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TOTALLY INVISIBRE

You make a very good point. Between the advent of gunpowder and the development of the rifle, you’ve got a long period where infantry was mostly useful firing volleys in big concentrations. Those long files were already so clumsy and conspicuous that camouflage could have done little for them.

Dressing so as to make troops visible to the Fredericks and the Napoleons on the hilltops, was probably a much more important priority for those in charge of the dress code.

No doubt the red look did backfire against the American insurgents, but the main problem for Britain was that the Americans did everything they could to avoid actually showing up on any battlefields.

The real colonial uniform was the most fashionable outfit of all: absence.

A certain volunteer in what became known as the French and Indian War complained mightily about British couteur, which made soldiers stick out like sore thumbs against opponents who wore buckskins and valued stealth. That was George Washington.

In the next war on this continent, General Nathaniel Greene praised the British uniforms highly. Greene wasn’t fighting for the British.

I am not sure it was much of a mistake.

Once upon a time, uniforms were *meant* to be visible so that soldiers could find their mates. Thus the English red-and-white is slightly French opponents. Perhaps a rethink was in order by the time of the American revolution, but I doubt it — armies are pragmatic about this kind of stuff.

It was more than a century before a big western army decided to switch to desert-shite-green. And that was the British army.

It seems that when you think of the military, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t the troops, but the Pentagon. If that’s the case, you’re not “pro-military” at all. You’re pro-politician.

The US military has been used for the past 150 some-odd years as mercenaries in order to bring “stability/security” to certain strategic geographical regions of the globe so that corporations may have access to cheap minerals/resources and slave labor.

Reading the books and video linked below would be an important first step in understanding the role the US military has played in bringing “stability/security” to the lands of the unwashed.

War is a Racket written by two time Medal of Honor earner Major General Smedely D Butler USMC

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq written by Stephen Kinzer

Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1606408720/theagitator-20/

Why We Fight the video Director: Eugene Jarecki

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_VD0pE37vo

PS I served 1989-1997 in the USN and lived the lies first hand. Which is why I took off my costume and left the show.

OTOH, in the era of the Drone War, I don’t think uniforms (or the lack thereof) make any difference.

Let me break down the point of that image. If one reads the link, one will see that the Army spent 5 billion dollars, in a scandalous waste, developing camouflage uniforms that are actually more visible to the naked eye than non-camouflage uniforms. The new uniforms make our soldiers better targets. If you read the link, you’ll see that this tragedy arose because Army brass decided a uniform that looks “cooler” than the Marine uniform was more important than a uniform that actually protects soldiers.

This post is an attempt to satirize that. I took a piece from a website devoted to high fashion and changed a few words. I threw in the picture because I wanted to show, through an image readily cognizable to informed readers, an example of a uniform that sacrifices the safety of its wearer in favor of fashion value. The image attempts to convey that our army is making a mistake that was made by the first foreign opponent it ever fought.

Does that help?

The government can’t fight war without cannon-fodder.

If the US government is in need of sacrifical lambs have the traitor scum operating the levers of power send their loved ones off to fight in the wars based wholey upon lies.