I never said any particular country's troops were inadequately trained. I merely said the U.S. troops were the best trained. If you disagree, then I defy you to find a country with better trained enlisted soldiers. Other countries may aide the US, but I don't know of any other military power that does as extensive desert/tundra/jungle/whatever training as the US does. This has nothing to do with the ability of the troops, merely the training done in advance. My parenthetical was merely to state that one shouldn't compare other country's elite troops to enlisted (such as your SAS), as that would be apples to oranges.
It isn't meant a dick-measuring statement from me, merely a statement of fact as I know it.

It's quite fascinating to read your guy's insight, those that've been there.
Non-violent resistance is the only thing that makes sense to me...
Agree insurgents should just stop attacking. Seems like they're just as bad as some think the US is (I dont really have an opinion at this stage).

I'll be 100% honest here. I didn't join out of patriotism or for seeking a combat high. I joined purely for the education benefits that is currently putting me through college. And traveling to Germany was a nice perk. The only reason I joined my specific career field was because it was the quickest I could get in the USAF (A few months compared to a full year) and it had little requirements to join.
Unfortunately, I should have listened to my recruiters commander when he tried to talk me out of it. He said I was too intelligent for the career field and wanted to use me elsewhere, but said it was up to me. And I paid for it too. I was in the absolute worst career field where all the rejects and screw ups get sent to when they flunk out of any other career. It also tends to attract people with a small-man complex who love to throw their weight around.
The unfortunate thing is the recruits I saw fresh out of tech school got worse every month, and the worst part is they are our future leaders who are going to be in charge of defending multi-million dollar Air Force installations. But the career field is always in need of more Airmen, so the Air Force doesn't care who it puts in there, even if they are NOT the type who need to be a law enforcement officer/combat soldier. And if they fail in Security Forces, they can't retrain them into something else since it's already the lowest of the low, so they just take rank and try training them harder, and they wonder why incidents like this happen.

I don't think it matters what I meant, actually; I shouldn't have even brought it up. It didn't support my main argument, and had a likelihood of being taken poorly. For the record, in my original post that you replied to, I meant that the U.S. is highly trained, but they are NOT necessarily trained for this sort of peacekeeping duty. I suppose now they might get a bit of that sort of training, but it isn't really what a military is designed for.
In my second comment, I actually think I was the one coming off like a loony, not you. I got a phone call in the middle of it, so I didn't reread what I wrote until I read your reply. What I was trying to say is that the U.S. enlisted has a broader range in training, but they may not have some of the specialized training some other countries have. I could be plain wrong on that, but that was what I was told a few years back by a Pentagon marine colonel.
Yeah, we have some good enlistment ads. What half of them even have to do with military service, I don't know (there was one for the Marines with a guy slaying a dragon, iirc), but they are indeed pretty slick. This sort of thing happens every time our economy hits a downturn in the U.S. though. There is never a better time to grow your military than in times of economic duress.

EDIT- man im an idiot what a stupid question.

On the topic of the actual video: I think this is a pretty good take on it. Obviously it is pretty biased, but so was the original article. So read both sides, and then make your own decisions.
http://davidbellavia.com/new/2010/wikileaks-credibility-on-us-killing-civilians-in-iraq-on-par-with-baghdad-bob/

Finland's armored division would like to have a talk with you as well as Israel's light armor division and general military (they have way better assault weapons than the US, it's just that they cost a shit-load more).

Uh huh, not too hard... the M-16 sucks ass. I mean... It uses a 5.56mm round :P. Other countries would only need a 6.8mm and it would already be better, without anything else, heh. However, how many observation satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles do other countries have? How many stealth bombers? How many smart bombs and Sat. guided missiles? How many etc etc, etc.... you get my point. That is what I meant by technology and equipment; everything that backs up a military... everything.
Anyway, read my follow up comment to the post you replied to, I already addressed why this post of mine was so messed up.

The people who fired and the people who provided the intelligence on the situation were one and the same. The Apache gunner was the one making observations on the situation. Taken in addition to the fact that the helicopter was under no imminent threat (being well outside the effective range of RPGs and AK-47s), that there was mounted infantry about 100 m away that could have better checked out the situation if there were questions about whether the people were valid targets, and the eagerness with which the gunner wanted clearance to shoot (especially when firing on the people in the van trying to help the wounded) I can basically only come to one conclusion: these soldiers were cowardly, murderous yahoos who should be nailed to the wall for this, right along side everyone involved in the decision to try to sweep this thing under the rug.

I lost a fair amount of respect for the people who published the video because of the emotional manipulation using the journalists life stories. Sure it's a tragic event that they were killed but would it have been less disrespectful to simply state who they were and where they were in the video rather than giving tearful accounts of the last encounter with dear friends, any more and they'd have talked about how they loved puppies, donated blood and WERE ONE DAY AWAY FROM RETIREMENT!!!
Based on the content of the video, I'd have to say they acted in a tactically sound, if somewhat premature, manner. Personally with that situation I'd have tried to get closer footage for a longer time to confirm the weapons whilst the people were unaware/unconcerned. After seeing what they thought was an RPG in the hands of a guy peering around the corner of a building right at them, he had to be considered a direct threat to them (a distant threat to be sure but still a threat) and to friendly armour, I'd have probably done the same thing.
In regards to the guy poking his head around the corner with what was apparently an RPG, was it the launcher only or was there actually a rocket in there? Maybe held backwards? It looked rather squared off rather than the cone shape that I'm used to seeing
As for the kids in the van, I didn't see them even when they were fucking highlighted and zoomed in, all I saw was movement of something that might have been a head. It seems unrealistic to expect the pilots to have seen that there were people still in the van and completely ridiculous to expect them to identify those vague moving blobs as being children.
Dragging it back to the game angle, am I the only one who'd love a close support chopper sim where you have to face choices like this? Stuff where its not just locating and shooting bad guys but where you have to actually act with greater care to avoid civilian casualties?

Yeah pretty much what it looks like to me. Also the way they report a van possibly picking up BODIES AND GUNS, when there were no bodies or guns anywhere near the spot the van stopped, only the wounded reporter, must have contributed at least partially to the 'go ahead' for the spray on the van. Had he actually reported what he was watching on the damn screen, a couple of guys carrying a wounded, i wonder if that reporter would still be alive.

Well, the Canadian army has, uh, um, forks!

stonebro
Fearsome Viking