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@mushi nah, most of the fighters in Vietnam were conscripted.
Friday, 04-Sep-15 23:55:47 UTC from web-
Watching a documentary of the war of Paraguay, and they interviewed a British woman that was living there. Amusingly enough she was absolutely convinced that the British empire had nothing to do at all with it.
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@nerthos it's safe to assume that if there's any major conflict Mexico and southward, that western imperialism had something to do with it
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@rarity any major conflict in the world, really
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@rarity That was... about 140 years ago? It's the one thing I can say my country has done wrong without a shadow of a doubt. Paraguay was the most industrialized country in the continent back then, and had absolutely no foreign debt. The ountry was on the road to becoming an industrial superpower, and as such become the main source of industrial goods for the continent, replacing Europe. Thus, Britain and France funded Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to take Paraguay out. At a point the leader of Paraguay asked for permission to send troops through the Argentinian province of Corrientes, to attack Uruguay, and was denied. They crossed anyway and all three countries declared war. After five years of conflict, the war ended on the grounds that, according to Domingo Sarmiento, president of Argentina back then, "every Paraguayan man above the age of 10 was given death". The industrial centers were destroyed rather than captured too, evidening that the war was funded with explicit orders.
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@nerthos Another thing about that war was that the Brazilian soldiers were fighting for their own personal interests, rather than for a country. Most of the Brazilian force consisted of slaves and the like, and they were tod by the emperor of Brazil that those who fought in the war would be freed and given lands.
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@nerthos no state is without blood on their hands. At least you're not America
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@nerthos now it is a little different, in the WWII they simply told you to go to war (whether or not you were in the military) and if you refused you'd go to jail
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@mushi that's how it was in America up until the end of the Vietnam war
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@rarity at least they changed after it?
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@rarity so, did they chose to at least consprict or did they force them?
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@mushi nope, if you couldn't prove you were unfit for service, you either went overseas or went to jail. It's why so many American youths fled to Canada at the time.
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@rarity in brazil they didnt force you to go if you were married, then people started marring like crazy
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@mushi And, you could only be exempt from going to Vietnam if you were going to a very expensive College. So, there was a huge disparity of people going to Vietnam. Namely, the poor went to fight.
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@mushi i wonder f i can do it if they manage to start another big war
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@metaltao surprise class consciousness from the Metal
MetalTao likes this. -
@metaltao here being at a federal college excuses you in case they call you. and that is pretty much 50% of the reason why i became a chemist.
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@rarity Thank you, thank Hank Green for that tid bit.
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@rarity Also, Black Sabbath
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@mushi Over here a common method to avoid conscription was inserting a chili pepper up the butt, causing a severe irritation that'd be seen by the doctors as hemorroids an the person would be marked unfit for service.
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@nerthos that's wild
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@mushi That similarity. Can't comment on much more.
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@rarity Well, it hurt like crazy for a few days, but then it'd go away on it's own with no lasting effects, and you'd be able to stay home.
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@nerthos I really want to see a Catch-22 movie where instead of going through a ton of mind games and nonlinear story... He just shoves a pepper up his RoseBud.
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@nerthos when the people are shoving things in their asses to avoid fighting in your wars, that should be a telling sign
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@rarity Not as weird as here, you just claim you are gay and they won;t even let you near a tank.
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@metaltao That used to work too until they started allowing gays in the service.
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@nerthos Damn, that is good!
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@metaltao that's not the case anymore though. If you're trans, though, that's a nono for the US of A
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@rarity Oh? WELL! THIS IS GOOD NEWS FOR ME!
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@rarity Well, there were no wars at the time. People just didn't want to have a few years of military service doing annoying stuff and generally having to put up with rough training.
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@nerthos I guess that's worth a buttpepper too
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