Redditor CallMeBicBoi wanted to know who would be willing to go to war.
They asked:
"As a civilian, would you be willing to take up arms and potentially die to protect your country? Why or why not?"
I would not head to war. Mostly because I'd be useless. I faint at a pinprick of blood. So...
Coming for us all...
Greeting Us Army GIF by GoArmyGiphy"Once the invading army starts killing civilians, I'll feel like I have no choice. They're coming after me and my family."
carsoncanArtsome
A Direct Hit
"If my country/state was under direct occupation, yes. I am willing to protect my community, family and country. If there was a draft for a war we have no business being in, no. I don't consider protecting America's capitalist interests on foreign soil important."
FR_0S_TY
Without Hesitation!
"I live in Canada. My country hasn't been invaded since we had a little scuffle with our downstairs neighbours in 1812. The idea of going to war to protect my country is an abstract, something that could theoretically happen but isn't an imminent threat. Compare that to Ukraine. It isn't an abstract concept to them."
"I'm sure many are fighting for a sense of nationalism and a desire to protect their country, but how many more are fighting because their families are being threatened? Would I go to war out of a sense of patriotic duty? No, I lack the sort of nationalistic pride that that requires. Would I go to war if that's what I had to do to keep my children safe? Without hesitation."
ThievingRock
The Helpers
"I’d probably just care for the wounded. Equally as important but I don’t want to kill anyone."
CaptainPugwash75
"This should be the top comment. Help is most frequently found through a warm hand and heart. Medical expertise is a huge bonus lol. I don't give a f**k about someone shooting at me, but the person who helps to calm a mind during a traumatic event... they have a special place."
well_rounded_mango
Things to do...
"No. I’m a coward. I’ll do anything needed here at home to help but I’d be a gibbering mess and would likely mishandle my weapon. No branch of the military wants a person who is just as likely to shoot their comrades versus the enemy."
Rachel1578
"Dig trenches, fill sandbags, and triage wounded. Hack computers, conduct targeted misinformation... there's plenty you could do to contribute."
WildBilll33t
Nobody wants to be in a war, clearly.
It's good to know there are options besides the battlefield though.
Burn it Up!
burn it season 4 GIF by PowerGiphy"If my friends were directly at risk and we were being invaded, yes. Otherwise if it was just a draft to go overseas and kill poor people? Hell no I'd burn the draft notice."
Dire-Dog
Joe can do...
"Yes. My nation may not be perfect by a long shot, I’ll be one of the first to tell you that; but it is my home, it is where the ones I love call home as well. I’d rather die than have that be taken away. Well it’s not financially possible for some to leave and/or they already have a life that’s been built/established here. Those reasons would make it difficult to leave. Also there’s not much an average Joe can do. We can try to vote the people in that we think could change our country for the better but..."
f**kpepsi2
For Country!
"If it was to 'protect the country.' Not for some CIA game of risk or so giant multinationals make mega profits while the standard of living goes down for the average person. Certainly not so certain commodities can be secured when history has proven it isn't remotely worth it. Warmongers will figure out a narrative to make killing for greed patriotic."
HeyHihoho
Not traveling...
Cbs No GIF by HULUGiphy"I would be willing to protect against an invasion on the continental US, but I won't be sent overseas to play world police."
superchilldad
Pray for Peace
"My country? See this is what I find strange. I find the concept of pride in something I had nothing to do with odd. I was born in Canada, I am Canadian. I'm proud of what Canada represents and the ideals we uphold, but to die for for my 'country' is something I wouldn't subscribe to."
"I'd protect my family, friends, neighbours and anyone else from a threat to their lives or way of life from a threat, internal or external. But what flag flies or where the lines are drawn on the map really mean nothing to me. Let me live my life in peace. Honestly, I think we will never see true peace until we forfeit the idea of countries and governments. Which, unfortunately, I don't think will ever happen."
Silver-Dragonfly3462
War is ugly. And there seems to be no way to fix it. So for now all we do is pray.
And to all soldiers... Thank you for your service.
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Redditor Prestigious_Ad_2322 wanted everyone to share some details of this country's past that we need to be reminded of, so they asked:
"What part of U.S.A. history is easily forgotten?"
