Or as a wise man once said:
Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor? Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor? Why do they always send the poor? Why do they always send the poor?
the bottom line is money nobody gives a fuck
Unfortunately I think you are correct.
it is what Serj says in SOAD’s song Boom!
great music video for that btw
It is soldiers who willingly join that organization, knowing the same or more as we know. So they are as morally bancrupt as their leadership
This is a false dichotomy, as though you can either be productive or learn to march. Obviously you could do both.
No, you can NOT learn to march like they do in North Korea or China and have any time left in your day to do an actual job or even train to fight. That crap takes time.
Um… That is nothing like the pageantry they put on on North Korea and China.
I guess no, they cant learn to goose step, that quickly, because US troops dont goose step when marching.
That video is just some guys walking in sync (on my tax dollar). Have you seen an NK parade?
You can. And they do.
Broadly speaking, yeah. We send every member of the US Army through “Basic Training” even though 95% of them will never actually fire a gun or climb over a fence or jog ten miles in the rain for the rest of their careers.
Parade March is a thing we don’t bother to drill into units (except specifically tasked “Parade Units” that exist to do little circus acts for the high command’s amusement). But we could do it instead of the GI Joe training for the private class janitorial staff if we felt like it.
The bigger picture is that the US Military is a fountain of economic waste, social abuse, and pointless bloodshed in the name of machismo. Trump’s parade is just the cherry on a seven layer cake of squandered national wealth.
But it’s the thing liberals will fixate on, because we can’t ever actually say “The Pentagon sucks ass and makes the world an objectively worse place to live in”. It always has to be about this one Great Man Of History doing things wrong in a way his hypothetical liberal alternative would not.
Parade March is a thing we don’t bother to drill into units (except specifically tasked “Parade Units” that exist to do little circus acts for the high command’s amusement).
That is not accurate.
https://youtu.be/aeFltEjzR2Y?t=1212
Soldiers utilize D&C every day, by and large. Even when running. Its how soldiers are moved, as a group, from point A to point B.
When has the US military defended the nation? I got the impression that they’re mostly used for invading foreign countries for financial gain, cf Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Sudan, Panama, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Guatemala, Korea.
Invasion is the defense.
This is what Americans call “defending the nation”; making war in other countries than their own, believing themselves to be the world police.
I think America has only ever been attacked… Twice… In all of history (Pearl Harbour and 9/11), and both times the defense was pretty piss poor.
I’m not sure either of these events can even be counted as an attack. Pearl Harbour is roughly 3800km from the mainland. It’s basically an overseas territory. An attack there is like saying the Falkland War was an attack on the UK.
And 9/11 was a terrorist attack, not a war. While it was a big attack, it was still only carried out by a handful of non-state-actors. That’s quite a different thing than an actual military attack by a country.
Afaik, the last war on US soil was the civil war.
Hawaii was not a state for almost 2 decades after pearl harbor, so yeah.
The original white house was burned to the ground by British/Canadian troops in 1814.
Not to mention about 100 different American Indian Wars, though some of those were more slaughter than war.
America was attacked hundreds of times. The native people lost.
Yeah. That’s kind of America’s whole thing. Making money. Exploiting everything. Americans are the Ferengi.
Defending America = defending capitalism = doing whatever they can to make American, capitalist companies more profitable.
I don’t hate capitalism. Don’t get me wrong, but I generally don’t like capitalists.
Capitalists are what makes capitalism capitalism. How can you hate one without the other?
The same way I don’t hate Christianity but most Christians drive me up a wall.
The concepts can be good, valid and even the best option in some cases, but the way it’s weilded can be dramatically different based on the person wielding it.
You are comparing apples and oranges with your explanation.
Religion and belief are two separate things.
Christians drive you up a wall because of their beliefs not because of their religion.
This is not the same as hating capitalists but not capitalism.
No one is immune to propaganda
Not saying you’re wrong in general but we didn’t invade Kuwait.
