A Wedding and A Tragedy

[filthy2]

Last evening my loved nephew Lance Corporal John "Nephew of Filthy" married his beautiful bride Huyen, a daughter of Vietnamese Boat people. Hmmm.

It was a great evening and I caught up and met with 6 or so of his current former Army Buddies, all East Timor Vets. I have never met a funnier or more together, smart bunch of guys in my life. I am really happy that my nephew has such blokes in his life and you could see how tight they were. I know that anyone of them only have to yell and the mates would there in a blink of an eye...now...20 yaers from now. The bond was palpaple.....almost physical in its presence. (There was one there though to my eyes was clearly nearly at PTSD....it was obvious to me a lot more went on up there that we know nothing about.....I don't ask John...he'll talk when ready).

That I wake up this morning to hear 3 of their buddies killed by a local rogue ANA member and 7 more wounded, makes feel physically sick.

I note one of the guys KIA was in East Timor. I wonder if the boys knew him.

As I say it makes me feel sick that these top blokes, are out there in harms way, knowing it could be them next in our name. It humanises it somewhat.

RIP fellas......Lest we Forget. =D>

[rockhole]

f***'n tradgedy. What the hell are we doing there when the people we are training turn their rifles on us.

[dom_105]

When even your friends can be enemies, you have to be seriously concerned about the state of mind of these boys when they finally get home.

Hopefully those that needed to learn some lessons from past wars, have learned those lessons. This has the potential to be a serious problem, into the future.

[filthy2]

"My flight to Bali, or my cancelled meeting, or my share portfolio dipping 5 per cent concerns me far more than a soldier dying in a faraway land.

The media knew that, because that's the new Australia.

Suck it up, Diggers; this is what you're fighting for."



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/executive-styl ... z1ca9BnvXK

[swoodley]

"My flight to Bali, or my cancelled meeting, or my share portfolio dipping 5 per cent concerns me far more than a soldier dying in a faraway land.

The media knew that, because that's the new Australia.

Suck it up, Diggers; this is what you're fighting for."



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/executive-styl ... z1ca9BnvXK

These things actually have a visible impact on individuals Filth whereas most Australians would struggle to understand why our boys are over there at all, let alone being killed and wounded.

That may appear hard hearted and self centred but I daresay it's true.

I have never understood the rationale for sending our troops there...our defence forces are there to defend Australia and I have never seen Afghanistan (or Iraq) as being a danger to us.

I always thought the original deployments were based on Howard's desire to be seen as a major world player but then Rudd & Gillard have done nothing to bring the troops home so maybe they're just as bad.

The deployment to East Timor made plenty of sense as it is in our area of influence and we also owed a debt to the people there for the help they gave our soldiers in WW2.

What is the strategy for bringing them home and stopping the terrible waste of life?

[j-mac31]

I always thought the original deployments were based on Howard's desire to be seen as a major world player but then Rudd & Gillard have done nothing to bring the troops home so maybe they're just as bad.

It's all about keeping the americans happy.

I can't see how "we" can ever win in Afghanistan. Who are the enemy? The Taliban. And random bunches of barely organised (relative to military) insurgent groups. Even if we kill them all, more will spring up. There will be no end.

[boris]

I always thought the original deployments were based on Howard's desire to be seen as a major world player but then Rudd & Gillard have done nothing to bring the troops home so maybe they're just as bad.

It's all about keeping the americans happy.

I can't see how "we" can ever win in Afghanistan. Who are the enemy? The Taliban. And random bunches of barely organised (relative to military) insurgent groups. Even if we kill them all, more will spring up. There will be no end.

this.

[BenDoolan]

This waste of time (and life) has just ticked over 10 years.

I've always asked the question - "what is the 'mission' and what is 'success' supposed to look like?"

No one f****** knows.

There is probably more Taliban in Pakistan than there is in Afghanistan. Shall we invade them next?

[pevfan]

One of these days, and I pray to God that I'm wrong here but one day, the Taliban or insurgents or Al Kaeda, Rogues, or just a plain nutter acting alone..call them what you want are/is going to say...Stuff you Australia...You invade our lands and attack and kill our people (including no doubt total innocents which I'm certain we hear very little if anything about, whether by so called friendly fire or whatever) You attack us... then we'll attack you in YOUR homeland and bombs will start going off in subways, planes or power stations etc, water supplies contaminated...the mind boggles at the thought of what damage they could so easily do...You've only got to look at the affect a major power outage has or floods or a bushfire or just plain old industrial action like we;ve just seen at Qantas(only this time the militants were senior management) to see how easily life can be turned into chaos. So I tell you, any sort of 9/11 type attack on our own soil and that sort of chaos would absolutely pale into insignificance, the fear that would grip this country ...Honestly, I don't think any of us could even imagine it.... Just think about it people.Think very carefully about the ordinary every day things we and our loved ones do and take for granted, think about how all that would change after such an attack... catching a train in the underground or flight to Sydney or even taking a drink of tap water FFS. If you're old enough to remember the dark days of WW2 with the Japs breathing down our necks or even if you've only just read about it or studied those times, you might just get some idea of what I'm talking about...read about the Brisbane line and how we were gearing up to just let the Japs take over all that part of Oz above that line even before they had attacked us...such was the fear that gripped ths nation. I tell you, apart from some of the more senior Darwin'ites, Townsville too and even some of the older Sydney siders, with the mini subs that attacked there, the people of this country have never known what war and conflict or terror strikes on our own soil would be like so I say again ...WE WOULD ABSOLUTELY SH***T OURSELVES STUPID.and IMHO, we Australians live in a fools paradise in this country and have done for many, many years .Yet to hear all the griping and carping that we carry on with you'd think, and I'm sure a lot of overseas people DO think that we must be living in a third world country..

