What's the first though that comes to mind when you hear these four words

[Squatch]

US, Marine, Soldier, Army

I hypothesize, that within the first 20 responses, somebody will say "Nazi", "Hitler", or "Fascist"

[MH1]

1. We owe them. nt

[Angela Shelley]

2. Poor guys, caught in a trap.

[TransitJohn]

3. They're fucked.

Being used as so much cannon fodder...it's shameful.

[meegbear]

4. military

[nightrider767]

5. Squared away, ready at all times...

Go Navy!

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. The men in my family.

[Jed Dilligan]

7. First to go last to know

Small town boy who got in trouble.

A seriously horrifying history when you get to thinking about it.

Chicks dig 'em.

A few friends of mine who are all batshit crazy, in (mostly) good ways.

:patriot:

[Done]

8. Lower income young adults.

[Subdivisions]

9. My cousin, Kelli. She's part of a bomb detection unit in Baghdad

and I worry constantly about her. Luckily, I still hear from her on windows messenger and email from time to time.

[Echo In Light]

10. Exaltation of "patriotism" and violence. The Pentagon has never once defended the US from anything

All of that ignorant, macho "tough guy" posturing {not masculine, but macho - big difference}, prevalent within the culture, is exploited and used as a vehicle to dupe many average folks into believing that by enlisting {or supporting the system at all} they're doing something "honorable," when in most instances, historically and present, have been emotionally manipulated into killing and being killed for corporate wars...and corporations are private tyrannies.

Saint Vitus, War is our Destiny: "No More War!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O649FdrIKxc

[Mountainman]

18. Never? I don't think so. Japan was planning on attacking the west coast of the US.

Had we not won the battle of Midway in 1942 that may have happened. I don't see how that bit of history fits your model.

[Echo In Light]

23. Since WW2?

QUESTION: If you suppose that there would continue to be a need for self-defense on quite a sophisticated level, I don't see from your description how you would achieve effective control of this system of part-time representative councils at various levels from the bottom up, over an organization as powerful and as necessarily technically sophisticated as, for example, the Pentagon.

CHOMSKY: Well, first, we should be a little clearer about terminology. You refer to the Pentagon, as is usually done, as a defense organization. In 1947, when the National Defense Act was passed, the former War Department -- the American department concerned with war which up to that time was honestly called the War Department -- had its name changed to the Defense Department. I was a student then and didn't think I was very sophisticated, but I knew and everyone else knew that this meant that to whatever extent the American military had been involved in defense in the past -- and partially it had been so -- this was now over. Since it was being called the Defense Department, that meant it was going to be a department of aggression, nothing else.

QUESTION: On the principle of never believe anything until it's officially denied.

CHOMSKY: Right. Sort of on the assumption that Orwell essentially had captured the nature of the modern state. And that's exactly the case. I mean, the Pentagon is in no sense a defense department. It has never defended the United States from anyone. It has only served to conduct aggression. And I think that the American people would be much better off without a Pentagon. They certainly don't need it for defense. Its intervention in international affairs has never been -- well, you know, never is a strong word, but I think you would be hard put to find a case -- certainly it has not been its characteristic pose to support freedom or liberty or to defend people and so on. That's not the role of the massive military organization that is controlled by the Defense Department. Rather, its tasks are two -- both quite anti-social.

The first is to preserve an international system in which what are called American interests -- which primarily means business interests, can flourish. And, secondly, it has an internal economic task. I mean, the Pentagon has been the primary Keynesian mechanism whereby the government intervenes to maintain what is ludicrously called the health of the economy by inducing production, that means production of waste.

http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/19760725.htm

[El Pinko]

11. Bring them home. Now.

NT

[cloudythescribbler]

12. Stop Imperialism NOW -- No War No Warming!

[slackmaster]

13. Navy

[LynnTheDem]

14. BOHICA.

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Someone taken in my the 'system', which falsely claims to be helping people.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Eat the apple and Fuck the Corps

[stillcool]

17. My dad...

he was 'never the same' after the war.

[Ikonoklast]

19. Unwilling tools of the Empire

I want our military home. Now.

[goodgd_yall]

20. War and death

[BoneDaddy]

21. Set up, used, abused and discarded.

[Squatch]

22. You all proved me wrong (sorta)

Go back to the OP, and highlight the area under the four words. You will find my hypothesis:

"I hypothesize, that within the first 20 responses, somebody will say "Nazi", "Hitler", or "Fascist""

Replies 10, 12, and 19 came the closest, but none of them used the words I included in my hypothesis.

This thread was inspired by the first reply in this thread:

Link

[digitalbuddha]

24. Idiots

[trotsky]

25. Exploited and abused by greedy corrupt old men. n/t

[kineneb]

26. cannon fodder for imperalist wars nt.