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Another tempest in a teapot, meant to threaten anyone who does not lavish praise on the military. It will always be this way as long as this country is controlled by the military industrial complex, which dictates our foreign policy and decides which countries have the resources we want to fight our wars in. But even if said resources do not exist, it is still a win for the complex, which rakes in trillions of dollars.
And is always at the ready, with a loud and belligerent cheering section, ready to attack anyone who dares break ranks with vitriolic accusations of hating the military/hating the troops. (How many rightwing PACS are the neocons behind? Americans for Prosperity being only one. These help to organize the attacks)
Hayes is more informed, more aware and has more compassion for the dead soldiers who died needlessly than any pot bellied FOX watcher waving his flag on Memorial Day. That he does not mindlessly follow conventional wisdom and reflexively call everyone who died a "hero" shows cares to look behind the curtain of lies that got these men and women killed in the first place. It does not in any way mean he does not respect their ultimate sacrifice, even if it was in vain.
Chris Hayes is a douche. He's a lightweight among a network full of hacks and sloppy quasi journalist commentators who parrots anything his higher ups tell him to. If he wasn't a grovelling litlte suck up he wouldn't have the low level job he has. If he had some real ability he'd have ended up someplace else.
Criticizing him is pointless, there's no real person there.
I also believe that if you make the ultimate sacrifice serving your country, you're a hero. This guy doesn't speak for everyone.
Absolutely, I agree. I'm a liberal as well - who grew up an army brat.
IF you put your life on the line very day - to protect the ideals of your country, then you are a hero in my mind.
For my 91 y/o father - who is both a Korean War vet and WWII Vet - and endured hardships that many of us cannot imagine; to me, he is a hero.
I never heard one complaint from him - ever.
So many like him, members of the 'greatest generation' are dying at 1000 per day. You better believe they have my respect as well as those who serve today.
In other words, soldiers are foolish rubes who are too stupid to know they are being lied to. Never mind the fact that they have much higher high school graduation rate than the at large American population with the officer corp having a much higher college graduation rate. Keep digging that hole you're in libs!
And this thread shows the world what sort of people the left really are.
Actually, it shows what kind of people many (not all) conservatives are: Hateful, judgmental, unthinking sheep who, like Pavlov's dog, are trained to slobber on command.
In other words, soldiers are foolish rubes who are too stupid to know they are being lied to. Never mind the fact that they have much higher high school graduation rate than the at large American population with the officer corp having a much higher college graduation rate. Keep digging that hole you're in libs!
Couldn't possibly be because having a HS diploma is a condition for enlistment just as having a college degree is a condition for being a commissioned officer?
And, I suppose that you believe that the educational system is doing an excellent job too, right?
Everyone with half a brain knows that recruiters lie. It's their job. At the height of the Iraq war, they were selling everything and the kitchen sink to these kids. Not only that, but, the military was giving waivers to any Tom, Dick and Harry who walked in off the street. Failed the ASVAB? No problem. Trouble with the law? No problem.
Now, I am absolutely not saying that everyone in the military is un- or under-educated, very, very far from it, however, it is no different than any other job. People will put up with a lot to get and keep that paycheck. And, the military made it well worth signing that contract.
But, when push came to shove, a whole heck of a lot of them either didn't or couldn't read it and had absolutely no idea what military "service" really meant.
And this thread shows the world what sort of people the left really are.
What sort are we?
I know what we are not. We are not threatened by words. We are not threatened by the very idea of having an honest conversation about the place of our military in our society. We are not the ones who sent hundreds of thousands to war with no provision for them when they came back.
It is the current president who:
has recognized the needs of veterans,
expanded services for the military and their familes,
actually recognized the importance of military families,
encouraged businesses to hire veterans,
repealed DADT,
issued a proclamation recognizing the 50th anniversary of the
Viet Nam War and
is spending this weekend with Gold Star families.
First of all, it was bad timing for him to bring this up right now. A lot of people who lost husbands, brothers, fathers have raw memories that will be rubbed the wrong way due to this.
I would say this, though: "hero" can be a pretty hard term to pin down once you really start peeling back the layers.
Each war has at least two sides, right? Furthermore, at least one of those sides if not both is likely to be an atrocity-committing aggressor. But at a more granular level, both of those sides feature many young men who, on their own, were decent enough guys who wished to do the right thing. And most did not thirst for blood; they were ultimately caught up in something bigger than they were. Once the bullets start flying, who was really to blame quickly falls to the background. So now you've pitted these two sides against one another in a fight to the death... which side has the heroes?
Were the soldiers who fought in Hitler's armies heroes?
What about the Iraqis who fought for Saddam?
What can be said in the end is that the memories of these people should be treated gently and with respect, because they did pay a heavy price to do something to defend their way of life, whether that way of life was ultimately justified in all aspects or not (whose is?). And many did do heroic things, not in changing the world or making a grand philosophical statement in their actions, but in doing what they had to do to protect their buddies, their friends, their families.
And what that comes down to me is that...war is a truly sad affair. It's easy to dehumanize the "other side", but what you really have is largely decent, flawed people - heroes - on both sides, killing each other.
It's a shame that this is the way life needs to be.
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