WARNING: Probably not work-safe language but no violence.
What you're about to watch is at best frustrating and at worst tragic. It is a US soldier taking out his frustrations with the Middle East: indirection, multiple loyalties, and a reluctance to fight for a foreign aggressor. It is more or less what a lot of us said was going to happen before the illegal invasion of Iraq, so it's not a surprise. But that sargeant doesn't know it and it's driving him crazy. It ain't gonna do you much good, either. (Via Thomas at newsrack)
This is not the only model, of course. Thomas Ricks at Foreign Policy points to a completely different way of motivating troops.
The problem is, of course, that there's a lot more of the first than there is of the second. US troops' frustration level is no doubt extremely high, as the first vid shows, but they are in an impossible situation, clearing the same roads, the same areas, every single day, fighting the same insurgents, some of whom probably were standing in front of him. It is a No-Win Situation of the deadliest.
The answer is obvious. We never should have been there in the first place. It's way past time to get out.
A Not Insignificant Bit of Trivia: The top vid has been on YouTube, Thomas says, since January. Are you wondering why you haven't seen it before now?
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