I expected some tough guys with potty mouths but I was pretty shocked by the rude behavior and seeming disregard for human life exhibited by the majority of the soldiers portrayed in this special. Xenophobic, homophobic, racist, sexist, bullying and crude...

Are the really like this? If so, how can any of us be asked to "support" them? I wouldn't even want to be in the same room with most of these guys.

"War: first, one hopes to win; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost."

By themselves darling3, most are good men. Put in harms way where there is doubt in their minds, they behave in this manner to get by, a day at a time. Judge them kindly.

"Weary war with the bated breath, Skeleton boy against skeleton death."

No, darling, they are not. As the wife of an Army Reservist who served one tour in Iraq already and is preparing for his second, I can tell you that they are not.

Are there some like that? Sure. But the military builds comradeship into their troops because the troops need to be cohesive.

Couple of anecdotes (culled from stories my husband was told by fellow soldiers or that he witnessed himself or just from the news):

1. In Vietnam: there was a white guy who was very racist against blacks. There was a black man in his platoon. In a fire fight, the white guy took a bullet and saved the black man's life. In war, they are all brothers. If he were really THAT racist, he would have never died for his brother soldier.

2. In my husband's Basic Training: Black Drill Sgt. giving "diversity" lesson and I paraphrase: I was married to a black girl and I was married to a white girl. They all pink on the inside.

That one was a little crude, but it really hits home doesn't it? Makes you think.

3. Pictures and video of my husband and his team (Civil Affairs) unit, doing things for the kids in Kirkuk. They would hand out candy and toys and give hugs to these kids. Many of these soldiers have children at home and see their children in the eyes of the Iraqi children.

4. A troop of soldiers made successful efforts to help out an Iraqi child they noticed was blue all the time. I can't remember if it was a boy or a girl, but they got that child a trip to the U.S. in order to save his/her life by getting an operation here; it was a bad heart. Does that sound hateful, bigoted, xenophobic to you?

Do not go by this one show or any one movie. Think about who made the show or movie first and get to know some soldiers before making a final judgment.

Darling - I don't think the troops portrayed in Gen. Kill are as bad as you are making them out to be. It seems that you are picking out one or two individuals on the show and painting all the characters with the same broad brush. I think for the most part the portrayal in the show is pretty spot-on from the soldiers I know personally.

Think about it this way - is the protrayal all that different from how men in America act in general? In particular a bunch of men together for an extended period of time with minimal female presence. Pciture a bunch of guys in a sports bar watching football, or on a hunting/camping trip. The language in those situations will often be just as "Xenophobic, homophobic, racist, sexist, bullying and crude."

That doesn't mean that the men really feel this way or that they have these feelings all the time - just that a bunch of men around other men tend to be crude. The stress of the situations depicted on GKsimply exacerbate this behavior even moreso.

My first response to your post was to laugh out loud, and say to myself, "of course we're like this." I wouldn't want to spend time in the desert with any other sort of people.

I won't try to defend my fellow soldiers. It's unnecessary. I don't really know how to respond to your last two sentences, though. I've never asked you to support me. I don't particularly want your support, unless you run a business which provides a useful service. I enjoy doing my job, and having as much regard for non-American life as I can afford to have, while you go about doing yours.

In addition, whoever is asking you to "support the troops" doesn't care if you like them. We're not like the hometown ballclub. "Oh I think I'll root for the visitors this time." We're the goddamn U.S. military, and we do what we're told to do by the U.S. government. And we're filled with immature, uneducated, insensitive, all-around assholes. I guess those are the kind of people who can't get better jobs. Weird. In any case, we're pretty good at what we do, whether you like us as individuals or not. I'll leave it to you to make the important decision as to the relative importance of what we do to your life and the nation. And even if you don't want to be in the same room with me, I'll still stand ready during the night to do violence on your behalf.

In the meantime, read some Heinlein, namely Starship Troopers. He does a better job at exploring the mind of the soldier than anyone.