The Doozy (Pt. 2)

The first entry to be covered came at #37 on the petition from a Patrick Madrid, who wrote,
“(empty space is for anyone brave enough to sit inside a fox whole for two days and still have the nerve to talk some shit. our soldiers is the last thing sane we have left of our political bullshit gov. it's not our soldiers we should be mad at. it's the fuckin millionaires we vote in to run our government. we as soldiers just do our jobs. protecting some tree huggin pussy who'd much rather cry than to stand up for himself. if they still fill the same afterwards they can move to Bagdad and i'll pay for the flight--- fuckin cowards)”
Spelling errors aside, there are some problems with this statement. In my opinion one need not be “tree hugging” to be against military action in a foreign land. You may love trees and all, but they are two different animals. I also wonder if he would actually pay for my flight over there—if you could get one—should I be able to contact him. However, the biggest problem I see in his argument is that he seeks to separate the soldiers from the “fucking millionaires we vote in to run our government.” But to me it is all the same boat. They all work for the government…the only difference being that I don’t get to vote on who is in the military.

Jumping down the list to number 102 there comes another question in my mind. (I also can’t help but notice the open hostility in many of the notes attached to this petition. I’m not psychologist, but I have to think that there is some link between this and the type of person that joins/completely backs the military. But one must keep in mind that they have been affronted by a group that is themselves being offensive and aggressive.) So anyway, Dillon, at 102 writes,
“These people need to be eliminated, the men and women of our armed forces are the only reason why there is myspace right now!!! If it wasnt for our soldiers keeping us safe god only knows where we would be!!!”
I just feel that it bears mentioning that our soldiers haven’t really been keeping us all that safe of late. Going overseas and basically staging a coup on a foreign government that doesn’t seem to have had the inclination or capability to pose an actual threat to us I suppose keeps us kind of safe. Either that or it just enrages an entire region of the world at our intrusion. The last time that our government/military actually needed to keep us safe was almost five years ago, and the only heroes that came out of that were those that were brave after the fact, those that limited the loss of life as best they could, and we should thank them for their efforts. The military, however, did very little to protect the people from that attack. The last time that our troops actually kept us safe from an outside attack was before the second world war. Our troops, regardless of who’s orders it was on, have long since been too busy in the political game to be at home when needed, which is not a happy or comforting thought.

Within the petition there are glimmers of hope, like 119,
“Stephanie Curry ~ sister of an airman ~ don't hate the troops.. hate the president who sent them where they do not belong.. some military personel joined for reasons other than wanting to defend our country from terrorist we armed!”
It is [I hope] a well known fact that military recruiters target young and under-privliged people, with the promise of funds or a way out of their current situation. In fact, most of the people that I know who joined up did so because they needed money, or wanted to have their college paid for. However, there is a certain expectation and culpability that come with signing up for the military.

One noticeable thing amid all the name-calling and finger-pointing is the idea that somehow the troops currently fighting in the Middle East and elsewhere are protecting more than our country’s financial interests. There is a lot of, “God Bless all the men and women who are fighting to keep our country safe.”, “God bless all of you who are willing to put your lives on the line for our country.”, and so on, that give me the distinct impression that people think that our country is in actual danger—possibly a danger that is not the result of out involvement in foreign lands.