Ask the Beasts, and They Will Tell You

This post was not directed at men. This post was directed at you. Because you were the one being a dumbass.

Conscription was basically unknown in the West before the late 1700s.

And the whole “corpulent generals safe behind lines” thing, as it was described by noted historian Sting, has been debunked to hell and back. In fact it’s part of the socialist narrative about World War One that directly led to the second one.

All the way back in the Anglo-Saxon period, before the idea of Kings even existed in Northern Europe, most warriors and military men were essentially slaves of their Lords. If you refused to fight for them, you would be killed. Is that not similar in nature to conscription, if not worse?

If you do count Rome and Greece then desertion has been a crime all the way back into the BC period. And legions of men from conquered nations were forced to join a hostile military under threat of death.

Anything you are going to say about any Indo-European culture, change it to be about Rajputs. If you sound like a stupid lunatic? (“Every Rajput was essentially a slave of their leaders!!!1!!”) You were a stupid lunatic when you said it about Anglo-Saxons or Greeks or whoever.

There was not conscription in those cultures. There was a certain obligation to follow your chief to war, but it was enforced almost entirely by shame and social pressure, not force. And desertion once you have agreed to be in an army is a punishable offense in every military that has ever existed.

Actually conscription really only begins with liberalism. Same as compulsory schooling. Which was invented to fit people to be good conscripts. And blood-and-soil nationalism. Which saw minority children abducted and sent to boarding schools where they were whipped if they spoke their own language—Irish, Basque, Cajun, to say nothing of Native Americans.

Sure but the “classical liberal” is totally not just projecting their own ideology’s atrocities backwards onto other systems.

Before anything, you can donate to help directly with these operations via the Red Cross, UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services and almost any other NGO that operates in the region. This list is only current to June 30th at 6:22pm GMT and is not complete. It has more info on the US response only partly because of how large it is-I'm from the US and know where to look on the 10,000 different government websites to find alot of the specifics, knowledge I don't have for any other nation rendering aid. But here's as much info as I was able to find:

American aid:

The US has now committed at least $300 million has at least 300 search and rescue personnel on the ground from four teams, has several hundred military personnel also assisting with relief efforts(such as the repairs of the runway at the airport in Caracas), has had four military field hospitals stood up already and was slated to have an unspecified amount of additional ones online in the next 24 hours.

The amphibious transport dock USS Fort Lauderdale and littoral combat ship USS Billings have arrived to transport goods and render aid via their Marine contingetts. The Fort Lauderdale has also been able to serve as an airlift point, a command-and-control hub for logistics, and administer medical aid with its hospital suite of 2 operating rooms and 124 beds.

The State Department has partnered with a major NGO, the Global Empowerment Mission and Walmart to set up a hub for aid in south Florida. The GEM is already operating donation points across the greater Miami area in coordination with municipal governments, faith-based groups and the Venezuelan diaspora in the region.

The USAF has been flying everything from aerial reconnaissance to transporting aid from the US and other countries to moving relief supplies and teams from aid hubs to the front lines, the latter likely taking the form of helicopters into La Guaira state. They were also able to get one of the runways at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas fixed enough to be functional again, helping ease a bottleneck in deploying aid.

Western Hemisphere aid:

Canada has offered CAD$5 million($3.5 million USD) in aid

Argentina has sent three planes carrying search and rescue operatives, and the largest company it has that operates airports has offered assistance in further restoring damaged airfields.

Brazil has dispatched 36 fire and rescue workers, 8 risk assessment and telecomms specialists, an open hospital, 100 solar-operated water purifiers and unspecified amounts of other aid

Chile has deployed 55 rescuers, 3 tons of humanitarian aid, and 2 tons of firefighting equipment

Mexico has sent 250 military rescuers with dog teams, 4 military aircraft, 12.7 metric tons of rescue supplies, 4 tons of medical supplies, and President Sheinbaum has stated her intent to provide more aid including water purifiers and power generators

Peru dispatched a rescue team and 14 tons of humanitarian aid

The Dominican Republic have sent search teams and supplies in amounts I couldn't find

Paraguay, despite having recently severed relations with Venezuela, deployed 32 military rescuers, with Defense Minister Oscar Gonzalez stating that the relations severing would be no obstacle to rendering aid.

El Salvador has deployed at least 150 of a promised 300 rescuers and pledged 50 tons of aid

Costa Rica's government, through its national branch of the Red Cross, has deployed 48 rescuers and 12 metric tons of aid

Global aid:

Spain has sent 58 military search and rescue personnel, 8 dogs and 40 firefighters

Qatar has sent an unspecified amount of rescuers

Germany has sent 70 rescuers, 7 dogs, and provided 6 military planes for use in transporting aid

Turkey dispatched a team of 67 rescuers and medical workers

Switzerland has mobilized 80 rescue personnel, dog teams and sent 18 metric tons of aid.

