first of all, i read more supportive comments here than i thought id see. im glad to know that there are still people in the marijuana subculture that support their brothers and sisters despite whether they believe in the wars or not. unity. its something too many of us have lost sight of.
it seems odd to me that people who preach acceptance and tolerance would then shun their countrymen(women). if you dont like the wars and you dont support your troops why do you feel the need to tell everyone? if you dont like the NFL you dont need to get a bumper sticker that says 'F the NFL' just so everyone knows where you stand. who cares? keep it to yourself.
id like to say that we dont do it for the people that would like to spit on us, we do it for the silent majority. however, that wouldnt be the truth. i do it for everyone, whether your path in life has led you to support or hate us. i do it for the kids that run around in the streets in the worst districts/provinces in afghanistan giving us thumbs up on foot patrols and asking our medic to take a look at infected bites and cuts/scrapes theyve gotten. i do it for the elders that thank us for bringing security to towns and villages that havent seen a break in fighting since the russians showed up. i do it for the men and women by my side.
you can tell me that most of us do it for the money (we dont make much for the hours and effort we put in), you can tell me that most of us do it for the free college (many of us already have some college or degrees, we chose to step away), and you can tell me that we do it because we want to kill people (i could have done that at home and saved a hell of a lot of time and effort lol). and when you say those things ill smile back at you and go about my business. i cant say that all of my brothers would do the same, and truthfully they have a right to be upset and defend themselves from unknown people that hate them for no reason. but ive spent the last 5 years of my life defending people from unknown individuals that are filled with senseless anger. it just doesnt make any sense that americans would hate other americans when there are people outside our walls that hate us enough to try and kill us. not just killing our troops, that i can understand. Soldiers enlist or commission knowing that theyre going to be in the line of fire. but those outsiders that hate us want to kill our civilians, our women, our children. you can pretend that they dont want to kill you because up to this point in your life you may not have experienced raw hate like they harbor. but if it wasnt for the men and women serving overseas, the people who work for our security departments, and the civilians that volunteer their time to go to war zones, you very well may see the eyes of a man who will gladly give his life to take yours.
if you just want to be part of a counterculture and shock people there are other ways of doing it. if you disagree with the reasons for going to war then take that issue up with congress and the people who make those decisions. if you hate violence just remember that a good day 'in country' is a day where we dont get shot at, not the opposite. but directing your anger towards soldiers themselves is misplaced emotion.
-11b from zhari
Why should people keep it to themselves? If the troops can embrace support with open arms, but despise opposition... what type of hypocrisy is that? It's pretty far up on the hypocrisy pole, that's for sure.
It's great that you do the job to help others, but we need to help the people who contribute to this country first, not others. Again charity is great, but not when it draws finances from where it originates, and gains it's possibility to exist in the first place... that first place is America.
I don't hate troops for no reason. In fact as people I don't genuinely hate them. I forgive them because they simply are confused/ignorant.
What I don't like regarding the military and the people who join, is the fact that they believe in the facade of "protecting this country & it's people" like you just stated. That is a lie the government has pandered for decades. The last time this country was protected, was WW2... everything since then was just one big lie, and the government got all their military-sheep to shed blood on behalf of those lies. I know it's hard to fathom, but truth sometimes is.
The countries we occupy do not hate us just to hate us. They hate us because troops are there on the premise of lies and ignorance. The troops are not protecting the people in this country like you say, by occupying other countries for some lie of a "war". In fact the troops are doing the opposite... they are threatening the lives of Americans by serving in these illegitimate wars. When you occupy countries, and kill hundreds of thousands of civilians, you better believe some of those family members of those killed, will in fact become enemies of the United States. These are the people who will plot to kill Americans for the "service" these troops are doing.
I'm more worried about the financial repercussions of war, and it's direct threat on my life here in America via these financial consequences, than I am of some "terrorist" killing me.
The troops are just as worthy of having anger directed towards them, as they are the ones directly enabling the government to carry out their lies, propaganda, and hypocrisy. You can think you and your brothers/sister are defending this country all you want, while involved in the current wars, but that simply is not the truth. The war is nothing but a detriment to this country in every perceivable aspect possible. You've been lied to, and for this I feel sorry. Your ignorance that is preventing you from seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, is the same ignorance that is causing you to defend the fallacy of your belief, in our current wars.
You've been had by the government that you support. It's hard to realize you've been played sometimes.
Those who don't think they got played, because they joined for the salary, or to "shoot the bad guys". They still got played, because they had to risk their lives doing it. Government usery 101 - you and your brothers/sisters were part of the equation unfortunately.
