To those who have served ... you're not all heroes

While I do not agree with the OP as far as current troops not being heros, because they are. Whether they are fighting a just fight or not is not the issue, they are still fighting and in their minds the fight is just. They are fighting for us, no soldier went overseas with the intention of protecthing oil interests. However I do agree with the part of it being commericalized, I actually was thinking the same thing yesterday while walking around, people do not respect this day anymore like they should, they see it as a day off work(in Canada). I think instead of staying home and being lazy, its our duty to show respect on this day for everyone who died for us

People say, well you cant' shut down a city for a day, WHY not, without our vets, we would have no city to shut down. Its an abortion of respect to spend this day in your pj's watching talk shows.

Originally posted by Prove_It_NOW
The arrogance you have is disgusting.

Well, since your OWN arrogance has led you to believe that you can diagnose us with various social iniquities, I think I'll take a stab at diagnosing you with one of your own:

You keep going on and on about being "brainwashed" and the fact that we are "ignorant" to what's "really going on." And where, sir, have you gotten your "facts" about all this? You don't have the slightest clue as to what it is you are discussing. I get the feeling that you are dealing with some deep seeded lack of self worth. Maybe you were picked on as a child or when you were in high school. For your whole life, you've associated anyone with a "macho" attitude with those who caused you pain. And so now, when faced with this day that has been set aside to commemorate the sacrifices of all the men and women who have served, you are reminded of your days as a young person when you were hurt by others, and you lash out in an attempt to make yourself feel like the better person.

As I've read your posts, and those of others who share your sentiments, I became more and more angry. Not something I needed while here at work! But as I've thought about it, I actually feel somewhat sorry for you. You really have no idea what you're talking about, and you just come off as someone who lacks any sense of decency and respect. You might want to seek professional help for your own issues with your past, as it's affecting the way you interact with others!

Also, in order to help you out further, I have arrived at a solution to everyone's problem: let's all just stop doing anything for the sake of others! How's that sound? Would you like that?? The next time you need something from someone else, don't even bother to ask, just do it yourself. And that goes for fighting to defend not only your basic freedoms, but also for those of the rest of the human race. Because, like it or not, that's what we are doing. We're not in Afghanistan or Iraq for YOUR freedom. We are there for the Afghan and Iraqi people! So keep talking about that (almost) forgotten blight on society Haliburton, and that completely blown out of proportion thing called the "military-industrial complex," someone is bound to take heed... probably not anyone who could do anything about it though, not unlike yourself. Well, that is unless your home business is actually a plot to overthrow the evil, corrupt, and sadistic American Empire.

Like someone said earlier, "it's not always about you," which is probably another side affect of the pain you experienced as a child. I hope you've made your family proud by crapping all over the lively hoods of others, and the choices that they have made in spite of people such as yourself. Maybe someday you'll be happy.

Do something significant for someone other than yourself and then you can complain. Not cool to dump all your negative emotions on veterans. Not cool at all. Don't bring your daddy issues here.

Click here for more information.

Hero worship is bad anyhow...there are heroic actions done by people doing a job, and there are dangerous jobs that allow for more opportunity for heroic actions, but there is no "hero" breed in itself, and a heroic or coward action shouldn't paint a person for life of what box to put them in.

With that said, it is fair game to consider todays vets softer than nam vets, or WW2, and those are softer than civil war vets, whom are also softer than revolutionary war, etc...but all of that is simply nonsense. War is not a heroic and wonderful thing...War is failure on any side...it is a failure of sides to compromise, use negotiations and diplomacy, and it makes us top down savages.

We are top of the food chain because of a highly developed brain that allowed us to get past pettiness and work together to bring our species up over the rest...war is a significant reversal in that evolutionary path. War is sadly still "necessary" from time to time (blame isn't equal of course...if one psycho is murdering other people, he should be stopped...and if that psycho leads a nation, then you have war), but it should never be glorified...it should be mourned as a flaw in our collective nature.

Sorry, forgot to thank all the supporters of our American Heritage and the veterans who have served with Dignity and Pride!

We Rock,

Originally posted by ARNETT 187
Ulala, I respect your opinion

now.....

respect mine......