France has sent 85 rescue workers

The Netherlands has sent an aid package of 2 million euros($2.28 million) and an unspecified number of rescuers along with supplies

The Czech Republic has sent 70 rescue workers

India has sent two of its air force transports carrying a 41-member medical team, a field hospital unit, two other portable hospitals, 30 metric tons of relief supplies and 6 of medicine.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society has released $2.5 million in funds and Pope Leo has release 100,000 euros($110,00) in funds, but both the IRCRCS and the Catholic Church will be focusing more on the collection, transportation and distribution of aid collected from donations-these were organization-level contributions, likely from discretionary funds for future emergencies.

Starlink has begun providing free internet service to customers of Spanish comms firm Movistar in the hard-hit state of La Guaria(only 300,000 people compared to 5 million in Caracas, but that's a single city that can very easily relay satellite uplinks) and is working on linking up with state-run telecom firm Movilnet and local private firm Digitel to provide free service as well. The US State Department has said it's working on getting more Starlink terminals into the country, as alot like with Ukraine there's no form of bad conditions beyond an EMP or the terminal itself breaking that can stop it from connecting to the internet.

Croatia has contributed 1 million euros in aid($1.14 million)

China has provided 100 million yuan($14.7 million) in funding

The EU has said it will send aid worth 5 million euros($5.7 million) worth of aid focusing on shelter and health care. It also said it would organize an air bridge to transfer aid, presumably to ferry contributions from smaller states as well as private entities and nonprofits

Finland has had two major NGOs donate a combined 170,000 euros($194,000)

Jordan has sent a total of 100 rescue personnel

Israel has dispatched 16 rescuers despite not having had formal relations with Venezuela since 2009

South Korea will provide aid worth about 7.7 billion won($5 million)

Sweden has contributed 80 million krona($8.2 million)

The UK has sent a team of 68 rescuers with dogs

Syria has sent 15 rescuers.

clara barton, a battlefield nurse for the union army and eventual founder of the american red cross, was dubbed the "angel of the battlefield" for her vital and timely assistance to soldiers and doctors alike. during the 1862 battle of antietam, barton discovered that one of the soldiers she was tending to happened to be a young woman -- mary galloway, who had disguised herself as a man, joined the war effort following her lover lieutenant harry barnard, and would later name her daughter clara after barton eventually reunited the couple

stetson kennedy helped take down the kkk by exposing their code words and secret rituals on a 1947 superman radio show

in 1777, sixteen-year-old sybil ludington rode forty miles to warn the local militia of an upcoming british attack. traveling twice the length of paul revere's journey, she roused around 400 men by banging on their doors with a large stick, and it's even said that she gained recognition from george washington himself

robert smalls, an enslaved man in south carolina, emancipated himself as well as fifteen others in 1861 by disguising himself as a confederate ship captain and sailing the css planter into the union territory (simultaneously providing another warship to the union). not only that, but in 1864, smalls purchased the former mansion of henry mckee -- the man who had once enslaved him

during the 1969 chicago seven conspiracy trial, abbie hoffman reportedly once came in wearing judicial robes with a chicago police uniform underneath, called judge julius hoffman "julie" several times, and raised his middle finger when being sworn in as a witness

after american troops arrived in france In 1917, they made a (mostly symbolic) march through paris, stopping at the grave of the marquis de lafayette to honor his immense contributions during the american revolutionary war. with the tomb at his feet, colonel c. e. stanton declared, "lafayette, we are here!" (over a century too late after the us decided not to aid the french during the revolution, but a cool statement nonetheless)

in 1930s america, a pro-nazi organization called the german american bund was active across america. however, another group was also gaining traction at around the same time: the minutemen. while those in new york were mostly made up of jewish mobsters and those in new jersey mainly consisted of jewish boxers, both had a common goal of breaking up bund meetings by beating the shit out of their members

between 1913 and 1915, there were at least seven instances of people mailing their children through the postal system, since it was cheaper to buy a stamp for your child and have them transported by a trusted mail carrier than purchasing a train ticket for them

the first minnesota volunteer infantry regiment captured a confederate flag from the twenty-eighth virginia infantry regiment in the 1863 battle of gettysburg, and the minnesota historical society still has it today, despite virginia requesting for its return in 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2013. governor jesse ventura famously responded to the 2000 request with "why? i mean, we won"

