"AND THE CAISSONS GO ROLLING ALONG..."

"Anonymous said...
It is very easy to criticize when you've never served your Country in a war MF. Next time you feel like attacking the very Government that provides you the freedom to publish your yellow journalism try standing guard in a hot Lz in the name of America you prick."
MARCH 19, 2013 AT 12:30 AM

By Juan Montoya
It never fails.
It happened with the Vietnam veterans and now it's happening with the "anonymous" fellow who wrote that comment up top.
Nowhere in the post he mentions is there any criticism of the veterans who served in the war in Iraq. Nowhere is there any criticism of the men and women who voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces and served with the troops there.
In fact, the criticism was not just directed at George W. Bush's administration and its war hawks, but also at us, the citizens of this country for allowing ourselves to be driven like sheep to invade a country which we now know was never responsible for 911 or had any links to Al Qaida or Osama bin Laden. Not enough of us spoke out against the deceit. Not enough of us protested against the drum-up to war that had been planned against Iraq's Saddam Hussein because as "W" said, "He wanted to kill my father."
The architect of the war Paul Wolfowitz, a driving force behind the overthrow Hussein, has conceded that a series of blunders by Bush administration plunged Iraq into a cycle of violence that “spiralled out of control”.
He now says "mistakes" were made.
You're right. I have never served my country in a war. Fortunately, when I volunteered for the Marine Corps in 1972 at the height of the Vietnam war, the powers that be (or my mother's prayers) decided I would better serve this country as a heavy-equipment operator in a Shore Party Battalion in exotic places like  Jacksonville, N.C., Puerto Rico (Vieques Island), Panama, Aruba, etc.
What is there about this post that qualifies it as yellow journalism except for the fact that it is true that Bush and his war hawks lied to the American people – you included – to get the nod to invade a third-rate military power headed by a dictator. You know how many places qualify for U.S. invasion if we use that measure?
If you want to compare war scars you can go to the local VFW. I, for one will not apologize for criticizing liars and deceivers who led us into a war that cost more than 4,400 lives of U.S. soldiers and 143,000 Iraqi civilians. Forget the money. That can be made up, but those lives can't.

One of my nephews served as a U.S. Marine in the evacuation of the diplomatic personnel from the U.S. embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia. Another just returned from serving in the U.S. Army as the operator of a anti-IED vehicle in Afghanistan. They read what I write, but unlike you, they realize that the reason they were in those spots was because they had taken an oath to defend our freedoms and that includes the right of free speech, expression, freedom of the press, and to petition the government for redress.

And guess what? They – like you – went their on their own volition because there is no draft unlike in 1972 when I volunteered. No one held a gun to your head and forced you to go. They – also like you – were paid to be there, and signed voluntarily on the dotted line. So why are you taking out your frustrations against the very citizens that you said you went to the "hot LZs" to ptotect their rights guaranteed under the constitution you took an oath to defend?
Unlike some peace-time vets, you won't find me crowding combat veterans out of the lines at the VA hospitals demanding medical treatment for maladies that came long after my service. And this country owes me nothing because of the time I spent in uniform. It was simply my duty.

Many people think that the expression reads: "My country right or wrong."

That is incorrect, pilgrim. It's: "“My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”

That, my friend, is the mark of a true patriot. If that means to you that I'm a "MF" and a "prick," so be it.