Honor thy Soldiers

I wanted to take a moment from all fo bickering, hate speech, and other arguing that goes on here on a daily basis at ATS and give thanks to the American Soldiers around the world who sacrifice their lives to allow millions around the globe to sleep at night knowing that an American Soldier is out there to protect the freedoms that Americans have come to spit upon, and other American hating people of the world so blindly and rudely condemn.

Shame on all that speak down on the USA and its leadership, and for all that we have done to keep tyranny around the world stifled.

I give you Tecumseh (From the movie Act of Valor) for those who care:

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion;respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

I salute our American Military, and am not afraid to stand up and say so!

Flame away, American Haters!

I second your sentiments.

Let me add something here as well.



I recently enlisted in the US Army, and will be shipping to training in less than two months.
I must say that at least once a week, someone thanks me for stepping up to the plate and volunteering, when there has been a constant state of war for over a decade.

I havnt even served a single day yet and there are people that appreciate it.

I must say it will be an honor to serve those and you.

Originally posted by phantomjack


Shame on all that speak down on the USA and its leadership, and for all that we have done to keep tyranny around the world stifled.

The soldiers are just pawns in a game they don't understand. They are used to enforce policies that most Americans despise.

Why the Rest of the World Should Tell the U.S. to F*** Off

The United States government (largely through the CIA and its predecessors) is directly responsible for the overthrow of at least half a dozen democratically elected governments around the world over the past hundred plus years. Among these are many of our neighbors in Latin America such as Guatemala in 1954, Brazil in 1964, and Chile in 1973. Further afield we have Iran in 1953, which is particularly ironic considering the dire straits of our present day relationship. This list doesn’t include the toppling of non-elected governments (almost all of them replaced by brutal dictators) such as Syria in 1949 and Ghana in 1966. It also doesn’t include direct invasion by U.S. troops such as the Philippines in 1898, Panama (first in 1895 and again at least eight more times since), Grenada in 1983, and most recently, Iraq in 2003. Although many Americans cannot even point these countries out on a world map and remain blissfully ignorant of American interference with their internal affairs, the residents of these countries have certainly not forgotten and in many cases haven’t completely forgiven us either. Can anyone blame them?

The U.S. military is currently deployed in over 150 countries around the world. That’s over three quarters of all the supposedly independent countries on the planet. Of those, at least two of them are active war zones (Iraq and Afghanistan), one of them (Iran, see above) soon will be if the Neocons have their way, and another is seldom considered one simply because most of us happen to live there. Thanks to passage of the NDAA, the U.S. military can now arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens within our own borders – a disturbing development vehemently opposed by the ACLU and one of the central grievances the American colonists had against the British king before declaring independence.

The purpose of stationing all these troops everywhere is presumably to act as a sort of unrequested and often unwelcome global police force, paid for by the generosity of the U.S. taxpayers. After all, the U.S. – accounting for just five percent of the world’s population – is responsible for over forty percent of global military expenditures. Curiously, despite the smug moral high ground we like to believe we inhabit (preferring the term “liberator” to “invader/occupier”), these Team America superheroes generally seem to step in only when there are high-dollar corporate interests at stake such as in Iraq or Libya, preferring to sit idly by as slaughter proceeds unchecked in economic backwaters such as Rwanda or Darfur.

Addicting Info

I believe the best way to support our troops is to demand that our government bring them home and stop meddling in the affairs of other nations. We are not the world police. Nobody asked us to take on that role. It is time for the peoples of the world to clean up their own messes without our interference.

Our soldiers shouldn't have to pay with their lives for problems created on the other side of the world.

reply to post by youdidntseeme

Welcome to the club,part of it will trully suck but some of it is a blast. Always shoot expert,in the event you can't then you must learn.It really does help. lay a dime on the rifle barrel in the prone position,pull the trigger.If the dime falls off you are not steady enough.Once you can do this ten times you should be fine.This isn't easy.
If you come back and things seem terrible you have a whole new family to help.Maintain communication at all times,don't recede from the public,that can kill.You are why America IS STILL America,be a professional at ALL TIMES and don't get shot,it hurts.

I want to honor my soldiers but I know too much. Maybe if I got some sort of traumatic brain injury I could respect them again. I don't see where our soldiers have ended tyranny. I don't see them working for my freedom. I see an out of control military industrial complex bent on world domination. I don't see how the world's best equipped, most trained army can have any pride in fighting farmers and sheepherders. It is sad to see a shrinking minority praise them. They used to be the good guys.