My pencil is ready.
Well, my fingers at the keyboard are ready.
I'm here to learn and hit up Wikipedia.
The Great Lakes
"The naval battles on the Great Lakes, piracy on the Great Lakes, and the nazi plot to destroy American aluminum plants during WW2. There was a plot that was failed by the nazis once the soldiers made it to the US. They were dropped off from a submarine off the coast with bombs, guns, and tons of money."
"They were supposed to infiltrate several key locations, such as power plants, damns, bridges, and most importantly a couple of aluminum plants. At the time we produced more aluminum than anyone else in the world and that allowed us to put produce anyone in airplanes by 5:1."
"Anyway, the nazi soldiers fell in love with everything in America and just spent the money acting like average Americans, one of them was caught at the movie theater. It’s a very funny story all together, but lots of people don’t know about it." ~ kudos1007
Casualties
"The Battle of the Wabash in 1791, AKA Little Bighorn on steroids. The Federal Government tried to claim and sell the land of Indians in the Northwest Territory (modern day Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, etc.) to pay off its massive debts. They sent a force of 1000 men to evict the Indians but were met by 1100 warriors of the Northwestern Confederacy. Casualties for the American force was over 97%, about 25% of the entire US Army. Native casualties were about 5%, or 61 casualties in all. It was the worst defeat ever suffered by the US at the hands of Native Americans." ~ Ranger176
An Important Era
"The period between 1790 and 1860." ~ Washpedantic
"Agreed, this period is where a lot of our political and societal norms were established. I had no idea now critical decisions made then impacted the nation. Not to mention the half dozen or so times the nation almost imploded. Heirs of the Founders by H.W. Brands is a great book on the subject." ~ Gregnif
This Little Piggy...
"The Pig War." ~ Ok_Butterscotch1549
"It ended in like around 1860 when the British and US presented their case to the German Empire." ~ JesusHacked
"MyAccountAmerica and Britain asked the German Empire who the islands belonged to, and Germany said America so now they belong to America." ~ NoWorries124
GiphyFascinating.
I remember none of this.
Except maybe the pig war thing.
Though I may be confusing stories.
Devious Plans
"The story of the Cherokees! The U.S. took Cherokee land through essentially rigged treaties, disobeying the Constitution in the process. Note there were many people opposed to this taking of land, but still many more who promoted it." ~ The--Morning--Star
GiphyAloha
"That Hawaii was a recognized sovereign country, the Queen having been received by Queen Victoria of England in 1887. In support of the Dole Corporation and other businessmen, a contingent of US Marines staged a coup and overthrew the Hawaiian government. Queen Liliuokalani submitted peacefully, expecting the US President wouldn't stand for such imperialist behavior. Grover Cleveland did nothing, and his successor annexed Hawaii in 1898." ~ bdbr
"ORGANIZE!!"
"The Battle of Blair Mountain. Strikers and labor organizers in the coal mining industry were attacked by lawmen and strike breakers and eventually the West Virginia National Guard was ordered in to break the strike. This is the story I mention when people say we don't need unions. Real people gave their lives for the right to organize." ~ abe_the_babe_
These Low Effort Jobs Have Surprisingly High Salaries | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Have you ever worked one of those jobs that paid you to kinda sit there? If you have, you know the joy that comes with watching the entirety of Breaking Bad ...Welcome Everyone
"Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and English indentured servitude in the mid 1700s while US was still the colonies and then early 1900s when there was a lot of immigration from Ireland and Italy through Ellis Island. Still don’t understand how people were so mean to them back then when a lot of the citizens at the time were descendants of immigrants. Guess that still stands today." ~ tgmarie137
It All Repeats
"Before the Civil War where northern congressmen were often subject to emotional abuse, death threats, duels and assassinations so that they would not legally question slavery." ~ Vidhara
GiphyThe Founder
"The inventor of solid rocket fuel, Jack Parsons, was a devoted follower Aliester Crowley and tried to usher the Antichrist into being with the help of his best buddy, L. Ron Hubbard. Yes, the founder of Scientology. No, I’m not making this up."
