Gleb

It may sound cruel, but I hope that as many Americans as possible would die during the operation, since the more casualties, the more likely it will prevent this kind of arrogance and violent politics from happening in the future. Besides, you can't say that a regular soldier isn't responsible for what's going on since the soldiers have personally chosen to join the army and thus support the use of military power.

Gurdur

Giggle ?

I recommend, if as you surmise the Chinese annex the USA, you learn Chinese.
While the phonetics can be quite difficult, the grammar is relatively simple (non-agglutinating, non-compounding, no cases) for English-speakers to learn.

FoE

Listen to Paul30. Your new Canadian overlords will free you from your oppressors and provide you all with good healthcare. We will build you rinks and coffee shops. You will freed from the tyranny of having to spell words like "colour" incorrectly and wil be free to use units of measurment that actually make sense.

Bad Kitty

I bet you think you're a righteous humanitarian.

Majestyk

If, you have a family member in the military or have a friend with a family member in the military, send them some cookies. A connection to home and the gesture of support will be appreciated by our troops, deployed or not.

As for why you should support your troops? Well let's look at it this way:

We live in a representative democracy. A republic. We gather together to choose the people that will represent us in the government established by our constitution. These government officials operate under the rule of law established by the constitution.

We have opportunity to debate, protest, and campaign for or against those representatives and their decisions. So when they decide to send our neighbors into harms way, we bear some responsibility for that decision. Whether you did or did not vote for any particular politician is not an excuse. It was not one individual in our government that allowed this situation to develop as it has.

Vote every political official, who voted for the action, out of office. Submit your grievances in the courts and call for investigations of illegal activity within the government. Demand the government be accountable. That is our right and responsibility as citizens. However if, you have any sense of community, you must support your neighbors who volunteered to serve the community through military service.

If, you have no sense of community and you say f*** the troops then, I say f*** you. It is the blood of the men and women that wear and have worn the uniforms of our nation that helped to preserve the freedom for all of us to choose to be openly supportive or derisive.

So, why support our troops in war? Because, you sent them there.

Monkeybot

I don't 100% disagree with you on this point, but I'd also like to point out that joining the military has a lot of benefits for people who are poor and uneducated. It can pay for your college and you can get some nice benefits packages after your time is done. One's views on war may be secondary to the need for a job, a paycheck, an education.

On a side note, my grandfather joined the Marine reserves in the late '40s for a lot of these reasons; he ended up getting shipped off to Korea about two weeks before his time in the reserves was due to expire. :banghead:

Jacey

Gee thanks


I didn't enlist in the Marines to become the world's bully and sink America into war. Shit, I've been officially ordered not to even protest the war (either pro or anti).

I can't wait till 10 May 04 (my EAS).

Amen-Moses

Get it in writing and sue the pants off them for supressing your right to free speach. Oh and make sure tou find out exactly what they will do if you disobey the order as it will effect the amount of damages you can claim.

Hey, that's the American way isn't it?

Amen-Moses

Jacey

I have it in writing. From an email forwarded re: rallies


In the Marines, I don't necessarily have freedom of speech. I do have more than officers however, as they're sworn to the president (or whoever masquerades as president) and I swear to the Constitution.

Optional

Interesting... I knew that soldiers in uniform were and are expected to remain strictly apolitical, but I didn't think it was legal to tell an off duty non-uniformed soldier what to do or not to do. Anybody with knowledge of the UCMJ care to enlighten me as to whether or not this is a legal order?

-me