I have been to other countries and I can relate. Lebanon stunk like rotting corpses and I even saw dead animals floating in the waterway by the airport. I know that most of my 'First Impressions' of other countries were due to urban polluted harbor cities and ports of call but those impressions stick in your craw.
The cleanest cities and ports outside the USA were in Norway and Spain.
England smelled old
Italy smelled briney
Greece smelled like ass
Turkey smelled like rotten fruit
Morrocco smelled like industrial sludge
I had the opportunity to travel away from a few of these ports to the inner country and the smells often lessened in pungentcy but they never really subsided all the way.
Y...

I have been to other countries and I can relate. Lebanon stunk like rotting corpses and I even saw dead animals floating in the waterway by the airport. I know that most of my 'First Impressions' of other countries were due to urban polluted harbor cities and ports of call but those impressions stick in your craw.
The cleanest cities and ports outside the USA were in Norway and Spain.
England smelled old
Italy smelled briney
Greece smelled like ass
Turkey smelled like rotten fruit
Morrocco smelled like industrial sludge
I had the opportunity to travel away from a few of these ports to the inner country and the smells often lessened in pungentcy but they never really subsided all the way.
You can smell the cusine on the body odor of the people. The hygene habits of some countries are startlingly gross and the hotter the environment the worse the stench.
Probably why Norway smelled so clean is because of the environment, not the living conditions.

I particularly liked this from the source:

But the boys seem to be quick learners. Chances are one day they
— the sons of the Pashtun society that holds hospitality and
revenge as prized and equal values — will understand what the
foreign soldiers said to them and maybe they won't see the
joke.

Marcus Luttrell, former Navy SEAL, owes his life to that Pashtun society's values. He too acknowleged the squalor and meager resources in the tribal mountain villages where goats and roosters share the family shack, but he also immediately recognized honor and commitment to tradition. Instead he embraced the small herd of curious children, and they all laughed teaching him Islamic p...

I particularly liked this from the source:

But the boys seem to be quick learners. Chances are one day they
— the sons of the Pashtun society that holds hospitality and
revenge as prized and equal values — will understand what the
foreign soldiers said to them and maybe they won't see the
joke.

Marcus Luttrell, former Navy SEAL, owes his life to that Pashtun society's values. He too acknowleged the squalor and meager resources in the tribal mountain villages where goats and roosters share the family shack, but he also immediately recognized honor and commitment to tradition. Instead he embraced the small herd of curious children, and they all laughed teaching him Islamic prayers while repeating his name...and he laughed with them.
Those "jokes" on video wouldn't be funny applied to enemies, much less those in the middle.

abailart34
Article claims troops are 'culturally unaware' and don't know what they are fighting for. Surely that can't be right. Why would a human being travel to a place of which they know nothing prepared to kill foreigners for a cause of which they are ignorant?

They sent 19 year old kids to Vietnam. Told them nothing about the people there, other then they were either VC or Gooks. You learned on your own what you wanted to think about these people. Some only see an enemy. Because that makes their ugly job that much easier. But there were others that questioned what they were doing.

I was one who questioned. And I saw them for who they really were. Poor working farmers with families.
W...

abailart34
Article claims troops are 'culturally unaware' and don't know what they are fighting for. Surely that can't be right. Why would a human being travel to a place of which they know nothing prepared to kill foreigners for a cause of which they are ignorant?

They sent 19 year old kids to Vietnam. Told them nothing about the people there, other then they were either VC or Gooks. You learned on your own what you wanted to think about these people. Some only see an enemy. Because that makes their ugly job that much easier. But there were others that questioned what they were doing.

I was one who questioned. And I saw them for who they really were. Poor working farmers with families.
Working 7 days a weak just to survive. Trapped in a war that they did not ask for. All they wanted was to live a simple life. But people with guns from one side or the other, were making that life Hell. That is what war is. Stupid people with guns , making life hard for the common person.

When I saw the common people of Vietnam. I saw the very old woman as my grandmother. The very old man as my grandfather. The woman was my mother. The man my father. The kids my brothers and sisters. The only difference I saw, was their harsh living, made harder because of stupid people with guns. And I couldn't help them. Because I was just as trapped as them.