pensiveFor all the free people that still protest.
You're welcome. We protect you
In general, yes. That's what you signed up for. But right now? How are you so sure that what you're doing now is actually protecting your countrymen?
Your voice is strong and loud,
but who will fight for you?
No one standing in your crowd.
Have you missed that raising their voice is how they fight? Or have you bought into the fallacy that one only "fights" en masse with weapons? And even if we were to assume this fallacy is true, for the sake of argument, who are you to say that in the face of a dire enough threat, for a just enough cause, that some of that crowd would not fight as you seem to define it?
What makes you think your cause is so just, or that the threat you perceive is so dire?
So please stop yelling, put down your signs,
and pray for those
behind enemy lines.
Why can't one do both?
When the conflict is over and all is well,
be thankful that we chose
to go through hell.
You aren't assuming that all will be well when this conflict is over, are you?
What if this conflict has only made it worse? Should we still be thankful? Or will it be okay then to be angry with the people who sent you on so counterproductive a mission?
As I understand it, a major aim of military basic training is to break recruits down, to re-form them as a unit which will do what it is told, to not act upon questions they might have about what they are ordered to do, perhaps not to even think those questions at all. How can a person commit themself to that life, freely, and fit in, and succeed, yet not become a mindless drone that embraces whatever comes down from on high in Washington? I know this is possible, but I don't understand how it happens.
It's people like this Marine that disturb me. While they are not their commanders, their commanders are products of this system. The people advising the legislators and Presidents that make decisions about where and in what numbers to send forces, they are products of this system. Aren't they?
This poem grabs at sentimental and patriotic emotional strings, which throws red flags for me. I checked it out on snopes.com and didn't find anything. However, I did find this floor speech by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) It's really, really good.
