Everything here is my own opinion, so you know who to blame…

For me, especially lately, it’s getting to a point where I just don’t know why I bother serving in the military to protect our country. Much of it comes from liberal media, much of it from friends and co-workers who just don’t really know the truth behind the lies. Worse, I used to honestly say that I fought for freedom. Do I now?

True, like oh so many of my generation I didn’t join the military for the defense of freedom, I’m honest about that. Originally, I didn’t have the money to continue my education past my bachelors degree, so I signed up for all the wonderful benefits our soldiers in green enjoy. Even though my “real” goal didn’t really get as far as I’d like, I advanced further in the military than I personally expected in the time I’ve been here. But, that, is not what I want to talk about.

Today, and for many days previous, we have people capitalizing on horrible tragedies to push forward their own agendas. Agendas that non-biased (as non-biased as they get) organizations tell them with statistics will not work. As Uncle likes to say, “Dancing in the blood of children”, which is actually fairly accurate.

Worse, because media organizations have taken it upon themselves to help forward those agendas, or others like them. Knowing full well that many of the information they provide are either outright lies or miss-truths, we all know the kind. And yet, these media organizations provide their stories to massive audience bases, people who basically don’t know any better. Because most people get their information this way, they so strongly influence the individual’s vote toward an agenda of lies. A journalist, ironically, defines it best:

“All journalists are cowards. Hitchens knows it, I know it, everybody in this business knows it. If there were any justice at all, every last goddamn one of us would be lowered, head-first, into a wood-chipper. Over Arizona. Shoot a nice red mist over the whole state, make it arable for a year or two. A year’s worth of fava beans and endive for the children of Bangladesh. I dare anyone in our business to say that that wouldn’t represent a better use of our rotting bodies than the actual fruits of our labor.”
–Journalist Matt Taibbi

Even today, after the bill has sunsetted, I can still find people who honestly believe they can walk into a store and buy themselves an M16 or AK47 just as they could turn around and buy that Glock on the shelf. My standard response is to look them in the eye and say “Fine, we’ll go to the gunstore next weekend and see what he says.” Why? Because people don’t believe me anymore. They don’t believe me because I’m an informed citizen, because I don’t pull my data from any one source, and I back it up with facts I can verify. Informed citizens are the minority. That, however, is just one way I like to use as an example.

I support a war in Iraq. For freedom, and to give people a chance they would never otherwise get. I believe we really are making a difference there. I know that much of our involvement comes from our country’s financial desire, and not our desire to spread freedom, but you can’t help but see that we are making a difference. Still, many of our men and women have given their lives for freedom, and not enough have been recognized.

But we have so many things going on that I just can’t support. Homeland Security’s Terror Watch Lists people can get on just by buying a book (let alone a gun), ‘Terrorists’ imprisoned without trial or access to a lawyer, laws against lawful pieces of equipment spawned by blatant lies, just to name a few. Or some of the less insidious but also disgusting issues which have become so very important lately. Blaming the weapon, not the criminal. Blaming the breed, not the owner who failed to train his dog. Blaming the fast food company, because you’re a fat bastard, or if you’re just too stupid to realize coffee is fucking hot! People, things are out of control.

“He who dares to point out the problem is the problem. That’s the only Eternal Verity of dysfunctional institutions. For that matter, it may be the Eternal Verity of being human, right down to the core. He who rocks the boat will be the first tossed overboard. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is burned as a heretic.” -Claire Wolfe

More and more, I keep asking myself if I am doing the right thing? Should I really be protecting a country so incredibly biased against the truth? Is this country truly the land of the free anymore? But if I don’t, and for whatever reason, people like me make the same choice, what will end up happening?

For now, I will continue to serve our nation. But we must remember the oaths our soldiers gave “From enemies foreign and domestic.” Because, one day, we may be forced to worry about that second clause.

Posted in uncategorized on March 24th, 2005 by Fox | RSS 2.0 |