> From:,"P. J. Alling" > > Robb, that's damn near the stupidest thing you have ever said. > > William Robb wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Sorenson" > Subject: Re: Bouncer >> I wish more Americans felt this way instead of acting like sheep every >> time someone takes a crack at eroding more of our civil liberties. > The first step is to stop revering your war veterans as if they are > some sort of heros. > They aren't heros. > What this reverence does is give you a national tendency to do what > the military (by extension what you call the "commander in chief", I > believe) tells you to do without question, and to follow the > directives of anyone who puts on a uniform. > > William Robb
I don't know that I'd consider veterans heroes just for being veterans. I'm a veteran, and certainly don't consider myself a hero just because of it. Veterans deserve a certain amount of respect for having served, especially since we've gone over to the all volunteer military. It don't make 'em heroes, and it don't make 'em perfect. Some unquestionably are heroes and should be honored for their heroism, but I had 31 years of quiet, boring service, and one year of somewhat aggravating hardship. It was hard work, and it changed my life, but it was nowhere near heroic. In all honesty though, most American's commitment to *support our troops* is all of 6 inches high, 3 inches wide and maybe a half millimeter thick ... and won't scratch the paint on the trunk (boot) of their gas-guzzlin' SUV. And William's right about our current "commander in chief"; and by extension, those high ranking officers who have put their own careers ahead of their duty to the nation and to their soldiers. We swore our oaths to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and we promised to protect that Constitution from ALL enemies, DOMESTIC and foreign. In the US, it's a tradition that General Officers stay out of politics while they're in uniform. But a whole lot more of them should have resigned and spoken out against the follies of the current "war" on terror. The worst of them are the "commanders" who had doubts then, who knew Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, who knew there were no reasons to invade Iraq, who knew the "plans" were not just inadequate, but negligently incompetent ... who went along anyway, and *NOW* have retired and write their tell-all auto-biographies shifting the blame to anybody and everybody but themselves, when they were the ones who could have stood up, acted on principal and made a difference. But the biggest problem is the politicians who've wrapped themselves in the mantle of honor due to the soldier for his service, and conflated support for those who serve with unquestioning loyalty and obedience to "The Leader". Try translating that one into German! -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
