Thank A Veteran For Your Freedom?

Maybe, maybe not.

Just because someone has served in our armed forces does NOT automatically earn them my undying love and respect. There are plenty of worthless scumbags serving in the military, just like there are in any group or organization.

I also don't buy into the propoganda that we should be thanking all Veterans for their service and for protecting our freedoms. Sorry, but that shit ended after WWII. The veterans of that time certainly have my respect for fighting against tyranny and protecting our freedom.

But since that time everything changed, and our military is being used and abused by the politicians in Washington for financial and political endeavors that have nothing to do with protecting my freedom. Korea? Vietnam? Panama? Iraq? Oh yeah, those countries were just jumping at the bit to invade the U.S. at any moment and turn us all into slaves.



I feel bad for those Veterans who were drafted in Korea and Vietnam because they had no say in the matter. Their freedoms were stripped by an almighty Federal government out to push its anti-communist agenda. But since the 1970's America has had an all volunteer military. Now granted, many of those who enlisted actually thought they would have the opportunity to protect the US and our freedoms. By the 1980's everyone pretty much agreed that Vietnam was a huge fuck-up, and no one thought we'd be stupid enough to do anything like that again. Boy were we proven wrong!

Starting with Reagan putting troops in Lebanon, every US President and member of congress has been guilty of using our troops as a tool to further their croney agenda and to line the pockets of big business. And quite frankly, anyone who continued to enlist in the military deserves what they get for buying into the hype and propoganda that they were fighting to protect our freedoms, rather than fighting for big oil and Halliburton. Today's US soldier fights for corporations, kick-backs and nation-building -- none of which has a single fucking thing to do with securing MY freedom.

I don't blame the individual soldiers. Most of them have been brainwashed by the media and the government that they are heroes just for serving in our military. But I refuse to call any of them heroes until I hear what they've done to deserve that title. Just because they wear a pretty camo uniform doesn't mean I'm going to worship the ground they walk on.

If I had my way, I'd bring them all home to US soil today. Fuck Afghanistan, Iraq, and every other third-world shithole where our soldiers are dying so that some fuckwad of a politician or businessman profits from their death. Bring the soldiers home and have the navy and airforce patrol our shores and borders. If we as a nation are attacked by an outside force, then I expect our military to respond with great anger and furious vengeance to protect our homeland.

But until that happens, I reserve the right to check my respect at the door until I feel someone has truly earned it.

Yeah, I'm pretty much the same. That probably explains why I'm taking your opinion as seriously as I do.


"Hurr, I don't respect individual soldiers! I'm so kewl!"


Yeah, you're a big fucking man.

TLDR

Still dig the Amy Pond avatar, though. If I keep looking, I'm sure I can see down her panties.

Saying "Thank you for your service" wouldn't kill anybody, even a WFer, but unless you know the guy/gal, it's pretty much meaningless.

Keeping a weather eye on your Congresscritter to make sure they don't try to cut funding for veterans' services, making sure your local VA isn't a rat-infested hellhole of broken pipes and peeling paint would be a lot more useful.

Are they a hero or are they not?

Who is to know.

But one thing is for sure, they all still put themselves in harms way while some cockmunch calls into question the extent of their efforts from the safety of a keyboard.

Bullocks, but you already know that. I don't have to enlist and put myself in harm's way to know that the military is being misused, and those people who put their lives in farm's way are dying for no valid reason. So feel free to fuck off.

So your "solution" is to blame the veterans? What's next - gonna spit on them at the airport?

You mean like you did in the 60's?

No, but veterans have a choice. They're volunteers. They don't have to do what they do, and if they deserve to be honoured when they do good, they also deserve to be blamed when they do not. People can't have it both ways.

Here's the deal with the military being "misused" as it were. We can't pick and choose our missions or assignments. Thus we put the same efforts into being "politicians' pawns" as we would (should the situation call for it) protecting our country (or yours) in an actual no-bullshit "Hitler's at our doorstep" war.

My point is that at any time every military member could have to deploy to the war that may never happen. We have to be equipped and trained for every contingency at all times, so you have to take the occupations and police actions and conflicts as part and parcel of having a standing Army.

BTW when I say "or your country" the "your" means any friendly nation under our umbrella for whomever may be reading the post.

Let's not forget that able-bodied American males have only had a choice since 1973, and they all still have to register once they turn 18.

And, yes, they should be honored when they do good, and put on trial when they do bad.

But none of that has anything to do with the leadership that decided how many American lives Saddam Hussein's was worth.

Aye, just because they 'put themselves in harm's way' doesn't make their dying for no valid reason any more honorable.
If some mad scientist gives himself cancer because he thought he could cure it, then he dies of cancer anyway, do we cry and lament that he died trying to protect all of us and make our lives better? Or do we say, "Guy shouldn't have done that in the first place! Darwin Award winner!"?

If you think the vets are not worthy of thanks then you pretty much should also accept that it would be fine to live in the alternative world where their sacrifices were not made.

"The vets" are not some uniform category all equally worthy of respect. Some are. Some aren't.

Either way, the idea of the Nazi's conquering North America is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Although they'll have done so by the back door if devotion to militarism becomes as automatic as you'd like.

