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Originally Posted by Azure
Good God people.
Soldiers are loved now because the public understands that they are sacrificing their lives and in some ways their own personal freedom to answer the call when our nation needs protecting.
The fact that they are involved in wars like Iraq has nothing to do with the soldier, and everything to do with policy set forth by the leaders WE elect as civilians. So if anyone should be ashamed of what they've done, it should be us. So get the hell off your pedestal and quit saying we only appreciate the sacrifice these days because we've been brainwashed by the government.
Some of us actually truly, honestly with incredible gratitude appreciate what people like CaptainCrunch and millions of others have done to ensure that ignorance can be spewed across the internet about propaganda and government bullcrap. I appreciate my freedom. I appreciate the people that protect it with their lives.
The only reason we can sit here and call wars in Iraq unjustified is because there are people better than us that gave their lives for a cause most of us will never understand.
The peace movement was full of a bunch of hippies who smoked too much pot and did way too many drugs. The majority of them didn't even realize what they were protesting against. Vietnam sucked. We all know that. But that wasn't the soldiers fault.
I would love to send some of you into the jungle when you're 19 years old, and while your buddies are dying around you(50,000 of them) I would tell you to keep focused and not loose your mind, and then see how you respond.
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Its funny, I joined when I was 18, I didn't have any high ideal motives like saving the world, I needed a job and a place to live because my parents were determined to throw me out. Chicks dig uniforms and it was certainly a cooler job description then working at a fast food restaurant.
It wasn't until I really got into basic training, and got a heaping dose of history and perspective and learned on the job about how important it is for soldiers to do what they do.
I don't think anyone gains appreciation for the whole concept of duty, honor and valor until they've been exposed to it for a period of time.
To be honest, the one thing that soldiers have had to face from the first time that they were actually segmented from society is that what we have to do is important, and a lot of ways sacred, we also learned that the general population would never gain an appreciation for those in uniforms until the worst possible scenarios came to life. And there will always be a segment of society that resented and hated us because they didn't have a clear understanding of the sacrifices that you have to endure even when your working and training in peacetime.
There was a great line in Heartbreak Ridge where Clint Eastwood was getting dressed down by the commanding officer of his division.
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I don't know what strings you pulled to get back into this division but I can assure you that I don't like it. This is the new Marine Corps. The new breed. Characters like you are an anachronism. You should be sealed in a case that reads break glass only in the event of war. Got no tolerance for you old timers who think that you know it better and can have it all your own way. Understand?
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I think that the bolded is how a lot of people saw soldiers and the military after Vietnam drew to a close and America went through the great restructuring.
But at 18 did I have high minded ideas of defending democracy from the evils of communism, and defending the rights of a shrill woman accusing me of killing babies? Absolutely not, I had a more basic understanding of things. Defend the country, defend the weak and honestly get laid as much as I could.
That sense of enlightenment didn't pop into my mind until my last year, and on reflection after I returned from wearing the blue beret.