Joining the military doesn’t make you a hero (Triple Bagger)

Boston Globe ^ | 7 Dec 14 | Stephen Kinzer

[central_va]

Kinzer:

[central_va]

What I know with certainty is that the stench emanating from Boston should be eliminated

It's called Romney Country.

[SECURE AMERICA]

(Who is a hero? In today’s America, it is someone who chooses a military career, puts on a uniform, and prepares for war.)

OUR SOLDIERS prepare to defend this Nation and freedom and liberty.

[ilgipper]

I was editing to see another photo of a 26 year old pajama boy with horn rimmed glasses, but it makes sense it is an old, over the hill 70s anti war radical acedemic.

[SECURE AMERICA]

( Placing soldiers and veterans on this kind of pedestal is a relatively new phenomenon. Past generations of Americans saw soldiers as ordinary human beings.)

Real Americans have always understood the soldier to be a hero. The defender of all that is right and good................

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Thing is, brother Sarge, I didn't serve. I was a "draft-tweener" born in 1958. Still, I knew enough SE Asia heroes to understand their specific sacrifice. Folks like Kinzer look at flying to Hong Kong for 2 weeks as their sacrifice. Hillary sees her (faux) dodging of snipper fire as a sacrifice. They have NO CLUE what our soldiers ^sacrificed^. It was more than missed births, more than missed birthdays, more than unattended parent funerals (those are what the journalists appear to consider sacrifices!). Here's sacrifice no-one talks of but is real: Walking into a rice paddy and freezing after hearing what sounds like the click of a mine under your foot (older brother of my best friend in High School)...or was it just a twig? Clearing a collection of huts (AKA: Viet Village) and facing down a VC using his wife as a war-shield (another acquaintance). He convinced the opposing soldier to surrender, being lucky enough to have learned the proper phrases in French-Viet. There are, literally, thousands of anecdotes available for these so-called-journalists to access, yet they choose to remain ignorant.

[SECURE AMERICA]

A quick check of this guys bio’s show him to be very anti- US Military.............

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

The winning post of this thread!

Thanks

[Lazamataz]

One reason Americans have come to view soldiers as our only protectors is that we have accepted the idea that our country is under permanent threat from fanatics who want to kill us and destroy our way of life.

We ARE under permanent threat from fanatics who want to kill us and destroy our way of life.

But enough about liberals.

[a fool in paradise]

we have accepted the idea that our country is under permanent threat from fanatics who want to kill us and destroy our way of life. Yet we also felt this way at the height of the Cold War,

Smells like a red diaper doper baby talking there.

[elcid1970]

“...we have accepted the idea that our country is under permanent threat from fanatics who want to kill us and destroy our way of life.”

Like so many liberals, Kinzer prefers to not utter the words “Islam” or “Muslims” in referring to said fanatics.

Jerk.

[StonyBurk]

oye— I seems to regret understanding that to the progressives—to the social justice crowd a hero is those who crap on cop cars—or better yet kill cops.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: ungrateful, irresponsible,,disrespectful little brats who think that just because they attended a few more years of school that they are mentally superior to others and can tell others what they can or can’t do. ::

Might I propose a scenario? Kinzer and an infantryman are in the same room. The soldier has his AR pointed at Kinzer and is telling him to remove all his clothes and pee in a cup.

Kinzer appeals to his own superior intellect and attempts to convince the soldier to get-rid of his rifle and, if the soldier agrees, they will both get naked and pee in a cup as a show of commonality.

Question: Does Kinzer get naked and pee? How quickly and will he pee ^before^ he removes his clothes?

[DJ Taylor]

Here’s an “anecdote” you can add to your collection:

The other day at the office, one of my co-workers asked me how it was that I served multiple tours in Vietnam as a combat infantryman and I didn’t get PTSD. My rather flippant answer was “I didn’t get PTSD in Vietnam, I gave it.”

However, this PTSD question made me wonder what PTSD is and what the symptoms are, so I did a little research on the subject and found that I did indeed possess symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concerning a traumatic and very stressful incident that occurred during my last tour in Vietnam. I was a professional soldier when the traumatic incident occurred and had accumulated over six years in Vietnam engaged occasionally in close combat with a vicious and cunningly capable enemy, but the traumatic event wasn’t as a result of close combat with this enemy.

One day when I was totally focused on closing with and destroying the enemy, something caught my eye, I looked around and found a new enemy had unexpectedly appeared behind me; it was the American people. The same Democrat Party who had originally sent me to Vietnam promising that, “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty,” had now sided with the Communists I was fighting. They were parading in the streets of the United States under a Viet Cong flag, were quoting from Mao’s Red Book, and were spitting on and flinging insults at returning Vietnam Veterans. Then, a Democrat led Congress cut off funding for the Vietnam War, American combat troops were withdrawn and we abandoned a valiant ally to their fate.

I was ordered out of the country in 1972, and when I arrived at Travis Air Force Base, purposely in the dark of the night, I was advised to change out of my uniform and put on civilian clothing to avoid being attacked by the American people when I entered San Francisco. I wasn’t at all surprised when a few decades later these same people elected a Marxist-Communist as President of what was once my country.

Yes, the deep, burning hatred I feel for the Democrat Party to this day could be diagnosed as a symptom of PTSD, and I assure you, every Vietnam Veteran I know feels the same way.

[a fool in paradise]

Many were killed during the Vietnam War, though, and that did not move us to worship everyone who put on a uniform.

Many were drafted against their wishes and didn't gobble a ton of drugs before their inspection or claim to be gay or run away to Canada to get out of it.

That is not to insult those who died in service, those gave the ultimate sacrifice.

The flip of this coin is the pro-North Vietnamese support stateside from Commie sympathizers who spit on our returning troops (they called this a lie) and called them baby killers (the media won't let you call abortionists baby killers).

[a fool in paradise]

At sports stadiums, many games now include a ceremony at which a uniformed “honor guard” marches in formation bearing ceremonial weapons. Then, during a break in the action, a soldier appears on the field or court, waving to the adoring crowd as an announcer recounts service in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the “war on terror.

This was an all voluntary service.

[a fool in paradise]

“Teachers are heroes.” When they aren’t molesting their students.

Where is the sacrifice? Where is the martyrdom?

Taking a lower pay grade (because they only work 75% of the year)?

[trisham]

It’s the Boston Globe. Need I say more?

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

I’ll repeat myself:

“There are, literally, thousands of anecdotes available for these so-called-journalists to access, yet they choose to remain ignorant.”

And again: “they choose to remain ignorant.”

[cotton]

My hero is my son currently serving his fifth tour of duty in Iraq.undoubtedly clad in house slippers
since no boots are allowed on the ground.