America, Fuck Yeah!

So my buddy from my old unit and I go out to get a bite to eat tonight at this family-run Greek place we really like. Being as oblivious to the world as we are we pull into the nearly empty parking lot and walk right through the front door and past the closed sign. We are about to sit down and the son who works behind the counter leans over and tells us they are closed. We start to apologize and leave until he recognizes us and the daughter who also works there comes out of the back and ushers us to a table and tell us they are still open "for you guys". A little back ground: we eat here once or twice a week and when they found out we were Marines they started treating us totally different and going so far as to take stuff off our tab and never charging us tax. They were cool people to begin with but when they found out we were Marines they became the greatest. The thing tonight was just icing on the cake for me.

This incident made me start to think a lot more about something that I've wondered at for a long time: the way Americans react to people in the military esp Marines (and trust me there is a difference in attitude about Marines, both good and bad). The ones that really seem to care and to appreciate military members are immigrants such as the people that run the Greek joint. I'm not sure if this is because they have a better understanding of American freedoms coming from another country, if its cultural, or it's just coincidence. Since 9/11 Americans have all piled onto the bull-shit patriotic bandwagon with their little "Support our Troops" bumper stickers and God-Bless out Troops advertisement gimmicks. Everyone wants to prove how "patriotic" they are and how much they love the military. These same people are more than happy to vote for war-mongering asshole neo-cons that are just mashing their teeth in anticipation of getting us into another war as a way of "supporting their troops". Thanks guys. It's okay though because these same assholes are sure to give me a 2% cost of living raise this year.

These people want to vote Republican and hunt down the evil-doers and give up their freedoms and civil liberties and sign off on the round-up of anyone with a Arabic name, etc. The same ignorant uber patriotic middle American sheep who just don't get what America is all about, what the United States military is really here to protect.

I'm here to protect the right of Mohammed Fashid Jalafar and his right to come to this country and make a better life and send his daughters to school and worship at a mosque. I'm here to protect the right of the ACLU to take the legal battles of the American underdogs, right or wrong, to court and give them a fair chance at having their dissenting opinion be heard. I'm here to protect the right of the NAACP to piss of white people in an attempt (even if miss guided) to compensate their people for hundreds of years of abuse and to insure it never happens again. I'm here to protect Unions and corporations to pursue their agendas and the agendas of the workers and the stock holders they represent. I'm here to protect my Marxist friend and his right to assemble a viable American Communist Party. I'm here to protect the real America, the America that until recently has served as a beacon of freedom and liberty and inclusiveness for the past 229 years.

So if you're one of those assholes don't thank me for defending America from terrorists because it's not your America I'm defending.