Friday Freefly- Veterans Day Vent
Friday, November 11, 2005
Since Matt has a proper and respectful way to observe this occasion directly below, go and send some love to veterans having a tougher time then we are. Donate to Valour IT, or double dip and do it again, tell the bartender you sent his tip to a guy who could surely use it. I will simply send my thanks and respect to all veterans past and present and even those thinking about earning this day off next year. Blue Skies all around.
Now on to the pre-holiday cleansing, last Friday I took a break from the fray and stuck with the funny and bunny safe. This week's freefly is guns free, so there be bad attitudes and strong rhetoric ahead. The nice thing, for me at least, is that once I bust loose a few 6 to 9 round bursts, the dum dums go away. So here is my barrage, now I will go watch the first Veteran's Day parade in Madison, WI in many, many years, dang I feel better already. Read and feel the soothing wash of catharsis, then go forth from work early, hie thee to the VFW and raise a frosty beverage to all who have served.
Things that chafe my cones- Veteran's Day edition
Chickenhawking: This non-argument is usually deployed to belittle a pro-war argument due to a lack of personal military service. I won't bother exploring the emptiness of this and reasonable people know that first amendment rights are not pursuant to any requirement of action. The sad thing is looking at the dirty, nasty, patchouli-smelling hippie and having to think "I served so this clown can flap his cakehole?". The last time I saw it employed was Nov. 2 when the great, I mean miniscule, walkout to protest the war went on. 200 of the usual suspects were gaggling listening to the same old crap, when the College Republicans about 30 strong marched by waving flags and chanting "support the troops!" Of course one of the aging, enlightened mewled "Why don't you sign up and fight then" while holding a US flag with a peace sign where the stars belonged. I was next to him enjoying the show and served up a wicked verbal beatdown to the amusement of the nearby cops that left the wanker as speechless as he should have remained from the start.
"I support the troops, but not the war": Then you don't support the troops. Once US troops are deployed in a foreign war and you actively protest and attempt to undermine the government's prosecution and even rationale for the war, you are no longer supporting the troops. You are protesting your government, as is your right, but the troops are part of the government and you protest them whether you admit it or not. You may want the best for them by ensuring they don't fight a war you don't approve of, but they signed up for all enemies foreign and domestic, and that's the President's call. You are especially culpable in this time of instant and worldwide media, by providing fodder for the enemy, their propagandists and the media in countries whose support the troops need to succeed. Protesting is legal, without question, but well open to question is whether those actions make the missions and war itself more difficult. I am certain they do, so while you are chanting your mindless sing song at least be intellectually honest and admit you are hurting the troops not supporting them.
Moral Superiority from Lefties: I guess if you have a media that parrots your mindset it is easy to stay in your echo chamber and look down on we mindless automatons and our corporate-oil controllers as we wreak destruction upon an otherwise peaceful, idyllic Shangri-La. Folks I hate to bust your bubbles, but this is the crappiest planet I have ever lived on, bar none. The vast majority of humanity is far from humane and huge swaths of it are ruled by tyrannical despots, megalomaniacs and religious fanatics. I wish it weren't so, but I know what my eyes have seen and my unit crest reads "De Opresso Liber" To Liberate from Oppression. We have seen the ugliness firsthand and somehow that calls us to action not to formal lies told in formal wear. If somehow having the intellectual rigor and intestinal fortitude to act in the cause of freedom and liberation rather than debate it fruitlessly makes us morally inferior, so be it! That is not a morality I would shed a drop of anyone's blood for.
Armchair Generalship: Every time I encounter a lefty pontificating about the awful planning and prosecution of the Iraq war, I wish Rumsfeld did have strangling gloves like in Frank J's world. Unless I missed something, no situation vaguely analogous to Iraq has been tackled in the modern age so no actual comparison exists and consequently we don't know for sure if this was a quagmire or the most brilliant, visionary, military exploit ever. Anyone who has served, knows the military plans for everything and that there were obviously plans for post-war Iraq. We went with the one our best minds on the subject agreed on, not all of them, but most. And the media has already managed to shape the conventional wisdom to be a shameful lack of planning leading to the defeat they are sure is right around the corner. 5 years from now we will look back and without the distortion of the media's defeatist lens see a true example of liberty delivered not at the point of a gun, but definitely by warriors carrying them.
This was just a start and if you want to drop off some useless baggage please hit the comments and let go of the bad ju ju. Oh and if some dumbass lefty says something stupid today, take advantage and vent, it's soothing, kinda like walking on baby ducks (reference anyone?).