YOU ARE AN IDIOT! Period!

Close minded, narrow focused people like yourself are the reason HITLER steam rolled your entire continent, pulled the wool over your eyes and either converted or killed your predecessors, now after the Cold War, we (Americans) are to blame for everything. Brother....let me tell you something...YOU and your family will owe a debt of gratitude FOREVER, for the sacrifices our countrymen have made in the past on YOUR behalf, remember, Germany never touched us, but we sent troops, supplies and money to your theater of war because it was the right thing to do.

We are doing the same thing now, except in a different country in a different part of the World! Do they want us there, the Iraqi's and the Afghanistani's, guess what I DO NOT CARE what they want. I will bring the fight to the enemy all day long, than to allow them access to my country again.

I love armchair quarterbacks dropping negativity on Americans, 95% of the people on this board haven't left the confines of their local country let alone stepped foot on soil in some god-forsaken war zone full of extremists who would cut your head off just because you do not praise Allah.

Keep talking zipperhead, it will be Americans and American money innovating and building infrastructure in this World while you Socialists in Europe grope around and try to figure out your own problems, while the rest of the planet goes straight into the crapper.

Whine, Whine, Whine, it's all you nancy Euro's are good for, well I take that back, your women are Okay, after all we expect women to whine anyway!

Have A Nice Day, enjoy the Freedom my grandfather, great uncle, father, step-father, 2 uncles a sister and myself fought to give you!

(I know what turns mister hand into mister fist!)

What a true American Patriot

Peace.

Originally posted by ARNETT 187
I will bring the fight to the enemy all day long, than to allow them access to my country again.

The tactic of the enemy is to of course start the US into as many wars as possible from all angles...not because they think they can actually win against the US currently...

its all about bankrupting the nation.

Your complete acceptance into the enemies strategy is exactly what they want. Well done, no need to have people bomb our towers, we are selling them off to buy bombs anyhow.

Take some time and consider things...this overzealous warfare patriotism is a very strong and effective tactic employeed by the enemy...read the brief history of the Soviet Union and their collapse...look at the parallels...they collapsed because they had to spend a truckload of money fueling neverending wars all over the place...it effected the people, the banks, and the whole system came crumbling down. Now we are in the same exact position and the same attitudes of the end times of the USSR is now in the US mindset.

Wake up or dont bother crying once our once great nation becomes 5-6 little nations

Young men and women who thought enough of their nation to serve in whatever capacity they could? Are they hero's? Definitely.

I didn't serve in the military for a multitude of reasons, wanted to, couldn't... Yet every single member of my family with only a few exceptions served, and served with honor. Doing what was necessary in their eyes. That, to me, makes them hero's.

My dad, most of his brothers, my mothers brothers all served in WWII, in the Pacific, all of 'em oddly enough... My father went on to serve in Korea, and in Vietnam, along with two of his brothers. Both my grandfathers served in WWI, in the trenches in France. My brother served in Iraq, twice... My sisters, all of them, served in the military. Do they consider themselves hero's? Not a one of them.

Are they hero's? Yes. ...and I'll take great exception to anyone daring to say otherwise. About them, or their comrades...

Originally posted by rainfall

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
Another thing, you do realize the military does much more around the world then just fighting, don't you?

Yes..they also traffic illegal drugs around the world to pay for 'black ops' projects...

WOW,

speechless,

I just want to say thanks to all the people who posted in this thread that are/did serve their country. Also thanks to all the ones that never get a chance to post in a thread again, god bless them.

