Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Please tell me this is a joke!

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/01/the_troops_also_need_to_suppor.html

This is a link to a Washington Post Opion blog, that caught my attention while I was reading over at Black Five. I was absolutely SHOCKED that anyone would have said some of the things that he said. He insinuated that the US Army was a mercenary force, and that we should be greatful that we aren't getting bags of dog shit thrown in our faces when we return home. It kind of scares me when people criticize the war, because like I have said again and again it is only a short jump from hating the war to hating the troops

Truth is that this war, like Vietnam, is not being lost due to lack of effort. In fact in recent months it appears that we are actually winning. It can easily be said that there will always be dissent. There will always be someone playing devil's advocate. Even the vote for WWII wasn't unanimous. But to actually think that a self proclaimed former soldier would actually advocate any of the reactions from the Vietnam crowd absolutely blows my mind.

It's funny to me how the hippies said they'd make the world a better place by burning draft cards (and women burning bras) Smoking Pot, doing drugs, and listing to music, in between going to North Vietnam to tell Soldiers and Marines what assholes they were, and calling the parents of dead soldiers to say they were glad that their son was killed by the heroic "People's" Army of Vietnam, or whatever title they gave the NVA. Or telling a soldier's girlfriend to "fuck for peace" as if it was little more then exploiting them for sex.


This goes way beyond Jodis. It goes way beyond even the thought that the mission might be wrong, or that it was a bad idea to go to Iraq. This is actually a malignant movement. A cancer if you will. Not of the body, but of the society. We are bound by our actions, and in a society that places freedom of expression as one of its most sacred values, even when a man spews nothing but hateful bile we are honor bound to allow this person to say what he will. That, in a free market, he is given voice seems insane. I would think that people would boycott him just out of pure spite.


How, then, can this man actually belive that calling every soldier a baby killer, will acomplish anything. It is almost historical fact that everytime this country tries to seperate itself from its military the end result is rather akin to shooting one's self in the foot. Every major advance in the last century has come because of the military. Computers, Night Vision, plastics, tephlon, jet power, rockets, satalites, Nucleir power, the list goes on and on, not to mention modern medicine practically being invented on the battlefield. So I ask where does this arrogant prick come off saying that I of all people do not have the right to say people protesting the war is frustrating. Honestly if I take anything from this piece, it is that I am not alone in this frustration.

There is only a thin line between "Neo" Hippies, and the old F*** the Government Hippies we know and despise. Music may have been good, and hey the intentions may have started out good, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We need to start thinking long and hard if the "Progressive" movement is really giving us progress or if they are leading us down a road that will shred the constitution, which is actually ironic because that just so happens to be what they claim to be trying to prevent.

I'm man enough to allow this man to continue using his 1st amendment rights. I'll just hold on to my "guns and religion" while I watch the world go to hell in a hand basket. As a soldier I am ready willing and able to do what others don't want to. I've fully accepted the responsibility for my actions, and, in peace time, my words. I know where both my actions and words may lead me. I just wish the rest of America would realize they have to do the same.

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