"https://nypost.com/2018/06/19/this-sex-crazed-cultist-was-the-father-of-modern-rocketry/amp/"
"Here’s an over view. It’s public record that he took out ads in newspapers calling for bohemians, occultists, and free thinkers to come party at his house. He also left behind detailed journals pertaining to his magical rituals. I also left out that Hubbard essentially ruined his life, stealing his money, his girlfriend, and ruining his already dubious reputation. Parsons died under odd circumstances involving nitroglycerin." ~ CityofCandles
In Philly...
"In 1985 the Philly Police Dept. dropped a bomb on a residential neighborhood murdering 11 American civilians who lived there. Sixty one homes were destroyed. The fire department let it burn. Google the “MOVE bombing." ~ butchstache
CRUEL
"Sharecropping, Carpetbagging...this was a willfully CRUEL time that KEPT African-Americans disenfranchised that NO ONE mentions. In some ways (very few, I'll stress because slavery was obviously horrific) it was WORSE than slavery because during this time, the landowners had no real incentive to keep their indentured 'sharecropper' workers healthy or alive- when they died, they were just replaced and were effectively 'enslaved' by debt."
"THAT'S when people discovered that invisible chains were cheaper that iron ones. This was also the time of the 'robber barons' like Carnegie who ran RAMPANT expanding their wealth pretty much in the same proportion that billionaires are doing today during the Pandemic." ~ PhoenixNamor
Killer...
"That Christopher Columbus was an idiotic mass murderer who thought the world was pear shaped and did nothing but go from island to island slaughtering the native inhabitants." ~ urukslayer13
spanish day GIFGiphyRed Dead
"Coal Wars. Series of conflicts between miners and the corporations that owned the mines in Appalachia and some in Colorado culminating in 1921. Miners wanted things like safety regulations, a union, and to be paid with US currency so the coal companies hired essentially a small army ran by Baldwin-Felt. Think the Pinkertons from Red Dead. Instead of giving up the miners armed themselves and made fortified locations in the mountains and armed conflict started."
"Ended when the coal companies asked the government for help so the US army started bombing the miners and the towns the miners families lived in. Also just throwing in that the miners didn’t fortify the towns just the army making a point I guess." ~ WeavBOS
Must Know
"Tulsa massacre. I never learned about it until I was in my late 20s. Such a huge and disgusting part of our history and it is almost never taught." ~ GonnAvomit
"This one I think has finally become common knowledge, at least on Reddit, since they made a show about it and it always comes up in these topics. AP history taught it to me in HS but all my friends in the general history classes never learned it." ~ uss_salmon
"Seven Years War"
"The french and Indian war. What even is that?" ~ NoAlternative2913
"A smaller part of the larger 'Seven Years War' which was a global war between Britain and France. The 'French and Indian War' was the British and French using their North American colonies, with both sides also drawing help from various Native American tribes. It was basically a huge, costly war over territory." ~ azizinator25
Forgotten
"Almost all of USA history is forgotten. Burning down stamp distributors houses in a form of violent protest, Whiskey Rebellions, Barbary Coast Wars, that time we thought we could sit out the Napoleonic Wars until the British started snatching up our sailors and the Canadians burned down the White House."
"When we fought Mexico, when we fought Spain, that time William Walker tried to conquer Nicaragua with an army of mercenaries and got his ass thumped after a month or so." ~ Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Genocide
"The genocide of Native Americans followed by all the interventions in Central and South America for the sake of corporations. America's border/illegal immigration problems were created by those interventions and propping up right wing dictators." ~ Viker2000
'Let me tell you a story…'
"I highly recommend listening to History That Doesn’t Suck. It is a podcast by Professor Greg Jackson. He is a professor at a university in Utah and does a phenomenal job of delivering a well researched, accurate telling of American history in the form of stories. His catch phrase at the beginning of every episode is 'Let me tell you a story…' He does a good job of keeping it fair and balanced. Lots of focus on the nuances of controversial figures." ~ wtn06
We have so much to relearn.
And unlearn and learn again.
We need to get studying.
Let's not keep repeating mistakes.
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