536

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons...

-- Wilfred Owen

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] neanderthal@lemmy.world 107 points 1 year ago

Alan Turing, a mathematician and gay man, is right up there with Oppenheimer, Churchill, Macarthur, and Stalin in level of importance towards the allied victory in WW2.

I'm a veteran. A lot of really good troops in technical fields tended to not serve all that long due to better quality of life outside of the military. An ace technical troop is worth their weight in gold.

Various types of mechanics and technicians, logisticians, network admins, equipment operators, pilots, various engineers, and other technical troops are the real power of the US military. Most of those are more technical than physical.

It isn't brawn that keeps around 100 USN ships deployed around the world at any given time. It isn't brawn that gives the USAF a 48 hour turn around time for operating anywhere in the world. It isn't brawn that keeps large ground forces supplied at bases all around the world. It is education, brains, and training.

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

I agree with the sentiment here, but as a history fan I have to challenge MacArthur's place on that list.

He's well known for his personality, speeches and statements, not his performance on the battlefield, which resulted in the needless deaths of thousands of American servicemen simply following his unwise orders. MacArthur was a brilliant politician but a mediocre general, and should be remembered as such.

If you want to reach for an American WW2 general worth his stars, can go with Patton or Eisenhower. They did well, even with the benefit of hindsight. We also had a slew of amazing admirals around about that time. They weren't all good of course, but we had enough.

[-] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

General Ridgeway is the one people need to remember over MacArthur.

[-] Drunemeton@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I remember when Putin’s War started. Over on that other site someone commented that one of the things that’ll make or break the war for Ukraine is:

Logistics!

To paraphrase, “The U.S. is many things but they’re inarguably the masters of logistics. They can get anything, anywhere, across the globe in a shockingly short amount of time. If they back Ukraine, Russia’s in a whole world of hurt.”

this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
536 points (95.7% liked)

politics

19148 readers
2868 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS