[Loser]

Originally posted by President Elect Shang:
what more would you have me do?

Nothing more, I felt I made it clear that was settled in a manner of which I think well.

Originally posted by President Elect Shang:
It shocks and amazes me that if a “female friend” is jaded by a soldier it is a crime, but if an employee of lets say Microsoft does the same thing, hay that’s all good. I mean after all when she dated the employee it was her free choice, but she had to have been coerced into dating the soldier right? Can anyone say bigotry, or did you think that only applied when used in a different context?

First of all I will admit to the accusation of bigotry. It is only appropriate, as I will not rescind the things I have said and the word fits.

Second, my carefully worded statement did not indicate that the fault lies solely with the GI. It may be as much a problem with the kind of girl that falls for the soldier. But on an emotional level who do you expect me to side with, beyond reason, led by my 'gut': the young lady I call a friend or have watched grow up, or the young man I don't know who has all the faults you might expect for a young man in the GI's situation? (Being away from everything you are familiar with and caught up in a new and different culture will change a person, and leave a few marks.) The conclusion is natural.

The other reason I worry about these relationships when I see them start is how consistently they end very, very poorly. I've deleted a paragraph here where I recounted anecdotes, it wasn't going to accomplish much. On an additionally note though, if its a local boy I can 'have a talk' with him. This isn't really possible with a GI, not even when taken more literally. The GI can retreat into military life and there's nothing I can do about the conflict.

I do know about the CO approach to civilian-vs.-GI problem solving. I have used this method to collect on debts, 'banish' problematic party regulars, and in one very special case I even used it to make a married fellow in the Army leave my girlfriend alone. Sometimes girls have trouble being final with their 'no', or maybe she just didn't want to be final, I don't know. Either way and whatever happened she never saw him again and had no idea what happened. So yes, this is a useful way of dealing with certain situations after they have happened.

And I know about the unmatched redemption from circumstances the military offers its recruits. I've lived with military presence all my life and I know why many GIs are the way they are. This is no reason for me to be any less careful. I have some good ideas why the decision making process works the way it does. This is no reason for me to find any less amusement at its expense. That's just what it is like for a civilian living in a military town, it is the nature of the situation.

And if there is anything in the matters discussed here that our military is doing wrong I don't have any delusions that I could do it better. I'm not delivering serious criticisms. I was defending a joke against a blanket sanction. Later I was trying to defend the fact that decisions made by those in the upper echelons of the military are worthy of some amount of mockery. It looks like one of my 'I have authority in this subject' points went a bit astray. I am sorry about that, I suppose, this thread hardly needs another derail.

Atrocities, I am glad we can disagree amiably enough.

Having refreshed once more before posting I see your latest, Shang. That's a bit over the line. I do regret if I have contributed to whatever got you that worked up. But here I am, putting-up the post I wrote before I read that Last bit of rhetoric anyway