As I said, hope to God I'm wrong but I'm a very firm believer in what goes around eventually also comes around.

[Royza]

This waste of time (and life) has just ticked over 10 years.

I've always asked the question - "what is the 'mission' and what is 'success' supposed to look like?"

No one f****** knows.

There is probably more Taliban in Pakistan than there is in Afghanistan. Shall we invade them next?

Success is all about the money. Lots of defense contracts at stake, oil up for grabs, etc.. In the process, destabilise a country & get a good vantage point on their neighbours.

If c**** weren't greedy bastards & could get along, imagine what we could do with all this money: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... penditures

[little_ripper]

One of these days, and I pray to God that I'm wrong here but one day, the Taliban or insurgents or Al Kaeda, Rogues, or just a plain nutter acting alone..call them what you want are/is going to say...Stuff you Australia...You invade our lands and attack and kill our people (including no doubt total innocents which I'm certain we hear very little if anything about, whether by so called friendly fire or whatever) You attack us... then we'll attack you in YOUR homeland and bombs will start going off in subways, planes or power stations etc, water supplies contaminated...the mind boggles at the thought of what damage they could so easily do...You've only got to look at the affect a major power outage has or floods or a bushfire or just plain old industrial action like we;ve just seen at Qantas(only this time the militants were senior management) to see how easily life can be turned into chaos. So I tell you, any sort of 9/11 type attack on our own soil and that sort of chaos would absolutely pale into insignificance, the fear that would grip this country ...Honestly, I don't think any of us could even imagine it.... Just think about it people.Think very carefully about the ordinary every day things we and our loved ones do and take for granted, think about how all that would change after such an attack... catching a train in the underground or flight to Sydney or even taking a drink of tap water FFS. If you're old enough to remember the dark days of WW2 with the Japs breathing down our necks or even if you've only just read about it or studied those times, you might just get some idea of what I'm talking about...read about the Brisbane line and how we were gearing up to just let the Japs take over all that part of Oz above that line even before they had attacked us...such was the fear that gripped ths nation. I tell you, apart from some of the more senior Darwin'ites, Townsville too and even some of the older Sydney siders, with the mini subs that attacked there, the people of this country have never known what war and conflict or terror strikes on our own soil would be like so I say again ...WE WOULD ABSOLUTELY SH***T OURSELVES STUPID.and IMHO, we Australians live in a fools paradise in this country and have done for many, many years .Yet to hear all the griping and carping that we carry on with you'd think, and I'm sure a lot of overseas people DO think that we must be living in a third world country..

As I said, hope to God I'm wrong but I'm a very firm believer in what goes around eventually also comes around.

With those sort of worries, you better get that tin foil hat out and stock the underground bunker now with bottled water and baked beans just in case.

Australia has had to deal terrorist attacks before. You forgotten Port Arthur? that was a nutter. Don't you remember following the events of that live in this country as it happened?

Australia is not a fools paradise, people here are generally well educated with high completion rates in school, which include war laden history lessons.

If you want to look at the effect of fear from the last decade of terror, its incredible on Australian society. Just take a step back and look.

* at the thousands of CCTV cameras in our cities
* at the changes to our laws allowing police more and more power to work on suspicion rather than evidence.
* regular health and safety drills, public service announcements by our government
* weekly opinions/stories in popular media - these are geared to what sells(hysteria/fear etc) and what pleases advertisers nothing more.

I really do not know if joining the US fight was in Australia's best interest. Initially groups of extremists picked a fight with the US - not us, the US replied by picking a fight with whatever country harboured them. Once we said we'd join the yanks, then heck we got pulled into the same mess.(eg the Bali attacks). In other words our participation just gave reasons for extremists to target us. You can't fight private terrorist acts with war(state funded terrorism). Just think about the motivations of the people involved.

IMO they also always knew Afghanistan as a war was never going to pay for itself, so they threw in a new fight with Iraq(oil) for good measure.(as once the war machine is up and going may as make the 'best' of it). The excuse of evil dictators, lack of democracy, humans rights abuses doesn't wash with me because if that was the case we'd be fighting china/north korea/half of africa etc. its purely economic. soldiers are just pawns.

[filthy2]

soldiers are just pawns =D>

As they have always been. Whe you meet them in the flesh, having a beer and sharing mega laughs....it really hits home the next morning when you hear 3 of their comrades are dead. It could have been those guys I was thoroughly enjoying the company of the night before. That ANA c..t opened within 20m of our blokes with a 200 round + 7.62mm machine gun. It would cut them in two.

Remember that Frankie goes to Hollywood Film Clip of "When 2 tribes go to War"? It had Ronny Raygun and Breznev punching on in the ring as a solution to a War. How apt.