first off, 
for Tradgidy and paintedbat for being cool and concerned. you two rock.
got to talk to three of my oldest and dearest freinds last night. real freinds, unlike the worthless fucks i seem to keep surrounding myself with (present company excluded). also found out i've got a place to live when old uncle sugar (uncle sam to civvies) decides i can leave. so a good night all in all.
---------------UPDATE---------------
god dammit. fucking civilians (and note, i do not mean all civilians, just the vocal idiots)!
if you are not an active member (and this includes reservists, national guard too) of the united states military, we do not care what you think. we do not want to hear your opinions. this is true even when we actually agree with you. until you sweat and bleed with us, you do not have an opinion as far as we're concerned. what you have is bullshit. we are not like you, you are not like us. at root, we are all killers and walking weapons of as much destruction as we can pull off. we fight wars, the purpose of a war is to kill the other side for whatever reason.
please remember, even if we agree with you, we will not do so in public in most instances and WE STILL DON"T WANT TO HEAR IT. we don't want to hear about how much you respect us, we don't want to hear how much you hate bush, or like bush or whoever, we don't care what cnn/fox/etc say. mostly we just want you to leave us alone and stay out of the military's business unlessyou're willing to come put on the uniform and do what we do.
our way of life is different than yours. most of us have buried or come close to burying freinds over this. and all we hear are the same empty phrases from both sides of the pro/anti-war contigents. "we support the soldiers," "united we stand," and all sorts of other meaningless bullshit. no, united WE stand. you stand behind us, comforted by the safety we provided with our blood and bodies. then you tell us we don't matter with your actions. you want to support a soldier, enlist, and take your turn providing the freedom you've come to take for granted. the only people i exclude from this judgement (and yes, i admit to passing judgement on the majority of america, because that's where i'm from) are cops, firemen, emts and the like. because they are the ones who keep my family safe while i go do my job in the desert.
not serving doesn't make you a bad person in my eyes. not everybody can take what we take and do the things we do. but if you don't serve, as far as i'm concerned, you don't get to have an opinion on those issues dealing with the military. we do the shittiest of jobs. until you do it, we couldn't care less what you think. so don't bother me with your civilian nonsense.
i'm not a lifer, and never planned to be. but i am a soldier, and when i'm out, i will not voice my opinions on how the military should be run, as i will no longer be an active member.
fuck it, i quit, it's not like anybody who needs to hear this is going to understand it anyway.
"this we'll defend" (the motto of the united states army)
-the geist
for Tradgidy and paintedbat for being cool and concerned. you two rock.
got to talk to three of my oldest and dearest freinds last night. real freinds, unlike the worthless fucks i seem to keep surrounding myself with (present company excluded). also found out i've got a place to live when old uncle sugar (uncle sam to civvies) decides i can leave. so a good night all in all.
---------------UPDATE---------------
god dammit. fucking civilians (and note, i do not mean all civilians, just the vocal idiots)!
if you are not an active member (and this includes reservists, national guard too) of the united states military, we do not care what you think. we do not want to hear your opinions. this is true even when we actually agree with you. until you sweat and bleed with us, you do not have an opinion as far as we're concerned. what you have is bullshit. we are not like you, you are not like us. at root, we are all killers and walking weapons of as much destruction as we can pull off. we fight wars, the purpose of a war is to kill the other side for whatever reason.
please remember, even if we agree with you, we will not do so in public in most instances and WE STILL DON"T WANT TO HEAR IT. we don't want to hear about how much you respect us, we don't want to hear how much you hate bush, or like bush or whoever, we don't care what cnn/fox/etc say. mostly we just want you to leave us alone and stay out of the military's business unlessyou're willing to come put on the uniform and do what we do.
our way of life is different than yours. most of us have buried or come close to burying freinds over this. and all we hear are the same empty phrases from both sides of the pro/anti-war contigents. "we support the soldiers," "united we stand," and all sorts of other meaningless bullshit. no, united WE stand. you stand behind us, comforted by the safety we provided with our blood and bodies. then you tell us we don't matter with your actions. you want to support a soldier, enlist, and take your turn providing the freedom you've come to take for granted. the only people i exclude from this judgement (and yes, i admit to passing judgement on the majority of america, because that's where i'm from) are cops, firemen, emts and the like. because they are the ones who keep my family safe while i go do my job in the desert.
not serving doesn't make you a bad person in my eyes. not everybody can take what we take and do the things we do. but if you don't serve, as far as i'm concerned, you don't get to have an opinion on those issues dealing with the military. we do the shittiest of jobs. until you do it, we couldn't care less what you think. so don't bother me with your civilian nonsense.
i'm not a lifer, and never planned to be. but i am a soldier, and when i'm out, i will not voice my opinions on how the military should be run, as i will no longer be an active member.
fuck it, i quit, it's not like anybody who needs to hear this is going to understand it anyway.
"this we'll defend" (the motto of the united states army)
-the geist
Which I wish I could have done. I had planned to go career, and those events forced me to restructure my entire life. I still help out in the ways that I can in my community -- including getting involved in situations like those involving domestic violence, something that has resulted in threats, slander and, in one case, an attempt on my life. I put my neck out even as a civilian, to make things better for the people around me.
I understand your sentiment; civilians often just don't get what it's like to be in the military and to live a soldier's life. And personally, I find it most offensive to hear comments from hawks who are fit to serve but won't enlist... sending people like my uncles and friends to risk their lives when they won't put their own on the line. But that said, I think that you may have allowed yourself to be poisoned by the more vocal, "I'm going to tell you how to do your job" segment of the civilian population. A lot of us -- those, like me, who can't serve, and those who find that we are able to contribute in other ways -- don't want to take control of the military. However, we do want to make sure that our soldiers are effective, well-cared-for, well-trained and well-armed, and sent to fight only for justified causes.
My father was a firefighter. Every time the Plectron went off as a kid I knew that he might not come back. I know that he had a disdain for people who wanted to muck about in how the firefighters, EMTs, etc. did their jobs when they didn't know fuck-all about it. But I also know that he never lost sight of the fact that, as a firefighter, it was his job to serve -- and that he signed up knowing that full well.
Being retired now I think that he still has a vital role in affecting, as a civilian, how firefighters are trained and equipped, and how the fire stations are run. He's been there -- and he knows more about the job than any rookie who just got on the crew. That carries a lot of weight and, IMO, should be respected even though he's no longer rescuing kids from burning houses.
Some civilians are stuffed-shirt, pontificating assholes, sure. As far as I'm concerned, it's a moral imperative to blow them off and shove their noses in their own shit. But it's a mistake to think that all -- or even most -- civilians are that way, and an even graver mistake to say that the words of people who have served don't carry the same weight as those of people who are serving. That only spits in the faces of the people who came before you.
Feel free to disregard or delete this as you will; I'm a civilian, after all, even if I'm not one by choice. I gave a lot of thought to whether or not to post this, though, and eventually came to the conclusion that it had to be said.
Best of luck to you.