Should we be spitting at our troops?, page 1

I don't know about you but, I'm sick and tired of hearing the constant barrage of propaganda telling our troops that they are fighting for our freedoms and keeping Americans free by fighting our wars over in the Middle-East.



Every time I see something like that, it makes me want to retch or stand up and boo the announcers at the top of my lungs. I fail to see how dropping bombs and killing dark-skinned people on the other side of the world is doing anything to protect my freedom here at home.



Now, I don't hate our soldiers but, I absolutely DESPISE the policies they are used to enforce on the rest of the world. I was in their place once myself; after high school, I joined the Army and took part in Operation Desert Storm. At the time, I was proud of my service and though I had done my part in defending freedom, thanks to all of the warm praise heaped on the returning soldiers after the first Gulf War.

Thanks to years of propaganda in films and TV, the American public was handed a massive guilt-trip for their treatment of the returning soldiers from Vietnam. They were taught that it was wrong to blame the soldiers for the actions of the country and wrong to protest them upon their return from combat.



Nothing like a big, muscle bound actor breaking down and crying about being called "baby killer" to make the American people think twice about confronting the returning troops with the truth about what they had been used for while "over there".

Because of this "oh thank you for defending our freedom" attitude, it wasn't until I was well into my 30's that I started to wake up to the facts surrounding the first Gulf War and the real motivations behind it.

In my opinion, we do our service members a HUGE disservice by reinforcing the impression the wars they fight in are somehow protecting our freedoms here at home and that, if it weren't for them, we wouldn't be able to have a Super Bowl.

Now, maybe we shouldn't actually be spitting on them like they did back in the Vietnam days (That would be a good way to lose a couple of teeth) but, we certainly shouldn't be THANKING them for their service. I think the best option is to try to educate our soldiers as to the real motivations behind our nation's military policies; show them that they are not protecting our freedoms but, instead the profits of the military industrial complex and all of the corporations who are raping the countries they are sent to of their natural resources.

I think we should not sit silently by when some announcer thanks the troops for their service but instead, we should stand up and shout BULLCRAP or at least boo when those announcements are made. Start asking our soldiers the tough questions like "How exactly is your occupation of a country half way across the world keeping me free?" and, "Why are you guarding poppy fields for narco-terrorists, how is THAT protecting us at home?"

We need to force our soldiers to think about the policies they are being used to enforce and whether those policies are actually in line with the oath they took to defend our country and the constitution. We need to wake up the soldier to the criminal purposes for which they are used and encourage them to refuse to fight for corporate profits like a band of mercenaries.

Most of all, we need to stop reinforcing the idea that their occupation of countries half way around the world is somehow protecting our freedoms. It is not, and it probably does more to create new enemies abroad and make Americans less safe.

I refuse to continue the charade of letting our troops believe they are serving the American people and protecting our freedoms. If the troops really wanted to protect the freedoms of the American people, they would be storming the stronghold of the people most responsible for oppression inside the United States.


Only after the troops remove the real threat to American freedom will I walk up to them, shake their hand and tell them "thank you for protecting my freedom."

reply to post by FortAnthem

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I've said it many times. The way to end these wars of adventure is to send the politicians that start them to fight in those wars. This would bring an instant end to those wars.
I do not in any way blame the troops who enlist, because they think they are doing something noble, or they are enlisting because they can't get a JOB here in the US. When the politicians and the MSM stop encouraging those wars, they will end, and then perhaps, just perhaps, our military can do what the department that they are under, the DEFENSE department, is supposed to stand for- DEFENSE of our country.
Put them on the border to stop the drugs from flowing here, and put an end to the illegal entry of 15,000,000 people, who are putting a tremendous strain on state budgets.

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Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
reply to post by FortAnthem

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I've said it many times. The way to end these wars of adventure is to send the politicians that start them to fight in those wars. This would bring an instant end to those wars.
I do not in any way blame the troops who enlist, because they think they are doing something noble, or they are enlisting because they can't get a JOB here in the US. When the politicians and the MSM stop encouraging those wars, they will end, and then perhaps, just perhaps, our military can do what the department that they are under, the DEFENSE department, is supposed to stand for- DEFENSE of our country.
Put them on the border to stop the drugs from flowing here, and put an end to the illegal entry of 15,000,000 people, who are putting a tremendous strain on state budgets.

Ding, ding, ding... we have a winner!

If any spitting is to be done it should be towards the "war pigs" who sit in their cushy chairs and calculate "human cost ratios" while drinking their lattés and sending young adults with life's potential in front of them to die, in order to kill other young adults with life's potential in front of them!

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