although many members of various native american nations served as code talkers during the world wars, the most famous of which are probably the navajo code talkers. between 1942 and 1945, over four hundred navajo worked as code talkers for the marines, providing a system that even the most skilled code breakers couldn't crack -- largely due to the fact that navajo has no written alphabet and highly complex tonal qualities. for decades the contributions of these men went unrecognized, but in 1992 they were finally honored at the pentagon for their vital involvement in the allied war effort

founding fathers thomas jefferson and john adams both died on july forth, 1826, with adams allegedly declaring "jefferson still survives" on his deathbed, unaware that his former colleague was already dead

after woodrow wilson had a stroke in 1912, his wife edith wilson took over many of his presidential duties, making her the first female president in practice. she and physician cary grayson decided to keep her husband's condition hidden from the public, even staging several pictures of him to make it seem like he was hard at work in the white house

the youth international party (yippies) held a rally for their presidential nominee, a hundred and forty-five pound pig named pigasus, outside the democratic national convention in 1968. his acceptance speech was being read by jerry rubin when he and six other yippies were arrested along with pigasus and a sow apparently called "mrs pigasus"

after hitler banned bold makeup from public functions in 1933 because he deemed it improper for a good german woman, wearing red lipstick became a symbol of solidarity against fascism. allied militaries were quick to implement it as a part of their female uniforms and issue propaganda encouraging women to wear it. in 1941 elizabeth arden created a shade of lipstick called victory red for civilian women, and in 1942 the us women's marines corp adopted her shade montezuma red as a standard part of the uniform

harriet tubman was not only the most famous conductor of the underground railroad, but also a nurse, soldier, and spy for the union during the civil war. the first woman in american history to lead an armed military raid, in 1863 she commanded the combahee river raid, which included the liberation of over seven hundred and fifty enslaved people

in 1782, deborah sampson disguised herself a man, adopted the alias robert shurtleff, and joined the fourth masschusettes regiment. she managed to protect her true identity for over two years -- however, after she lost consciousness due to illness, her sex was discovered and was given an honorable discharge. after her death, her husband petitioned congress for pension as the spouse of a soldier, and surprisingly he was awarded the money

adolf hitler had a nephew who fought for the united states navy during world war ii. born william patrick hitler, in 1933, he declined his uncle's request to denounce his british citizenship, earning himself the nickname "my loathsome nephew." after his 1939 lecture tour of the united states where he warned americans about the nazi threat, he enlisted in the us military because he wasn't allowed in the british forces. he eventually became a us citizen in 1946 and legally changed his name to william patrick stuart-houston

in 1970, richard nixon signed the poison prevention packaging act, which required all prescription and over-the-counter drugs to have childproof packaging. stephen bull, a former presidential aide, recalled that he was once asked by the president to open his allergy medicine, and the childproof cap had numerous teeth marks on it from nixon's apparent attempts to gnaw it open

the elephant became the mascot of the republican party to demonstrate union war strength (as "seeing the elephant" was slang for experiencing combat). the donkey became the democratic mascot because people frequently called andrew jackson a jackass

Not only was the First Minnesota so named for being the absolute first unit pledged to the Union, but it also saved the country.

At Gettysburg an advancing brigade of rebel troops numbering about 1,200 men located a gap in the Union line. If that line was broken, the rebels would have a clean shot to encircle the Union army, giving them the battle and a clear route straight to DC with nothing else close enough to get in their way. The war would have been lost for the Union if that happened.

The First Minnesota, a force of just 262 men under the command of Colonel Colvill, was ordered to hold the line.

And so they did.

Outnumbered 5 to 1, the First Minnesota fixed bayonets and charged the advancing brigade, hard enough to rout the incoming rebels. In five minutes, 262 men broke an incoming force of about 1,200 with a single bayonet charge, at the cost of 215 casualties in that time span, including the Colonel and all but three of the other officers.

At the end of that action, the 47 surviviors rallied back to General Hancock under the command of Captain Messick, an 82% casualty rate, the second highest loss of any US military unit that wasn't wiped out entirely, and the highest of any unit that continued to fight.

And they kept fighting, even after that.

The First lost -5- flag bearers, but each time it was picked up again and the advance continued.

The next day, they helped throw back Pickett's Charge. How'd they do it? By mounting a counter-charge of all surviving 47 men, in the process capturing the battle flag of the 28th Virginia regiment, which is still held in the state capitol archives.

And 29 of them still made it back from that.

"Emphasizing the critical nature of the circumstances on July 2 at Gettysburg, President Coolidge considered: "Colonel Colvill and those eight companies of the First Minnesota are entitled to rank as the saviors of their country.""