Is todays war really this boring?

Also, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry the Soviet Union never invaded western Europe. I'm sure you would have enjoyed the resulting HBO mini-series.

this show is almost exactly what i went through in iraq. i dont remember who wrote it on this post. but it was perfect, war is boring, till it isint(not sure if thats word for word). you do alot of sitting around. but alot more work. you dont do *beep* for 48hrs, which you relish. then you work and try and survive for 60. pushing the humvee is a real thing. you dont always have the time to call a tow truck to get you unstuck. you adapt and press on. if you havent been there you will never know. this series is so close to what i went through it is increadable. i dont know what ww2 was like. but iraq in the begging of the war was very close to what you see in this entire series. right up from pizza hut before you leave kuwait. to to the stress between brothers as you find no one else to fight cause you are leaving. to those of you that think you know what happens cause of the news; this more accurate than you will ever see. and to those of you that served. thank you brothers

Anyone who has ever been to war wishes it had been more boring.

In the first place, this was based on actual events, often down to the exact wording the soldiers used. The scene at the bridge was what really happened when Person steps out and starts shouting at the drivers behind him with little regard to the ordnance going off around him. Ice Man actually telling the Iraqi's to vote Republican. Whether the HUMVEE in the hole actually happened I suppose we will never now. If you watch the DVD you can see many of the actual Recon Marines that were represented in the series in the special features.

I was in the Navy so I can't give you any direct input on what the ground pounders of today put up with, but I have been blessed with friendships of men who fought in WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. In fact, I know a guy who landed in North Africa, Anzio, and Normandy. It was not easy to get him to talk about combat, it was easier to get him to talk about the 95% of the time they spent not fighting. One of the posts described combat duty as hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. That is consistently the way duty in a war zone was described to me, regardless of the war. My WW2 friend actually said that he spent more time walking than anything else.

With all due respect, I don't see how you can say the battle scenes are poorly done. I thought they were pretty good.

I think if you didn't see the last few scenes of Generation Kill, you missed the tying up of all the strings and some of the most pwerful moments in the series. When they sit and watch the movie one of the guys made, with Johnny Cash singing in the background, brought me to tears, serious tears, I wept.

Now I'm going to put my head in the lion's mouth, I got Band of Brothers for Christmas a few years ago, I'm a huge Ambrose fan, and I was very disappointed. I can't exactly tell you why, but I didn't like it. Before everyone starts sending me threatening messages, I'm a history teacher and I love movies; I especially love movies about history. I think BoB is overrated.

Of course I remember my time in the Navy. Running out of ice cream flavors other than vanilla, it was hell. Have you eaten powdered eggs? Oh, the horror.

it's part liberal propaganda and part truth. yes, there is considerable downtime, but the action is often happening behind the scenes, the show is limited in that respect because it can only show the war through the perspective of this particular unit.

also, the unit stayed behind due to the reporter.

the brunt of the fighting fell on assault teams, strike teams, recon, etc.

In addition to what others have said, the Iraq war was very one sided with the US committing vast resources to overwhelm the poorly equipped Iraqis, including many long-distance and aerial weapons. So the actual soldiers didn't see all that much action until it came time to secure cities...

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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...

You like Band of Brothers because the last combat most countries in Europe saw was during WW2. You haven't fought for anything real in so long, WW2 action is all you can relate to. Sweden has been involved in some UN *beep* around the world militarily, but does not know what real fighting in today's world is all about. In WW2, there was a clearly defined objective against an official, uniformed enemy. When the enemy capital is taken, the enemy is defeated and surrenders. When fighting a state of mind or a religion like this war, any uniformed military gives a small fight and is defeated because they are nothing compared to elite US Marines. They are defeated and fade into an insurgency. Then it becomes what it is today. By the way, humwees...Iraqians? That's humvee and Iraqis.

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