Lil' rock throwin' Iraqi insurgents.

How nice! An American soldier who wants to shoot at kids. Tell me, guys, how many of you realize that this is what the world sees when they look at the US? You've got great representatives. Of course, most Americans aren't like this, but this is what the world sees and it's getting worse.
I do believe that a shitload (even most) of the people in your military tend to be arrogant jerks, though. The military guys I've encountered online are total assholes. They don't know any history, they want to shoot anything and everything and insult every other culture.
I live in a small Canadian town right on the border with Maine. There used to be a major Air Force base close by, and you wouldn't believe the trouble the flyboys would cause in my hometown. Outright crimes. Two black guys were arrested by my father after shoplifting CDs from a local shop and shooting up stopsigns with a handgun. He almost felt sorry for them when the MPs picked them up at the border. He says they got beat up a bit right on the spot.
I guess when you give guns and a uniform to some shit that chose the military instead of heading to prison, that's what you get...

SP

I fail to see the humor.

Yup.

While I'm sorry for your experience, not every american solider acts like that.

For the most part I agree with you.

However, Brits in the military certainly don't think highly of the people in the US military. One of my friends (who's in the Royal Navy) thinks that the enlisted men/women in the US Navy are undisciplined, drug taking, uneducated, trigger-happy cowboys. He generally thought the officers were lacking in historical understanding and were a bit on the cowboy side as well. And that is from his own experience in dealing with people in the US Navy. Of course the Brits always think a little too highly about their own military, but I figure there is probably a little truth to what he says.

What do people expect of a military whose recruitment almost solely targets people with no other options in life?

I tend to agree a bit with that, but even the officer ranks can display this arrogance. Like said above, it's worthless to judge all of the US military force by the smaller amount of jackass in it. They experience stuff we don't. The image the rest of the world retain is usually the not-so-good side, putting behind all the real effort and showing the blunders.

I don't hate the military, I just find their recruitment tactics to be almost sinister.

There's your answer. Bullet-proof? Maybe. Rock-proof? Most certainly not.

I was surprised...

Actually, that was the thing that struck me from the video (apart from sheer frustation being demonstrated - on both sides) was the shittyness of the equipment.

No bullet-proof glass on vehicles (let alone rock proof)? No wonder casualty rates are so high. I thought our (the Canadian) military was poorly equipped. Now I'm not so sure.

That is true, I guess the only contact I do have with people that are in the military is that my future brother in law went to West Point, and from what I hear the men under his command arnt too bright most of the time.

Yup, the Canadian army is ill-equiped. But I have several friends in there and the reputation of the Canadians as soldier is not the shit-fest people expect. On the opposite actually.

Most major armies operate under a selected doctrine. Canadians train under chaos. That's why it works.

The Canadian army is pretty well trained. The Air Force has what's considered some of the best training in the world. It was second only to the Israelis for awhile.

CNN reported that the 2 Canadians and the British hostages were freed by Coalition commandos, while the CBC said it was Canada's Joint Task Force 2 and British commandos. Funny how things are slanted in the news, eh? Good job, though...

SP

Obviously your friend has never watched JAG.