Honour them yes.

Put them on a pedestal as shining beacons of freedom? No. Unfortunately.

The soldiers are just pawns in proxy ideological wars designed to prop up the Military Industrial Complex.

USA foreign policy has, since WW2, been set up to ensure that there is a perceived enemy. And those enemies have been invented, and the propaganda to prolong that policy has been carefully selected and propagated.

Not the soldiers fault at all.

But they are there by design. Not by necessity.

Thank you for having the intestinal fortitude to post your true feelings on here. I'm sure the haters and bashers will come out in full force. As a Marine and combat vet it's nice to know we are not hated by everyone. It's also sad that we get villified because of the actions of a few bad apples and the politicians who make the decisions. Most join because they want and feel that they are serving their country and their fellow citizens. I know that's why I joined. Turned out things were different but none of us knew it at the time. What will happen one day when people don't want to serve their fellow countrymen? I do all I can for others who have served, especially if they are worse off then myself. So again I thank you for your kind words.

Semper Fi

reply to post by neformore


You make an excellent point. That is why so many of us are angry these days. More of us are waking up and feeling terrible that we were duped into fighting these wars in the name of patriotism. We have been used and abused and some may say it's our fault for not waking up in time, but with the world we live in and the way people are conditioned that is a difficult thing to do. I have had to stomp all over my pride in order to acept some of the higher truths. No one should be put on a pedistal for military service these days. But I don't see anything wrong with recognizing them. Especially ones who have participated in the many disaster relief operations and other humanitarian ops. My personal wish is that all of these wars would just end and we would never have to worry about issues such as these again.

The irony of using a quote from a Native American...

No I will not honour the soldiers. There is no honour in what they are doing. There never has been with the exception perhaps of the Second World War.

It's delusional to blindly worship them like gods.

reply to post by phantomjack

Flame away, American Haters!

Just because people disagree with the policies of the United States does not mean they "hate" Americans.

I for one do not hate Americans.

Originally posted by neformore
Honour them yes.

Put them on a pedestal as shining beacons of freedom? No. Unfortunately.

The soldiers are just pawns in proxy ideological wars designed to prop up the Military Industrial Complex.

USA foreign policy has, since WW2, been set up to ensure that there is a perceived enemy. And those enemies have been invented, and the propaganda to prolong that policy has been carefully selected and propagated.

Not the soldiers fault at all.

But they are there by design. Not by necessity.

edit on 28/4/12 by neformore because: (no reason given)

edit on 28/4/12 by neformore because: (no reason given)

Agreed...and thats why we do need to support them, because they, have the #tiest job of them all.

Originally posted by Kram09
reply to post by phantomjack

 

Flame away, American Haters!

Just because people disagree with the policies of the United States does not mean they "hate" Americans.

I for one do not hate Americans.

Thank you for that...then, my statement doesnt apply to you.

There are many who will come to this thread just to spit at the USA.

Originally posted by usmc0311
Thank you for having the intestinal fortitude to post your true feelings on here. I'm sure the haters and bashers will come out in full force. As a Marine and combat vet it's nice to know we are not hated by everyone. It's also sad that we get villified because of the actions of a few bad apples and the politicians who make the decisions. Most join because they want and feel that they are serving their country and their fellow citizens. I know that's why I joined. Turned out things were different but none of us knew it at the time. What will happen one day when people don't want to serve their fellow countrymen? I do all I can for others who have served, especially if they are worse off then myself. So again I thank you for your kind words.

Semper Fi

Thank you for your service, Soldier!

ever since I was a little boy I have had respect for soldiers, my grandfather was a Sgt. Major in WW2 and Korea so I spent a lot of my childhood going to ceremonies etc.. I keep his combat jacket in the trunk of my car "just in case"

it's not that some of us don't respect what the soldiers are doing individually,
but rather collectively and in the name of the State. i'm not as vocal anymore as I was when I was a young liberal
what they do is undoubtably needed if we wish to keep our society in tact, but sometimes I feel we use the military just for the sake of using them when there isn't really a necessity for warfare over negotiations. IMO of course.

Shame on those who have the audacity to speak out against what is wrong.

Shame on those who actually bother to find out more than one side of the story, and not do what they are told without question.

