I Won the Cold War, You're Welcome World

I might as well start with what tipped me into this rant.

It was this freaking song.

Someone shoved it in my face with an emphasis on "if you don't like it there's the frickin' door."

So I've listened to this song over and over, reading the lyrics. So this guy makes money singing songs. He hasn't served. He hasn't taken a bullet or anything close. He sings songs for money.

The song itself is about a guy sitting on his ass watching television. Every once in a while he jumps up and screams at the screen. Then he strikes a bunch of heroic poses. It is a song about a poser.

What about those statues coming down? Like what? The bust of KKK leader Nathan Bedford Forrest removed from the Tennessee State Capitol? Did the poser shed blood to keep it there or something? He sings like he did.

So half of my family tree is from white Southern stock. Hell, even my First Wife had an uncle named Forrest after the KKK leader. She was even wearing his jacket with his name on it when we met.

Any way, enough about that song.

I relayed a little something about VFW Vietnam vets over here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Look it took 50 years for the Korea papers to get declassified. They revealed that the U.S. actually did bomb North Korea back into the stone age. The Americans are rather fond of screaming "Bomb 'em into the stone age." Well we did that once. How's that working out now?

So I was at this meeting of Bahai people one night. The Moscow theater hostage crisis of October 2002 was the news of the day, plus the lead up to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. I overheard this one Bahai guy all excited like ask another one "Is this it do you think, when the U.S. will destroy all Shiites?" Evidently they have some prophecy from God's grandson that the U.S. will avenge God's exile from Iran.

So after the meeting which was designed to get friends, neighbors, and relatives to join the peaceful Bahai faith, the host was asking me some personal questions. It came out that I was a veteran.

He said, "Thank you for your service." in a friendly way of course.

I responded with, "You have no idea what I did, do you? You probably never will."

Now I know that that's a rather harsh thing to say, but it is the truth. It took fifty years for the Korea papers to get declassified. I'm sure the Cold War as a Whole papers may just get lost in the shuffling madness of the locomotive breath.

a reply to: pthena

Thanks!

Aaron Lewis was raised by leftist hippies until they split. He has talked about his life and the journey he took to get where he is. Not everyone has to serve in the military to find themselves and appreciate what this country is and what those who served did for the rest of us. Sure he makes money just like the rest of us. He does it in a way that neither you nor I can. So what?

He sees himself as a songwriter. Lewis considers it a gift, his ability to hear a profound statement from a friend or passerby that sparks the idea for an entire song.
“I’m supposed to write songs,” he says. “It’s way too easy for me for this to not be what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“This career that has given me more than I’ve ever imagined has also cost me anything and everything that’s ever meant anything to me,” he says. “Everything.”

As far as him not serving

“I wanted to go military when I graduated high school,” Lewis says. “That was the strongest option I had.”

The movie “Saving Private Ryan” was about four Ryan brothers, but the Lewis family had six brothers all serving in World War II — Lewis’ great uncles. His father, who served in the Army Corps of Engineers during Vietnam, discouraged Lewis from signing up.

“And that was at the beginning of Operation Desert Storm,” Lewis said.

Since then, he’s felt guilty and tries to let those who serve know he appreciates it.

Cut the dude some slack. I bet he would spend hours listening to your stories or being there for you if you needed to vent, in the middle of the night...and never judge you for anything.......because he is that kind of humble guy.

Aaron Lewis Talks

a reply to: pthena
hey pthena!

Servicing your country is honorable, it's not absolution of course, there are orders to be kept and executed. Compartmentalization and lack of big picture... a friendly-fire-"fog of war". Obvious crimes are a different measure though.

The answer to the question "Am I the only one?" -is always no.
-someone

I can't watch the videos now, will do later, well knowing this could backfire praising the saying, but the saying is still true. I can't prove it mathematically though

Personally I am not a Country music fan. But I like this, how could you not like this beautiful patriotic song?

a reply to: shaemac

I read his bio in wikipedia. That article you linked to was dated Jan 16, 2017. Somewhat before the current hyper partisanship.

He can write and sing whatever he feels like. It's a free country.

But you know he's got a following all hopped up on what they call "patriotism", in which some Americans are "patriotic" and the others aren't. To some of those "patriots" I may just not be what they consider "patriotic" enough. Like the person who shoved the song into my face.

a reply to: pthena

Patriotic porn equals easy money and cheap applause!

a reply to: Sookiechacha

It can incite violence too.

If an American is unwilling to shed blood because a fellow American is exercising his or her Constitutional right to burn a piece of cloth then ...

If an American is unwilling to take a bullet to keep a Jim Crow Era statue glorifying the Confederacy and KKK in place then ...

America: Violence and the KKK, love it or leave it.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

knowing this could backfire praising the saying,

I think that the re-unification of Germany was a good thing. Many Americans thought it would be the end of the World.

I think re-unification of the U.S. would be a good thing. The Confederacy lost. It is madness to pretend otherwise. But here we are.

a reply to: pthena

I believe the term you're looking for is "pandering".



Even if it's two dimensional nationalist shlock on par with Josh Groban style Christian pop it's still healthier than burning and looting.

a reply to: TzarChasm

Yes. Thank you. Pandering.

I liked the Bo Burnham parody. I'm drawing a blank on Josh Groban though.

Singing is healthier than burning and looting. Yes.

a reply to: pthena

All right, I lied. It wasn't the song that triggered my rant. That was merely a contributing factor.

It was the memory of my father's funeral, and the way those VFW vets looked at me.

I was actually invited to my father's funeral. Those guys just read the announcement in the newspaper and showed up.

A big thank you to all who responded to my rant. I feel better now.

a reply to: pthena

About what, exactly, are you angry?

a reply to: KansasGirl

I've narrowed it down to this: www.abovetopsecret.com...
and see my last post.

Move along , nothing to see here.
Just another Progressive Liberal anti-US thread.

From a once "Long-Haired , tree-hugging hippie Progressive Liberal "
Then I grew up .

a reply to: Gothmog

Why thank you. You should have been the first responder.

It would have saved us all a whole lot of trouble.

Is the song supposed to be singing from the perspective of your typical right-leaning fox-watching conservative? Like a satire of sorts.

Americans... bomb the hell out of civilians, minipulate their government, and tell them we're giving them freedom..

a reply to: CptGreenTea

The song is about a guy upset over what he sees on TV. I don't know what network he's supposed to be watching. I don't think it's meant as satire, but it sure seems a bit ironic.

My sister was really upset about the hype "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in 2002, so she called me up. I told her that once the invasion starts all you'll hear is "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

Two years later she told me I was absolutely right.

A person can be a patriot willing to die for this country without having served in an official capacity. I know people willing to do so who have never served in the military or law enforcement.

Never underestimate the power of a true patriot.

a reply to: VierEyes

Welcome to ATS

Patriot comes from the Latin. It literally means fellow countryman.

Partisan is a more recent word from Italian “defender of a party”. In a paramilitary sense it could be "irregular troops acting behind occupying enemy lines in the ways of harassment or sabotage; a guerrilla fighter."

So if a partisan group within its own country sees itself as in enemy territory, that partisan group isn't exactly patriotic.

Perhaps partisanship is easier to muster than true patriotism.