I don't want to say that I hate the military. I don't. If you are reading this that is not the impression I want you to take away from these humble paragraphs. In an age long past they were a force for good in the world. I no longer believe that to be the case.
My perspective is unique on this subject and it comes not from having served. My perspective is that of a member of a community that, for all intents, probably wouldn't exist without an Army base to support our economy. It comes from observing how these people conduct themselves when they are not working. Before you dismiss this as the ramblings of a townie that got snubbed at the bar for a GI, I ask a bit of indulgence to make my point. In no way do I mean this to be a dig at the whole of Uniformed Service. I know that there are a great many people who chose to join because of a genuine love of their country. Let it not be said that I do not respect your opinions and choices. I am now, and have long been a proponent of judging a people by the least of their representatives, not the greatest.
The class of people that the military attracts has gone way downhill. It strikes me as being a lot different now than it used to be. Back in the days when the US fought wars that meant something, (as opposed to now, where they act as a private security force to protect the overseas financial interests of Washington's elite) soldiers were patriots. They were people who fought for their country because they believed in something.
What we have today is nothing but street gangs that are organized and subsided by the US Government. These people aren't in it for the love of their country. They aren't in it because they believe in an ideal. They are in it for the money and the prestige. They think that being a soldier entitles them to some form of instant respect. As a result, what we have is no longer an Army, but a bunch of immature assholes who think that just because the uniform they put on is camouflage and a beret instead of a polo shirt and a paper hat that makes them better than the people at McDonald's who serve them their morning coffee. It is a whole cross-section of the population that believes they are entitled to more than the rest of us because of what the do for a living. Their meals, housing, clothing, transportation and entertainment costs are all paid for... So why do they still think they are entitled to still more?
Allow me to relate a story to you. A couple weeks ago, around 2:30 AM, a soldier stumbled into the hotel where I work and asked me for a room and demanded a military discount. This man was obviously intoxicated, and the girl he had in tow was so far gone that she nearly passed out on the desk. I told this individual (truthfully) that we had no rooms availible at a military discount and he would have to pay full price. Disreguard the fact that that I believe a military rate should be reserved for people on official military business, not some drunk douchebag who doesn't want to take the chick he fed shots to for three hours back to the barracks to screw her. He proceeded to tear into me because he was under the false imprssion that I would relent under his continued belligerence. I won't relate everything he said, as most of it was personal insults to me and my lineage, but there was one thing that caught my attention.
"That's bullshit!" He said, when his string of foul words eventually gave way to some form of coherant thought. "I fight and die for you and this is how you support your troops?"
I bit back the response I wanted to give: "You're still alive. You must really suck at your job." I also had to hold my tongue when it occurred to me question to his female companion about why, after witnessing all this, she was still planning on sleeping with this guy. If I were in her position, I would have have left him standing there and called a cab.
It took several more minutes of explaining to him that he was going to pay what everyone else paid for a room or he was going to leave, as well as a threat of calling someone to remove him, in cuffs if the need arose.
After he had left in a huff, nearly taking out a set of sliding glass doors with his egress, I set to thinking about how whatever he did, he wasn't fighting for me. I have no personal interest or steak in Middle-Eastern politics, nor do I have any financial ties to Afghanistan or Iraq. What I really keyed in on though was the word 'support'. It occured to me that all the amenities I listed above are being provided (at least in part) by me. In fact, they are being provided by all of us involuntarily. We do not have the luxury of opting out of taxes, so we support the troops weather we want to or not. A portion of what I make in a week never sees the light of day becaue it is wisked away to pay for our defence. What the hell else do they want from us?
So the next time one of these cock-swinging commandos demands that you support the troops, I implore you to remind them that you already do.
