Posted on 01/27/2006 7:57:56 AM PST by wagglebee
'beatings with stools' Wouldn't it be mushy ?
Wrong, and wrong.
In the book "A Mighty Fortress" are several stories about how glad the Europeans were that we helped in WWII. It brought tears to my eyes many different times. Those boys of the 1940's risked their lives, gave their lives, and often came back disabled for life. I believe the typical European still realizes this, but the propaganda machine (which Kerry, Fat Teddy, and Lady Macbeth feed) makes it seem otherwise.
Every German in WWII wanted to be captured by Americans, not by Russians.
My first weekend in the 82nd the group welcoming committee came by to initiate all the new cherries into the airborne way of life. When they got to my room the door was locked so they yelled to my roommate to send the cherry out. I looked at him while he thought for a second before saying I was out for the night, I could have kissed him. My experience has been that these initiations rapidly spiral out of control when alcohol is involved. When I was stationed at Ft. Knox a soldier was beaten so bad his spleen was removed and he almost died.
FYI Ping.
Reminds me of Vanya, a Christian soldier who was tortured to death:
http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2003/07/daily-07-16-2003.shtml
Indeed, hazing is hardly peculiar to the Russian Army. In the U.S., hazing deaths of college students are not all that uncommon. High school sports teams, and boarding schools are also hotbeds of hazing. And there remains a hazing culture at our military academies.
It's mostly (though not exclusively) a male phenomenon, and as you pointed out, alcohol is nearly always involved in the most serious hazing. IMO we should have a zero-tolerance policy for hazing, and ruthless enforcement. The mentality needs to be stamped out. I think all states have laws against it, but enforcement is very lax -- unless somebody actually gets killed, the perps rarely get any punishment that will have a lasting impact on their lives. When it happens in high schools or colleges, an adult teacher or coach who knew or should have known it was going on, generally gets fired, and the perps get "counselling", and maybe a semester's suspension -- even when the acts they committed legally constitute criminal aggravated assault and kidnapping in the real world.
A lot of cases of long term, severe child abuse bear many of the hallmarks of hazing, and I wonder how many of the perpetrators were involved in groups that practiced hazing before they became parents.
See Napoleon and Hitler examples.
This is a must read book, by Myrna Grant.
A guy I know was in the Russian Army back in the 60's, when he has had a few he can be talked into Marching and rifle drills, its amazing how high he can get those legs up, the Nazis couldn't goosestep as well as the Russkies.
This is nothing new. Recruits were also tortured in the Tsar's army.
Sodomy and the Lash - British Navy.
That would be why they have Orthodox services for their soldiers killed? Or how about how we cannot have overt displays of Christianity, unlike there?
Think before you post.
Yes, but there was also rum.
All kidiing aside - hazing happens in all the world's militaries - I am not sure why the human psyche requires hazing but it seems a universal standard.
The best militaries of today tend to have less hazing.
But historians will tell you just a 100 years ago many Western military experts thought that the more hazing and brutal the training the better the soldier.
The Prussian army was also known for their brutal hazings.
>That would be why they have Orthodox services for their >soldiers killed? Or how about how we cannot have overt >displays of Christianity, unlike there?
Year, for 75 years their churches where turned in to CP HQs, and all priests killed others turned in to KGB informants.
>Orthodox services
Priests in Russia ride around in 600 Benzes while average folk is making $200 a month..
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