While we're at it, explain how we "WON" the war in Vietnam. Show me proof that we "WON" the war or that the words "THE U.S. WON THE WAR IN VIETNAM" have been used to describe the ending of the Vietnam Conflict!
No Joe... You don't understand. THE USA Didn't Win The Vietnam War... L4LIFE WON IT!!! He really believes it's true!
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Um... Cissy??? What "Letters to the editor?" I didn't see any.
What Bumbler posted was a link to a legitimate (and very inciteful) article on the topic of healing warriors. Below there is room for comments. Most LETTERS TO THE EDITOR require that you sign your name to your work. These are just ramblings (likely some true others a hoax) written at the bottom of the Yahoo piece. I would accept a legitimate LETTER TO THE EDITOR, as I would an OPINION PIECE from a journalist... they both are 'attributed' opinion views on a topic.
How about news interviews with people whose faces are kept in the dark and voices altered to protect their identity, or journalist using anonymous sources? Do their opinions count, is the information tainted?
The bottom line is, in your mind, the media legitimizes opinion, and the ole inter web with all the it's uncontrolled opinion is illegitimate.
BTW...If yahoo is legitimate and the comment area is essentially the opinion board, why isn't the yahoo administrator judgement you allow it to post not good enough for you?
The bottom line is, in your mind, the media legitimizes opinion, and the ole inter web with all the it's uncontrolled opinion is illegitimate.
See. It's a StrawManFest! I wonder how long he can continue before he runs out?
Now I should get sucked into Cissy's little 3rd grader game ploy and defend the position he posted... Um, Cissy... Did I actually say "the media legitimizes opinion" DID I???
Did I actually say "web with all the it's uncontrolled opinion is illegitimate." Did I?
Lets see... I did post: "Any opinion can have a valid point, no matter how obscure the view. A comments post of an opinion are as valid an opinion as any other."
Maybe I give Cicero too much credit? Maybe this is the best that he can do?
This must work for Cicero with his friends or workmates. They sound like a very dull bunch!
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
See. It's a StrawManFest! I wonder how long he can continue before he runs out?
Now I should get sucked into Cissy's little 3rd grader game ploy and defend the position he posted... Um, Cissy... Did I actually say "the media legitimizes opinion" DID I???
Did I actually say "web with all the it's uncontrolled opinion is illegitimate." Did I?
Lets see... I did post: "Any opinion can have a valid point, no matter how obscure the view. A comments post of an opinion are as valid an opinion as any other." !
Bumbler??? YOU POSTED FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION!!!
You do realize that anyone, even you, could go to the comments section and post that you are a wounded veteran of the US Civil War with PTSD??? QUOTING COMMENTS BY ANONYMOUS ONLINE POSTERS??? Is that your source???
I expect to see no more opinion pieces posted by box.
I expect to see no more opinion pieces posted by box.
And ever since I showed you "The Fallacy of Argument" (Straw Man) I expected you to forgo your Straw Man theme... Instead you made it your go to tool.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Except the one posted on yahoo. I expect to see no more opinion pieces posted by box.
Cicero seems to have no valid point... just one misrepresentation after another.
How do you justify your above fiasco after you quoted me posting: "Any opinion can have a valid point, no matter how obscure the view. A comments post of an opinion are as valid an opinion as any other."
Maybe Cissy had a bad day and just needs to get laid!
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
The HATERS have a hard time with this holiday. They see the rest of America saluting the troops, as they spew nothing but ridicule, envy and anger at our brave service men and women.
To RP who started this thread with a very nice tribute, THANK YOU. To those who served their country and even to those who didn't, but supported their effort... Thank you.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Bumbler??? YOU POSTED FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION!!!
You do realize that anyone, even you, could go to the comments section and post that you are a wounded veteran of the US Civil War with PTSD??? QUOTING COMMENTS BY ANONYMOUS ONLINE POSTERS??? Is that your source???
Would you rather treat cancer or prevent cancer? Would you rather treat psychological disorders or prevent them? I would rather prevent them. Not joining the military would be the first logical step in prevention.
Not only does the government not do enough to treat them, they actively put them in a situation knowing they are going to develop these disorders.
Call me a hater all you want. But identifying the cause of the cancer how the solution of how to prevent it is not hating.
WOW!!! Put me on the 'hater's list'! I'd like to sign up!!! You just about summed it up here!! ^5
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
no one is saying that anyone who has taken a job as a military service person is wrong, I personally think 'good for them to have accepted such a job'. It's a JOB......
as for the exultation of the military and the 'oh poor soldier' indoctrination, I find it appalling and a great dis-service by the leaders of the world to make the use of the exultation of the golem we call military as a point of belonging, whether that be 'patriotic podium pucks' or 'GI hero'.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Live in our shoes and then you might understand...until then it's all BS that you spew as an ignorant racist hater!
I don't want to live in your shoes. I certainly do not want to portray your shoes as "heroic" like the video suggests. It's SAD. You only have one life to live, and for a video to portray their service as heroic is a shame. They should walk the child through the VA hospitals and show the young veterans with amputated limbs or the older veterans dying at home waiting months for care, or the homeless veterans sleeping on city streets. This child needs a complete picture of what it means to serve, and decide whether it's worth risking your life for senseless wars, just so you can be called a hero.
Based on the responses from the US military spokespersons here, I am more ashamed than ever of the entire US military.