Shame on those who speak out against those who will either directly or by association, slaughter innocent people so corporations can profit.

Shame on those who speak out against those who do such things knowing full well what they are involved in, but feel free of conscience because its "only a job" and it puts food on their families table back home.

I have spoken to many people in the military and they just dont seem to care if they are doing the right thing or not, to them its just a job and a way to make money. This is why I refuse to support any hostile invasion forces, ie NATO. They are nothing more than hitmen for the corporate giants that run this world. They rape and pillage nations so the elite few can get richer. They have the world on the brink of destruction because they profit from it.

Very little of the conflicts the western forces are involved in are anything to do with liberating people from tyranny. If there are tyrants in control of nations, its because the west put them there so they had an excuse to invade in the future. This world is a screwed up, sick place.

I have nothing but disgust for these soldiers. Every time one comes home in a body bag, its no more than they deserve. I hate it that they are treated as heroes when they are villains.

I do not honor or support our troops. The whole notion that we absolutely have to 'support our troops' no matter what is so sickening for the obvious reason that the mentally deranged and genuinely evil 'elite' of the world know that the masses will use that mantra as a coping mechanism against all the death and destruction that they (the elites) create and will to continue to create. I will not pick up a gun and I don't support the next guy who does either.

I refuse to believe that what we are doing in Afghanistan right now is justified for example. Anyone notice the recent coordinated bombings in Afghanistan by the Taliban as part of a spring offensive? After all this time and does this look like any indication of success on our part? We've dumped trillions upon trillions into that black hole...for what? Meanwhile our own nation is slowly dying while we try to help a nation that many Americans couldn't even find on a map. We've accomplished nothing and it's been nothing but a disgusting waste of human lives and tax dollars.

eta: Sentimentality is the superstructure erected upon brutality

Sorry...I find it so hard to support someone that is fighting in an illeagle war.

There's to much info. out there to not know what's going on...besides....if you're off to fight in a War....you had better know what you're fighting for....and right now...it has nothing to do w/ my freedoms.

Who I feel sorry for....are the kids that go in so they can live " The American Dream " and go to college....

Deep down in my heart though....that's like selling yourself to the devil.

IMOIMOIMOIMOIMOIMOIMOIMOIMOIMOIMOIMO

IF YOU'RE GOING TO FIGHT AND KILL PEOPLE...YOU HAD BETTER KNOW WHY YOU'RE DOING IT!

To those that say, " their just doing what they're told "

That's just ridiculous!

Imo

Originally posted by Firefly_
Shame on those who have the audacity to speak out against what is wrong.

Shame on those who actually bother to find out more than one side of the story, and not do what they are told without question.

Shame on those who speak out against those who will either directly or by association, slaughter innocent people so corporations can profit.

Shame on those who speak out against those who do such things knowing full well what they are involved in, but feel free of conscience because its "only a job" and it puts food on their families table back home.

I have spoken to many people in the military and they just dont seem to care if they are doing the right thing or not, to them its just a job and a way to make money. This is why I refuse to support any hostile invasion forces, ie NATO. They are nothing more than hitmen for the corporate giants that run this world. They rape and pillage nations so the elite few can get richer. They have the world on the brink of destruction because they profit from it.

Very little of the conflicts the western forces are involved in are anything to do with liberating people from tyranny. If there are tyrants in control of nations, its because the west put them there so they had an excuse to invade in the future. This world is a screwed up, sick place.

I have nothing but disgust for these soldiers. Every time one comes home in a body bag, its no more than they deserve. I hate it that they are treated as heroes when they are villains.

shame on you. you don't happen to be one of those Phelps people do you? 'cause you sure sound like one.

Well, they are there to do the job they were told they had to do and most do it well. However the ones that are fighting now are NOT fighting for my freedom and that really is something that get tired of hearing/reading.
They really dont deserve to be treated like heroes, although there are some that did heroic things for their comrades and perhaps they deserve the recognition they get but then there are some that are lower than snake sh*t.
The Abu-Ghraib incident, the raping of a teenage girl, then burning her family to death, shooting civilians and planting guns on them, wiping out entire families and the many instances of torture that we know of and the ones that we dont know of.
All this did was embarrass the country, created more hatred for us throughout the world, which in my opinion, made it considerably unsafer for Americans, rather than safer.
If you insist on honoring a "profession" then I would think that Firemen/women, deserve that honor more.