Fire Away

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  • Posted By: matthew.fumia @ 12/12/2007 2:56:01 PM

    Ummm....this isn't exactly news. Questions surrounding Marshall's research and conclusions were raised years ago.

  • Posted By: mitzip @ 12/12/2007 12:41:34 PM

    I wonder then, why the military essentially invented the predecessors to modern video games in an effort to combat the problem of soldiers not firing when the commanders wanted them too. In an effort to make training as real as possible to sear the conscience into a killing machine. This article wreaks of war propaganda. I love the reasons given to prove their point, "It just may be," concludes Smoler, "that Samuel Lyman Marshall made the whole thing up." and Intellectual sloth". Basically Mr. Thomas is trying to convince us that the historian that was a contemporary of data and topics he wrote about just wanted to be a hero so bad that he put his career, as a professional journalist, on the line and flat out lied in several books all of which was _not_ rebuked by the Military, quite the opposite actually. I knew there was a reason I don't subscribe to any mainstream "news" like Newsweek, I'm glad I get my news from the internet and do my own fact checking. DOWN WITH CANNED NEWS! UP WITH FREEDOM!

    • Posted By: dbarak @ 12/12/2007 2:19:49 PM

      I wonder if Marshall's assertion took into account all the support troops that rarely if ever actually see combat -- supply, communication, administration, maintenance, etc. If he did, then maybe what he wrote is true.

    • Posted By: dbarak @ 12/12/2007 2:18:21 PM

      One thing I didn't pick up from my first read of the article is if Marshall's figures took into account the support troops -- supply, communication, administrative, etc. If he did include those troops, then I can see that only one fourth of the troops would have fired their weapons.

      Now, if he did in fact embellish his personal record, that calls into question the quality of his reporting, but overall, his postulation may be correct in the long run.

  • Posted By: mitzip @ 12/12/2007 12:41:14 PM

    I wonder then, why the military essentially invented the predecessors to modern video games in an effort to combat the problem of soldiers not firing when the commanders wanted them too. In an effort to make training as real as possible to sear the conscience into a killing machine. This article wreaks of war propaganda. I love the reasons given to prove their point, "It just may be," concludes Smoler, "that Samuel Lyman Marshall made the whole thing up." and Intellectual sloth". Basically Mr. Thomas is trying to convince us that the historian that was a contemporary of data and topics he wrote about just wanted to be a hero so bad that he put his career, as a professional journalist, on the line and flat out lied in several books all of which was _not_ rebuked by the Military, quite the opposite actually. I knew there was a reason I don't subscribe to any mainstream "news" like Newsweek, I'm glad I get my news from the internet and do my own fact checking. DOWN WITH CANNED NEWS! UP WITH FREEDOM!

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