Fair, taking it off the list. It just comes up naturally when I list the horrible things the US has done bc of the highway of death. Still an example of the US military not defending the US, but definitely not an invasion of Kuwait. Thanks for the correction, I was sloppy!
I think it was probably in protest. However they can, I guess.
On a fucking Saturday too. They wanted to be with their loved one probably.
I woulda filed a chit for gastro or something.
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These soldiers spend their days doing important work to defend our nation.
The U.S. military has done nothing to defend their “nation” for over 100 years. They ONLY defend the corporate oligarchs’ ability to steal resources and use slave labor in third world countries.
Lmao yet Ukraine still stands thanks to American intelligence and military apparatus.
I’m not even an American but this kindergarten sentiment in Lemmy is so exhausting.
Yeah you get a lot of these ‘moral purity absolutists’ with all the nuance of an edgy teen. Some of them, or course, are edgy teens, but 100 years is a super odd choice even so. You’d think by the time they were 13 they’d have heard of at least one war that came pretty close to defense against a malign hegemonic power with ambitions of global domination…
It really reminds me how I felt when I was an edgy 16-year old but luckily for me social media wasn’t really a thing yet so it didn’t bother anyone.
Looking at the conflicts they have been explictly or covertly involved in, it does seem like they are attempting to create a hegemony. That’s not to say that some good doesn’t get done along the way but it is more of a byproduct than the intent.
But… Ukraine falling to Russia would strengthen the US’s military (and cultural) hegemony over the western world. If this truly was the rationale behind the US’s involvement in Ukraine, everything we’ve done thus far would make absolutely zero sense. Strengthening Ukraine and spurring investment into the home-grown EU defense industry only serves to weaken our position as the lynchpin of NATO. A better justification for US involvement in Ukraine is that this is a great opportunity to starve Russia’s economy by forcing them into conflicts they cannot economically support (which was much the same strategy that lead to the collapse of the soviet union).
It’s also a great opportunity for Russia to starve the US economy by getting them involved in conflicts it cannot economically support. And the US is far more overextended due to other conflicts.
You might have a point if the US were fighting in Ukraine, but… we’re not? We’re advising the Ukraine army, sharing intelligence we’d be gathering anyways and giving AFU a bunch of export weapon systems we found by rummaging around in the pentagon’s couch cushions. This has been a spectacular opportunity for the US because it costs us almost nothing, yet what used to be considered our biggest opponent is teetering on the brink of cultural and economic collapse. Seriously, even if Kiev were to fall tomorrow NATO would be no-contest the victor. Nobody cares about the bear any more.
You might have a point if the US were fighting in Ukraine, but… we’re not?
Yes, we’re just sacrificing their lives for the realpolitic of weakening Russia, which is also bad.
we found by rummaging around in the pentagon’s couch cushions… it costs us almost nothing
Lmao, y’all actually believe this shit.
The US spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on the military, more than the next nine countries in the world combined. Every government program designed to actually help people gets cut to feed more money into the war machine. It’s no wonder we have “military equipment between our couch cushions,” because military equipment is what virtually all our tax money goes towards, when it’s the reason we can’t have things like free healthcare or higher education. Notice how we never seem to find money between our couch cushions for those things?
what used to be considered our biggest opponent
Did it? Who considered the Russian Federation a bigger opponent than the PRC?
is teetering on the brink of cultural and economic collapse
Looked in a mirror lately? The US just elected Trump, in part because people think he represents an alternative to the disastrous establishment policies that pour endless money into pointless foreign wars, and to an economy that is working for fewer and fewer people. Seems like “on the brink of cultural collapse” describes the US to a T.
But moreover, the whole American Empire is falling apart around us. Every year, more and more countries that are just as significant as Ukraine are choosing to make deals with China, to start trading and cooperating with them instead of us. Because the US is trying to rule the world through force and intimidation, while China is manufacturing consumer goods and building hospitals and infrastructure for developing and middle-income countries - the things we won’t even build domestically. Who would want to side with us when you can look at our domestic situation and see that it’s declining and awful? If that’s the best we can provide our own citizens, then what could we offer to other countries?
If I were an “accelerationist,” like people sometimes baselessly accuse me of, I would 100% support spending more on the military and getting involved in these stupid unwinnable conflicts all over the world, dumping endless amounts of money towards any situation we can use bombs and not sparing a penny for actually making anyone’s life better, because those self-destructive policies will ensure the downfall of the US more than anything else could. The problem with that being, the US is likely to start WWIII in that scenario, the more clear it becomes that the military is literally the only tool that we could possibly use to maintain hegemony, since it’s the only thing we spend money on.
Oh boy. Only have time for a top three, so in no particular order:
Who considered the Russian Federation a bigger opponent than the PRC?
… Literally everyone. China was aligned as a ‘follower’ of the Russian Federation’s geopolitical lead prior to russia’s utter stomping in Ukraine. Was it incorrect? Well, obviously. But the image of the great russian bear was the specter keeping the western world up at night.
Looked in a mirror lately? The US just elected Trump
A blatant whatabboutism but just to address it: The US will be fine (diminished geopolitcally no doubt, but still in a powerful position) after this all gets sorted out internally. We survived the last trump admin, we’ll come through this one too. This just isn’t the fall of the roman empire like oh so many people are claiming, politically it just doesn’t even resemble it.
building hospitals and infrastructure for developing and middle-income countries - the things we won’t even build domestically.
I… what? We opened half a dozen hospitals in my state alone last year. Additionally, you know the US has been the world’s largest source of charity and investment in developing nations for decades, right? Look you’re repeating lines from some seriously anti-china propaganda here and it’s a little weird. You know about trump canceling USAID and why that’s bad, right?
There’s lots of things to criticize the US on (and it’s something I do all the time, lets be clear) but you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.
(Okay, honorable mention because I just can't with this shit:)
when it’s the reason we can’t have things like free healthcare or higher education.
The reason we don’t have healthcare is fascism, not “military spending taking all the money”. We could 100% have free uni and healthcare without reducing a cent to the pentagon’s budget. In many states we even have (limited) free healthcare, entirely funded by state budgets. You’re just repeating bullshit right-wing talking points like they’re objective truth, but with a lefty spin on them.
Must have forgotten that Ukraine became a US state, these edgy kids
And then promptly fucked right out of peace negotiations immediately after signing the resources deal. Fits perfectly well with
They ONLY defend the corporate oligarchs’ ability to steal resources and use slave labor in third world countries.
It’s possible that you’re overestimating the US contribution
Are you suggesting that kindergarten political thought is somehow less valid? You must hate children!
Lmao yet Ukraine still stands thanks to American intelligence and military apparatus.
Which they provide exactly as long as they profit exponentially from it. Dont pretend like the US would provide foreign aid out of generosity.
I am of the mindset that a good thing done for selfish reasons is still ultimately a good thing done.
Me too, but that still doesnt contradict the comment above drmoose’s
I never said it did, I’m just offering perspective.
I was only in marching band. 25 years later, I promise I could still do it with zero practice. This was on purpose.
If you were in marching band, there’s a good possibility that you had more thorough training in marching than what’s given in basic training, especially if you went to competitions. Marching makes up like half the activity of marching band (it’s in the name). Marching is only one of a plethora of things that are taught during the few months of basic training, and once you’re out of basic, you may never have to march again.
I also think your expectations on how rhythmically-inclined the average person (or soldier) is might be on the high side based on your experience in an activity with a bunch of highly rhythmically-inclined people.
I was in army cadets for like 2 years about 17 years ago and could still do this with 0 effort and I have a very poor sense of rhythm.
Trust me, anyone that’s spent more than like an hour learning to march could still do it with ease decades later.
This isn’t true at all. Marching is really easy, especially when there’s music to March to. I did a bit of drill in basic, and we would get a bit of practice before something a lot smaller than this, and we would be ace in 20 minutes of practice. They are doing this on purpose.
They were “marching” to an instrumental of Fortunate Son. No way that’s marched at that cadence without being janky as fuck at best.