Once you sign up and get sworn in, you realize that you are Uncle Sam's boy from that point on. Not too many people sign up knowing that they are going to a war, but its always a possibility. Its why we kept four sets of everything(clothes wise) ready to throw in a bag at a minutes notice and we are off. Even if there is a war on, you might be in it, or if there isn't a war you might still be in danger of getting killed.
One guy I work with served through most of the vietnam years, but he was in the Navy and spent most of his time in and around the French Riviera. I salute those that are standing guard, stationed in the field and watching scopes and screens keeping the bad guys at length so we can all sleep on this cold night.

Duplicate post

I'm gonna quote this just so it gets said one more time.

You're welcome.

Yeah, you're right. He would have gotten as far as The United Kingdom.....no big loss, right?

As far as enlisting not knowing if you have to go to war, that ship sailed about 2003. Since then every soldier expects to go to the sandbox.
It's rare now to find someone without a combat patch.

My son will be enlisting around end of November. His opportunities to serve in a combat zone may be limited, but who knows what will pop up soon? Not being in a combat zone is like sitting on the sidelines at The Super Bowl. You've done all that training, but never got to test yourself in the real deal.

Dangerous for him? Sheeeeeet......if you could see how these fuckers drive around here, and shoot each other up on a daily basis it may as well be a combat zone around here.

One of life's lessons he is learning - you want the big money, you have to earn it, which will include dangerous, difficult activities. I think when those paychecks start rolling in, he'll realize what a great career the military is.
Off the financial scene, he'll be part of an age old subculture and a very honored profession.

"They" say that the majority of young men aren't even able to join if they wanted to, because of a criminal record, no high school diploma, overweight or otherwise physically or medically unfit. Since he meets all the requirements, he's taking advantage of a great opportunity that could (as in my case) set him up for future success.

If some vets really want to "protect my freedoms", they would do better invading Washington DC than Afghanistan.:terrorist:

"All enemies, foreign and domestic."

With all due respect to those that chose to serve, but in all honesty, since I was born after WWII, no vet has ever protected my freedom. The only threat to my own freedom (aside from my own fucking government ) was from the USSR, and they were "defeated" through economic means, not military.

Here's what you're not really getting:
without a trained and ready military in place "ready to go" you would indeed have lost all your freedoms by now.

In other words, my house has never caught fire. So why are my taxes paying for a fire department?

Sorry, but another Hitler never emerged. But if he did, could our nation assemble and train (from scratch mind you) an army to fight him?
And today's warfare is so complicated the learning curve is like Mt. Everest. You have to stay freshly trained and current on everything, because the rest of the world sure is.

So forget Iraq, Vietnam, etc. for a second. Pretend they never happened. Let's say nothing happened after WWII - just a looooong Cold War if you will, between America and whatever nations are feeling froggy.

Maintaining a ready army during this period would be "defending" your freedom! It's called a deterrent. The sweetest victory is the unsheathed sword.

I'm more worried about "domestic".

As one of the veterans who served during peacetime, I always feel a little weird when someone thanks me for my service. Yes, I was willing to fight for my country, and if need be die for it, but never had to fire my weapon for real. I thank God for that, and always make sure I thank all the veterans I know who did fight for my freedom.

It's interesting. For one brief moment, I was a little badass.

I was part of an admittedly large group that were the first US troops in around a decade to go to war. But pretty quickly after that my experience was penny-ante stuff. I did a four month war where I was far enough forward that they didn't shoot scuds at me and far enough back that no one was shooting bullets at me--the sweet spot as it were.

We were worried about roadside bombs and suicide bombers, but while I was there, the people were so happy we'd gotten rid of Saddam that none of the terrorism had started up yet.

Now there are a ton of kids with far more experience than me--many horribly crippled for their service. This month's "Maxim" has the account of the living Marine who got the MoH and I gotta say, the reports at the time just don't do him justice. Guy's a Big Damn Hero.

It's not your fault you didn't serve in a combat zone. You go where your unit goes, it's that simple. IMO everyone who serves for the duration of their contract gets my respect. There's always somebody who was "in the shit" more than you were, and those who never had the chance.
We all are on deck at any time when the balloon goes up.

Anywho, these guys who joined around 2001 have served HALF THEIR CAREERS deploying or ready to deploy to the sandbox. Is it all-out WWII style rapid-paced war? No, but waiting for that shoe to drop on where and when you will go (and be gone from your family) will take it's toll.

Everyone knows that the headache/heartache of deploying and redeploying is the worst part of war, hands down.

My hat is off to all those guys who are serving/starting their careers now. And the way vets are treated by the general public now is great. Even the people against the war/government understand that military members are doing a hard job, and don't hold anything against them, which is very commendable.

This. Ships in Japan are considered forward-deployed, which means they can (and usually do) leave or have schedule changes in a moment's notice. Last year, Christmas almost got canceled because of the thing with North Korea. I've yet to have an underway period that didn't get pushed up or extended. It's a minor irritant to myself, but OI can imagine that it sucks even worst for those to have families out here.

Well, you did a decent job forming one from scratch in WW2. So did most of the victors. The nations that lost were the ones that were prepared at the start and instigated it... go figure

Not to mention take out a substantial chunk of the nation's wealth constantly supporting it.