Veteran Musings

[hootinholler]

As a veteran, I weep for my country. Well, not really for my country as much as for my failing to protect it. When I enlisted in 1977, the cold war was blooming, Carter was in, the nightmares of Vietnam, Watergate, Nixon, gasoline shortages, were ended.

I was raised in coal country in SW Pennsylvania. Japanese steel imports were eating our lunches and it didn't make sense to work in a mill or a mine. I didn't have money for school and wasn't very scholarly, but had an aptitude for electronics so the Navy seemed a good option. Besides there were commies to guard against.

Through a delayed enlistment, on my 17th birthday I swore the oath that many have sworn. These days, I've noticed there wasn't an expiration date with it.

I was not a political teen at all. That continued during my stay in the navy and on into my late 30's.

I was on the sub base in Groton Ct. when the US embassy was seized in Iran. There was an Iranian barracks on the base as the Shah was purchasing old boats from us. The Marines started babysitting them. Somewhere along the line, poppy Bush did his thing in Iran and RayGun got elected, and I had progressed through training and rode a deep ocean survey ship.

With RayGun, the nature of service changed. Drug testing, much more authoritarian rule, and eventually I left and got a real job.

This is rambling a bit, but my main point is While all the crap that was leading up to our current situation was happening, I didn't recognize the threat! I was too busy trying to make ends meet and have some fun. Iran-Contra should have woken me, It didn't. I barely noticed it.

I got married, had kids, watched football on Sundays and lived the American Dream. There was that little thing over in Kuwait, an aside, I didn't know then that Rumsfeld had talked to Saddam before the invasion to imply it was ok, but hey, we just threw them out, it was just, right?

Then Clinton was the man and I watched the tech industry rise and the internet and all that rise from the inside. Then those jobs being offshored with tax breaks to do it and well, it smelled a little funny, but hey, that's the way things go. I hired a guy to work on a house addition who came back from Iraq one sterile. We agreed about how fucked up the government was. Still, I wonder, where was it obvious the constitution was under attack? Still, I feel I should have known, there is something I didn't do that got us here.

Somewhere in there the FCC abandoned the fairness doctrine, the media got consolidated and I didn't even really notice. Funny how looking back, shit creeps up on you. Man, that should have gotten my attention, but, alas, it didn't. In hindsight that was a clear threat to my beloved constitution.

Then came the whirlwind we've seen since 2000. The supremes declared W the victor and I shrugged thinking "How bad can it get? We've survived idiots before." You guys know the rest of that, and how we were ignored complaining about the Patriot Act, Iraq would be a bad place to send troops, etc.

Still, as a vet, I'm left today feeling that there should have been something that I could have done to change this, to actually effectively defend my country from itself, and that feeling, my friends, is wholly unsatisfactory.

That feeling is slightly better than the doubt I will have the opportunity to help fix this and reclaim our constitution before the shooting starts. Right now Kucinich is my only hope, so with an apology that I didn't see the threat, I'll see you on the barricades, Brothers.

[rusty quoin]

1. I kind of went through what you did. I was Air Force 79-83.

I was Democrat to Independent, and turned away from my good sense, thinking these right wingers must know a thing or two.
But the important thing is we are trying to do what you said: reclaim our constitution

[hootinholler]

4. I've always leaned libertarian

But really wasn't paying attention like I am now.

-Hoot

[babylonsister]

2. I'm not a vet and I didn't know. Don't feel bad. We are all trying in our

small ways to make it better. Hoot! You are doing that, too.
Our constitution will be fixed. I just have this feeling that cooler heads will prevail.
And as a Vet, I salute you for your service, and thank you! :patriot:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

3. I was a "hell no, we won't go". I went to the veterens parade

today and cried when the Gold Star families marched by with pictures of loved ones who died in service marched by. The thought occured to me, I have seen the bumper sticker that says something to the effect "If you love your freedom, thank a vet". I was thinking, If you made it back from Viet Nam, thank a war protester. The patriots at home are what changed the policy that sent you to that godforsaken war and we, the ones who objected, got teargassed, got beaten by the police and got FBI files started on us, are what finally brought that fiasco of war profiteering to an end.

[madokie]

5. Thank you

I can identify with you on this. my big deal is I kind of knew that we were heading in the direction where we find ourselves today but I denied it or couldn't accept that it could really happen here in the good ole USA, that we were heading where we find ourselves today. I too will be at that barricade
Yes I to remember I took an oath a long time ago and it has no expiration date on it anywhere, writen or implied. It is our duty to stand up, as a matter of fact our Constitution demands we do. After all I once did take that Oath.
Peace be with you

[hootinholler]

6. I hope my children will forgive me.

Peace to you too Brother.

-Hoot

[madokie]

7. they will, they know you

[hootinholler]

8. I think it will depend on how bad it gets.

Thanks for the encouragement.

-Hoot