George - 11 November 2011 01:56 PM
I am not naïve enough to be a pacifist and I would probably even fight if I really had to, but I would also eat another human being if I really had to (and I am a vegetarian 
). But just like I see no reason why I would feel the need to celebrate my cannibalism I am equally puzzled (and disgusted) by the honoring of those who would be just as fine with “a spinal cord instead of a brain.” I doubt you really believe that the presently serving U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan (and God knows where else) have a good reason to be fighting. Why celebrate them, then?
No - you’re just utterly naive - period. The text that follows your weak excuse for your prior post demonstrates as much. Additionally, it demonstrates an absolute ignorance of the culture of the best thinkers in our military. The best - do not want war. The best also understand that at times, it is utterly necessary to either stem bloodbaths or to preserve our very land and ideals. Other times - such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the wars were poorly chosen - as in unnecessary, and even worse - horribly executed.
War is ugly, war is horrible and those alone are reasons more to nod the hat to those who served. Ugly work that someone must do when, in particular, it really needs to be done.
As for those who are serving in conflicts you don’t agree with, I have to ask you - how did we get into those wars? Maybe its because people like you didn’t work hard enough to prevent them. Maybe you sat on your butt and voted for people who are mindless enough to play cowboy - or - you didn’t go out and knock enough heads (figuratively speaking) and talk enough out loud in public to deter the thinking that was so pervasive among the less thinking majority of our population. I’m a veteran and I narrowly avoided getting punched and thrown out of several retail establishments as the Iraq war loomed on the horizon. Why? Because whenever I overhear someone making some really ignorant statement regarding subjects of great weight - I open my mouth. I express my views and - being a pretty good debater - I tend to shut them up by embarrassing their thinking with concrete logic. Grocery Store, retail Store, Bank lines - anywhere and everywhere I hear stupidity that is obviously based on incorrect information - I open my mouth and let the moron know that he/she could end up embarrassed again, in public. I’m sure they didn’t think the guy behind them was going to pound them into the ground verbally before they got off on their little diatribes…
Sure - it would have taken the anger of millions on display to have prevented the war, but - did you even write any congresscritters with your concerns? Were you not persuasive enough to get your friends to get their friends and so on down the line to help form those millions?
This country (the US) was born with original sin, no doubt - nasty behavior towards the indigenous peoples and then slavery, limited rights for women, etc… But the goal is toward an ever more perfect union (hard to believe, I know) and in many ways - we have gone far in that direction. I could list a million ways in which we have not gone nearly far enough and would submit that for a good thirty years now we have, in several areas, been slipping backwards.
Hmmm, while the corporate corruption of Washington and the gutless nature of many of our pol.s has led to far greater investments in military goals than is clearly necessary… do you think for a minute that this country would long survive in the absence of a military? If you want to change the ugly aspects - then I guess you need to encourage more to do the same - but you don’t do it while urinating on those who did take time out to serve until such time as all arms can be safely set aside.
Your snide attitude - betrayed by your gutless ignorant little comment, “a spinal cord instead of a brain.”, suggests to me that - since you do not want to accept that the consequences of your (and my efforts) not being able to convince millions of others that war is a bad idea - you don’t really want to live in the United States, in fact, you shouldn’t. You do not want to accept the way a representative democracy works.
Tell me, how many times have you contacted a congresscritter about anything? No silver bullet mind you - but history has shown, even in fairly recent examples, that when enough people throw a fit - things change. I call, I write, often. I have additionally supported the OWS movements physically and financially.
By the way - our military swears to the Constitution, not to officials, therefore - in all probability, the military would actually protect you from an over-reaching government, especially since, for the most part - those in uniform today are decidedly brighter than a similar proportion in the past. In more instances than you probably would like to believe, an order to shoot live ammo into a crowd of American citizens would result in either a dead or arrested issuing officer.
To belittle those who served with your remarks is reprehensible. Now that I know you have established yourself as a self-serving pig… not just a naive commenter. Hey - watch out - your butt is about to engulf your head—- oh - - I’m too late.
Maybe someday you’ll even find a spine for yourself.
(4*4*4 = 64, 3*3*3 = 27, 64*27 = 1728) We can change people. 