Also fortunate son while marching past amazing Trump they must have known
That’s fair but they look shit and they should know how to fuxking March it’s not the changing of the guard it’s walking in time.
Amazing music choice. Very fitting. I wonder who came up with that.
Marching makes up like half the activity of marching band
Marching makes up about 25% of daily life for a solider. We had PT formations, morning formation, weekend safety briefing formations, formations for training sessions, etc etc. If you have an element of troops, of any size, and they need to move from Point A to Point B, you’re marching there.
100% and I can’t imagine the effect of basic training and what you learned there being forgotten until long afterwards.
In the British army, even regular non-guardsman, infantry will usually parade into towns. They love a bit on pomp and ceremony. For example, even now regiments like the black watch regiment would be bagpipes bearing, marching in perfect unison into some place and then roll off to war.
They didn’t want to be there and their imo their COs didn’t want to kick off at them in front of the cameras.
So, the tweet isn’t entirely true; my experience in the army was that we very much did irregularly do marches together, even after basic training. Every few months or so the battallion or brigade leadership would get an idea about a ‘fun run’ or whatever, and the start of those is always a march together. It inevitably switched to running together, but there was definitely a quick refresher on walking in step together on a regular basis.
What the tweeter missed is that there’s tricks that every leadership command knows to do if they want a formation to look good.
If you wanted to put a military parade on that actually looked good you’d do a couple things prior to running it. You’d tell your various units to have a competition for who does it best, and you’d put up a basic-ass award for the winners and runners up. This ensures that any ladder climbers go out and find all the people who are actually good at this to put together a small super squad of people who actually know what they’re doing. You then have them compete, and you pick the units that did the best to lead your parade.
We actually did this in basic training; my drill sgts had a little demonstration where they put the people good at keeping time together and the people bad it together. It was damn impressive how much of a difference just doing that made. One or two bad marchers can ruin a whole formation with their lack of timing.
None of this was done; at best they practiced for pt for a couple weeks before the event, but even that is iffy. They likely didn’t bother to filter the parade members who can’t march out, and that’d be good enough to turn this into a herd instead of a formation.
This doesn’t rule out malicious compliance at all though; again, one or two bad marchees doing their best (or worst) job can completely throw off the timing of everybody behind and next to them. Same way as counting wrongly out loud can throw off someone trying to count up to 50.
put together a small super squad of people who actually know what they’re doing
From what I vaguely remember, you also want all the best marchers on the left most of the time, since you line up with the person on your left most of the time, and the very best at the front left. This was decades ago for me, but I know that there were tricks like that to make it look good.
The band played “Fortunate Son”. They all knew exactly what they were doing.
If shit ever does hit the fan full send (I very much doubt it) he doesn’t have the army.
Got a video link? Sounds amazing.
Beautiful.
Imperial March would have been dope
I thought it was in unison but it certainly didn’t have the giant goose stepping.
Yeah! They need to do important stuff!
Like point guns at me while I’m going to the grocery store!
Military doesn’t do that, that’s for cops after they get out of the military.
Oh, so who was the guy in digital camo standing next to the grey armored vehicle doing that?
Because im pretty sure that wasn’t a cop; he looked like he might’ve actually know how to use his gun.
Cops have camo and rifles. I genuinely don’t think the army has vehicles any color other than green, tan, and woodland camo.
Did it look like this?
More sidewalk colored. Different hat? I think?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenco_BearCat
Those were cops.
He’s about to get out and become a cop.
No. Like i said; he was holding his gun properly.
National Guard maybe? Officially they are not military though
National Guard ARE part of the military, they wear U.S. military uniforms and are deployed to U.S. invaded and occupied countries like Iraq.
They are officially civilians, no? I know they can be called up into active service but outside of that…
Marines have also been deployed
Yeah, the military’s job is to point guns at people when they’re going to the grocery store in other countries, primarily.
Except when deployed when the police are “overran”.
Trump just needs to up his dictator game and threaten everyone involved, especially the leadership, with jail time or dishonorable discharge if they don’t shape up and goose-step properly.