I celebrated the Marine Corps birthday Tuesday by taking a very long and painful drive to a V.A. Hospital and was in too much pain to make the 20 mile drive yesterday to a local restaurant for to stand in line with all of the heroes that were there for their free meal.... It is insane that there are people in their late fifties now that were treated as scum of the earth for so many years because they grew up in the shadows of the generation that spawned them believing that going off to war was a right of passage and an honorable thing to do and that people are now referring to them as heroes one day a year while at the same resenting them if they are afforded medical care and compensation because of service connected disabilities that have put them in the position of having to live and raise a family on an income below the poverty level while the war profiteers and politicians regard us as a species that is lesser than human..... People of the world are more enslaved than ever and becoming more so everyday and young men and now women are even more vulnerable to the seductive call to fight, die and live a less productive life than those that avoid the call to kill other people in the name of God, country and freedom.... When Marines are under fire and being killed and maimed, they only think of doing what they need to do to make sure that they and those around them survive..... The idea that they are fighting for your freedom is a ludicrous belief..... Very few of those that I know that were involved in combat with me are able to talk in detail of the things we saw and did with other Marines unless they were witness to the same thing or at least in the same immediate proximity..... A lot of guys have to believe that freedom was what it was all about and cannot face the fact that we were killing and dying and now carrying the burden of the horror and pain for something other than that..... If corporate profit is the same as freedom then people died for freedom.... What is freedom to those that are saying that veterans fought for?....How many have to lose their lives or at least the ability having a productive pain free mentally unhampered life before the citizens stand up to the war profiteers and say no to them having the freedom to send our military to kill and die for them to reap huge profits..... It is a pity that the most vocal veterans are the ones that beat the drum or Bible, sing patriotic songs and somehow see death and destruction as a glorious memory..... I wonder how many of them actually were in an infantry unit or even wanted to be? In Vietnam it was about one out of ten that actually did.

Originally posted by seagull
Doing what was necessary in their eyes. That, to me, makes them hero's.

Also heros:
person working 2 jobs to feed their kid

teacher taking a paycut verses work in corporate america because they love to educate.

Firemen

Policemen

A person jumping into a fight to break up a couple people whom will end up hurting each other

a friend whom talks you out of doing something horribly wrong

your dad for not running off

etc...we can water down what a hero is to encompass everyone, or we can simply say there are no heros..just heroic actions.

I will however say there are indeed brave people...this is a mental conditioning that soldiers, firemen, police, etc must undergo and choose daily...Brave men and women, I can accept...but calling someone a hero simply because of their job choice completely destroys any and all meaning to the title.

reply to post by SaturnFX


You'll never hear me say, or see me write otherwise... All those you named are hero's too. Those we consider hero's are almost always just a common ordinary everyday schmoe/schmoette doing the right thing without regard for reward.

Did you think I'd disagree with you? Not today, anyway...

reply to post by seagull

Doing what was necessary in their eyes. That, to me, makes them hero's.

Is that how you define a 'hero'.

Peace.

[edit on 05/08/2009 by LiveForever8]

reply to post by LiveForever8


In the context of the entire post? Yes.

I'm guessing you don't agree? Feel free.

Hero's come in all shapes and sizes. The events that make them hero's can be just as varied.

reply to post by seagull


Ah, well in the context of the post, and thread too, i understand your meaning.

As a general consensus though, its a pretty terrible definition of a 'hero'.

Its fair to say that bias has a lot to do with people opinions on this subject.

Peace.

reply to post by Ulala


While you sit their hefting your queens jewels. ( why do you have a queen anyway? What do you live in 1312 chasing dragons with a catapult?) we are ridding the world of extremists. Read history, Europe used to be the most extreme. You guys killed a lot of people during the crusades. By the way, you guys would be speaking German if it wasn't for the USA. I hope your country of no good, limey, standing in bread-lines, bad teeth having, nanny staters get taken over by the hordes of Muslims and then we'll nuke you out of your misery. This is not your holiday. It's ours. I really hope you enjoy being second rate at everything.

Originally posted by HotSauce
reply to post by rainfall

 

This coming from a man that probably thinks Osama Bin Ladin is a freedom fighter. Your posts never cease to amaze me Rainfall. For your sake, I hope you don't really believe that but are just trying to get a rise out of everyone.

Osama bin Laden worked for the CIA right up to the day of 09-11-01.

Remember the whistle blower Sibel Edmonds?
www.infowars.com...

I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom... Bob Dylan

Personally... I'm am amazed at how many flags this thread received.

Life is what we make it during this short existence we call life. No one really knows if we are doing the right thing or the wrong thing... but to unselfishly give your life to save another can be the most heroic thing in my eyes.