Please explain how feeling that US military actions are shameful and have been the single biggest cause of terrorism, along with the loss of freedoms enacted because of the same terrorism that the military caused, can in any way be considered hate.
So you representatives of the military think that those who want peace and are ashamed of the US military that has murdered millions of innocent people are haters.
This is not directed at any present or past military personnel, but to their victims, and the families of those victims, please forgive those who have acted against you.
They do so without the consent of most of America.
I apologize to all of the families around the world who have been victimized by the US military and you will be remembered on Memorial day, as well as every day.
We are victims as well. We are unable to stop them from what they do.
The HATERS have a hard time with this holiday. They see the rest of America saluting the troops, as they spew nothing but ridicule, envy and anger at our brave service men and women.
The War on America’s Military Veterans, Waged with SWAT Teams, Surveillance and Neglect
Just in time for Memorial Day, we’re once again being treated to a generous serving of praise and grandstanding by politicians and corporations eager to go on record as being supportive of our veterans. Patriotic platitudes aside, however, America has done a deplorable job of caring for her veterans. We erect monuments for those who die while serving in the military, yet for those who return home, there’s little honor to be found.
The plight of veterans today is deplorable, with large numbers of them impoverished, unemployed, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, thoughts of suicide, and marital stress, homeless (a third of all homeless Americans are veterans), subjected to sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals, and left to molder while their paperwork piles up within Veterans Administration (VA) offices.
While President Obama has now declared that he “will not stand” for the mistreatment of veterans under his watch, the time for words is long past. As Slate political correspondent John Dickerson observed, these inexcusable delays represent “a failure of one of the most basic transactions government is supposed to perform: keeping a promise to those who were asked to protect our very form of government.”
Then again, as I detail in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, the government has been breaking its promises to the American people for a long time now, starting with its most sacred covenant to uphold and defend the Constitution. Yet if the government won’t abide by its commitment to respect our constitutional rights to be free from government surveillance and censorship, if it completely tramples on our right to due process and fair hearings, and routinely denies us protection from roadside strip searches and militarized police, why should anyone expect the government to treat our nation’s veterans with respect and dignity?
Indeed, in recent years, military servicemen and women—many of whom are decorated—have found themselves increasingly targeted for surveillance, censorship, threatened with incarceration or involuntary commitment, labeled as extremists and/or mentally ill, and stripped of their Second Amendment rights, all for daring to voice their concerns about the alarming state of our union and the erosion of our freedoms.
For example, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program dubbed Operation Vigilant Eagle tracks military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and characterizes them as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats because they may be “disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war.”
Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in recent years, the problem with depicting veterans as potential enemy combatants is that any encounter with a military veteran can escalate very quickly into an explosive and deadly situation—at least, on the part of law enforcement.
For example, Jose Guerena, a Marine who served in two tours in Iraq, was killed in 2011 after an Arizona SWAT team kicked open the door of his home during a mistaken drug raid and opened fire. Apart from his military background, Guerena had had no prior criminal record, and the police found nothing illegal in his home.
John Edward Chesney, a 62-year-old Vietnam veteran, was killed by a SWAT team allegedly responding to a call that the Army veteran was standing in his apartment window waving what looked like a semi-automatic rifle. SWAT officers fired 12 rounds into Chesney’s apartment window. It turned out that the gun Chesney reportedly pointed was a “realistic-looking mock assault rifle.”
Ramon Hooks, a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran, was using an air rifle gun for target practice outside when a Homeland Security Agent, allegedly house shopping in the area, reported him as an active shooter. Hooks was arrested, his air rifle pellets and toy gun confiscated, and charges filed against him for “criminal mischief.”
Although no toy guns were involved in Brandon Raub’s case, his fact scenario is even more chilling, given that he was targeted for exercising his First Amendment rights on Facebook. The 26-year-old decorated Marine actually found himself interrogated by government agents about his views on government corruption, arrested with no warning, labeled mentally ill for subscribing to so-called “conspiratorial” views about the government, detained against his will in a psych ward for standing by his views, and isolated from his family, friends and attorneys.
On August 16, 2012, a swarm of local police, Secret Service and FBI agents handcuffed and transported Raub to police headquarters, then to a medical center, where he was held against his will due to alleged concerns that his Facebook posts were “terrorist in nature.” Meanwhile, in a kangaroo court hearing that turned a deaf ear to Raub’s explanations about the fact that his Facebook posts were being read out of context, Raub was sentenced to up to 30 days’ further confinement in a psychiatric ward. Thankfully, The Rutherford Institute came to Raub’s assistance and brought about his release. Even so, within days of Raub being seized and forcibly held in a VA psych ward, news reports started surfacing of other veterans having similar experiences.
A federal judge actually dismissed Raub’s lawsuit challenging the government’s “Operation Vigilant Eagle” campaign and its increasing view of veterans as potential domestic terrorists as “far-fetched.” Yet what may sound far-fetched to the courts is a grim reality to Americans who are daily being targeted for daring to exercise their constitutional rights to speak their minds, criticize the government, and defend themselves and their families against over-reaching government surveillance and heavy-handed police tactics.
It’s ironic, isn’t it, that we raise our young people to believe that it is their patriotic duty to defend freedom abroad by serving in the military, then when they return home, bruised and battle-scarred and suddenly serious about defending their freedoms at home, we treat them like terrorists. Then again, perhaps it’s not so much ironic as it is tragic and pathetic—a sad tribute, indeed, to those willing to put their lives on the line.