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Honesty?

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Link below, my emphasis:

Warriors and wusses
January 24 2006


I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

I'm sure I'd like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you're wandering into a recruiter's office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.

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And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there — and who might one day want to send them somewhere else. Trust me, a guy who thought 50.7% was a mandate isn't going to pick up on the subtleties of a parade for just service in an unjust war. He's going to be looking for funnel cake.

Besides, those little yellow ribbons aren't really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of "Laguna Beach."

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

I understand the guilt. We know we're sending recruits to do our dirty work, and we want to seem grateful.

After we've decided that we made a mistake, we don't want to blame the soldiers who were ordered to fight. Or even our representatives, who were deceived by false intelligence. And certainly not ourselves, who failed to object to a war we barely understood.

But blaming the president is a little too easy. The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying. An army of people ignoring their morality, by the way, is also Jack Abramoff's pet name for the House of Representatives.

I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq. I get mad when I'm tricked into clicking on a pop-up ad, so I can only imagine how they feel.

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam.

And sometimes, for reasons I don't understand, you get to just hang out in Germany.

I know this is all easy to say for a guy who grew up with money, did well in school and hasn't so much as served on jury duty for his country. But it's really not that easy to say because anyone remotely affiliated with the military could easily beat me up, and I'm listed in the phone book.

I'm not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea. All I'm asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.

Seriously, the traffic is insufferable


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein24jan24,0,4137172.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
 
It sure makes me angry when peole like this get paid for writing things like this. I know, I know, he is entitled to his opinion and so am I. I sure wish I hadn't wasted my time reading this drivel.

Maybe he thinks that the militarty would be better off keeping him safe over here.

What would he say if he had friends and or relatives who died in the Twin towers? Somebody has to stop these terrorists and by setting around and doing nothing, we are not helping our cause.

Maybe we shouldn't have went in to Iraq? Who am I to say, but I still feel we needed to kick some bully's butt and Saddam was a good start. Perhaps the rest of the world will realize that we will not stand by any longer and let the bullies of the world give aid and assistance to terrorist and/or those who promote terror against us.

Joel Stien is a pud! :x
 
stevec said:
Jinglebob said:
It sure makes me angry when peole like this get paid for writing things like this. I know, I know, he is entitled to his opinion and so am I. I sure wish I hadn't wasted my time reading this drivel.

Maybe he thinks that the militarty would be better off keeping him safe over here.

What would he say if he had friends and or relatives who died in the Twin towers? Somebody has to stop these terrorists and by setting around and doing nothing, we are not helping our cause.

Maybe we shouldn't have went in to Iraq? Who am I to say, but I still feel we needed to kick some bully's butt and Saddam was a good start. Perhaps the rest of the world will realize that we will not stand by any longer and let the bullies of the world give aid and assistance to terrorist and/or those who promote terror against us.

Joel Stien is a pud! :x

You assume that the terrorists are the aggressors, but they see themselves as defending themselves against our bullying. Just as you see yourself (our military) as defending against a bully.

In fact, both sides are thinking exactly the same way. They are not opposites, it is a mirror image. The tit-for-tat arms race is always between two people who are alike. Russia vs America, for example. Who can have the most nuclear weapons? etc. Coke vs Pepsi. Mac vs. PC. One is trying to claim they are superior to the other, when in fact they are exactly alike. The difference between them is just splitting hairs.

Look at Hamas for example. Now that they have gained political control they want a truce. Was the issue ever Israel? No. They just wanted control of Palestine, rather than the PLA.

Every war is a civil war. As we get involved with other people's civil wars (which we do all over the world) then we become a target for one of those factions. We support their "bully," because no matter which side you take, you get the otherside angry at you, and eventually they will replace the current authority.

When did we send people over and blow up their towers and kill 3000 people in one fell swoop? And don't use Hiroshima or Nagisaki . They attacked us first also.

If you don't pick a side, you are straddling the fence and all you get is a sore crotch! :lol:

Some of what you write on these threads is interesting to ponder on and it would be fun to visit with you face to face, but I get tired of reading your long comments and tired of all the typing it does to try and represent my side. I think you have some fairly good ideas in a truely Christian sort of way, but you seem to skew them off a bit and make it hard for me to want to agree with you. Sort of like agreeing with terrorist, as then you are associated with them by others! :shock:

I think I understand what you are trying to get across, but as Jesus said when asked , "what about the poor"?, "The poor will always be with you".

You want everyone to lay down their arms and let the lion sleep with the lamb, but until the lion has no teeth or the lamb is as large and strong as the lion, it ain't going to happen. Who do you think will invite the other to lie down first, the lion or the lamb? When Jesus returns, I am positive he'll sort it all out, alright. :)
 
neverforget.jpg
 
Excellent post, Jinglebob. Made a lot of sense to me.

I really think Stevec should sing his song in Iraq. Perhaps he can make a real difference there. It is one thing to expound here, quite another to do so in a different country.

How about it Stevec, are you game?
 
MsSage said:
Is it just me or does $$'s post look familiar?

Kinda reminds me of ...dear sweet ol Dis........

Well, I must admit that at times I can be disagreeable, I can assure you that I am not "Disagreeable". :wink:

Unlike "Disagreeable", I support our President AND the troops.
 

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