@Arrogance_0024 Valuing human life is a central western value, and one of the things that differentiates western liberal values from literally everything else in history.
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Tom Aiello
19.9K posts
The "leave no man behind" doctrine is actually a strategic weakness disguised as a virtue.
Name one other military on earth that destroys 6 aircraft and fights a ground battle inside a sovereign nation to recover one pilot.
You can't. Because no other military confuses tactical sentimentality with strategic logic.
Soldiers serve the mission. The mission doesn't serve the soldier.
The US has now established that Iran can shoot down an F-15, then watch America spend $300M and expose Delta Force trying to prove it didn't happen.
That's not military doctrine. That's politics with weapons.
A military that cannot accept the risk of loss cannot win wars. The US hasn't won one since 1945.
Daniel Foubert 🇵🇱🇫🇷@Arrogance_0024
Lose all this to rescue 1 pilot and call it your greatest military success of all time.
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America, please don’t listen to the new narrative that we wasted so much equipment to save one life.
There’s a reason recruiting is through the roof.
And it’s because we don’t leave your sons and daughters behind enemy lines because it’s financially convenient.
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@DenialLaw I would be interested in seeing it if you want to DM me the link. Thanks!
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@SnakeRiverBASE I actually have been working on an admissions calculator that shows this. Can share link
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Let’s say this is true.
It’s not.
But let’s say it is. You are talking about 6 schools. What if you’re from Nevada, or Idaho, or Alabama
Tom Aiello@SnakeRiverBASE
@marcportermagee Most flagship public universities have top scholarship cohorts with achievement and IQ levels _above_ the Ivies. Morehead-Cain, Foundation Fellowship, Jefferson Scholars, Regents' Scholarship--all of these provide a better group of peers than attending an overpriced Ivy.
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@DenialLaw Fortunately, my daughter completed her A.A. in her junior year of high school, so she has 2+ years of all As from that on her college transcript.
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Let me give you advice I wish I had 3 years ago as someone with a 177.
NO A+. By the time your daughter graduates every t14 law school will be out of reach through no fault of her own. UVA's median is 3.99 right now.
Theres an easy way around this. She signs up for community college courses, as many as she can stomach and loads up on easy A+s.
That on its own will be the difference maker between an A from Yale or a waitlist at USC law.
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@DenialLaw The benefit to the student is that they get a large amount of focused resources, because the flagship can divert a relatively large amount of resources to them because of its size.
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@SnakeRiverBASE Schwarzmann/Knight hennesey.
Not bad. Youve convinced me. Up a tier! So the honors college at UGA is like going to nyu or BC or USC.
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@DenialLaw Basically, the honors college at most major flagship publics attempts to create a hometown version of a lower tier ivy+ cohort. The top scholarship cohorts exceeds the average student at the top Ivy League schools (but again, that's 20-25 students per year).
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@DenialLaw No. The Foundation Fellowship (20-25 students per year) is _better_ than going to Yale or Harvard.
I am not making any argument about the Honors college in general relative to other schools. Although the SAT numbers do favor the Honors College in that scenario.
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@DenialLaw The cohorts get extra support, but can take any course they want at the university. Which means they are graded against the average student at the university. So no, I would say that (aside from Ivy grade inflation) it's much easier to stand out if you are one of these kids.
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@SnakeRiverBASE I will read into this. Is it harder to do well in these cohorts? If it is that is bad! You want an A+ factory.
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@DenialLaw But if you'd like I can send you my address via PM for delivery of that tactical nuclear weapon. ; )
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@SnakeRiverBASE im a college counselor. if someone did this, I WOULD EXECUTE THEM VIA TACTICAL NUKE
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@DenialLaw You are better off to be a UVA Jefferson Scholar (one example) than to be an average student at Columbia (one example).
Better undergraduate experiences.
Measurably better outcomes in postgraduate scholarships and graduate school admissions.
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@SnakeRiverBASE i refuse to believe that columbia is worse than the honors college of Ualabama.
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@DenialLaw Alabama also has a similar state flagship scholarship program:
rrsp.ua.edu
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@DenialLaw I admit that it seems like your hypothetical (Idaho, Nevada, Alabama) seems like a planted question, given my actual personal situation.
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@DenialLaw My daughter grew up in Idaho, and turned down Yale and Chicago to take one of the listed scholarships. Her current roommate (also on the same scholarship program) grew up in Nevada.
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@DenialLaw For another data point, one of my peers as a (1990s) Regents' Scholar grew up in Tennessee.
The recruitment and reach of those programs, like that of the Ivies, is national (and sometimes international).
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@CyborgPeds > The amount of freedom to act I had as a 26 year old aircraft commander has no parallel in the civilian world that I know of.
26 year old business owner.
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My small observation is that in the US military, autonomy and responsibility are pushed WAY down the chain of command. This results in an unequalled ability to adapt and improvise. The amount of freedom to act I had as a 26 year old aircraft commander has no parallel in the civilian world that I know of.
wretchardthecat@wretchardthecat
The most interesting aspect of the weapons officer rescue in Iran was CENTCOM's ability to use so many disparate personnel and capabilities in such a rapid and integrated way. They were making it up as they went along with complex tools and time critical sequences. There is a saying that bureaucracies, including militaries, are like jukeboxes. They have routines and can only play from the list. In situations like this there is no relevant record in the jukebox. You have to improvise the new tune from fragments of songs. There were so many ways to get this wrong and only a few ways to walk away with no KIA. A lot of the news focus is naturally on the machines, because that is what you can see. But someone told me years ago that air forces are not made out of planes. They are made up of people, and that is what we glimpsed here.
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I’m noticing a lot of foreigners who seem to not understand why we’d risk hundreds of lives, spend millions of dollars, and sacrifice several aircraft to rescue one guy. And the reason they don’t understand is also the reason people can’t be made American by a piece of paper.
Daniel Foubert 🇵🇱🇫🇷@Arrogance_0024
Lose all this to rescue 1 pilot and call it your greatest military success of all time.
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