KlasG then you should know better than anybody that many, if not all who are in our Volunteer Malitia do so to serve their country. They do so with pride and with honor.
Please don’t take the liberty to speak for the intentions of all of us who serve and continue to serve in uniform; Or for the intelligence of the young men and woman who enlist to wear the uniform of the United States of America.
You have / had your own experience in uniform and by all means have the right to your opinion. But please don’t take the liberty to speak for the many men and women who make great sacrifices so that you can sit behind your keyboard pontificating in your warm, safe home.
Me? I have spent the last 19+ years SERVING as a military officer and obviously disagree with MUCH of what you posted. I find some of it pompous and much of it arrogant.
I learned many years ago from a very good Priest that before you say anything you should ask yourself:
1) Is it true?
2) Is it kind?
3) Does it need to be said?
Your post fails all three points.
Mary Help of Christians...Pray for us!
Ekim, you sound like a typical lifer who has bought into our government's official flag waving myth. A typical company man who accuses me, a tradional Catholic and strong Catholic patriot of speaking falsely, of pontificating. Well, just what in the world do you think you're doing? You're pontificating/pushing the government line/myth.
No doubt, your moral posturing (even calling in "a very good Priest") will win you some support here. You think what I say is not true, is not kind, and doesn't need to be said. OK, fair enough. I just happen to disagree with you and very strongly at that.
Military recruiters lie/manilpulate through their teeth consistently in order to get people to enlist. It's been that way for ages. If the youth just wanted to go and sign up to "serve their country" all that lying and manipulating would not go on.
Living in the military is like living in a closed echo chamber where you get to all reinforce each other about how patriotic you are and how you are protecting us all and fighting for democracy and freedom. It's a sick reality (I was once a part of it), but the people living it rarely even recognize the sickness for what it is.
I have no doubt you may may feel pride about "serving your country," but that doesn't mean you actually are serving your country in a good way. (I would have no more pride in my son or daughter signing up for the military than I would if they signed up for marriage to a non-Catholic. In case you never noticed the military is a hugely anti-Catholic entity.) People in the Mafia take pride in themselves and their own criminality.
19 years in the military! Have you ever once seriously considered the fact that you and a lot of people like you may have actually served your country in a bad way, an extremely bad way. A two time medal of honor winner actually did consider this question and wrote a book about it. You would do well to read it. It is just as true today, if not more so, than when he wrote it. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket The full free version of the book can be found on line.
You and others may love to wrap yourself in the flag and look at billboards of the flag that say things like "These colors never run." But actually the colors have run -- and run big time from various countries we have decimated and then left behind.
The military is a cover-up operation on many fronts. Are you proud of that? Are you proud of the fact that you and others like you can't go around and openly speak about who really did 9-11? (And you can't go around and openly condemn sodomy even though Sacred Scripture does.) The military was ordered to stand down on 9-11 and no officer or lifer who valued their career would ever dare to go around and openly speak about who actually did 9-11. The silence within the military ranks to this monstrous crime of 9-11 has been deafening! Do you take pride in being part of this silence; or do you look at people and tell them with a straight face that 19 Arabs carried out 9-11 and that Bin Laden was the mastermind?! I think you know as well as I do that if you had exercised your freedom of speech concerning 9-11 and actually spoke the truth about it you would never have lasted 19 years in the military. This silence has contributed immensely to the slaughter our military has carried out on the other side of the world. As a long time officer in the military are you proud of your silence and the silence of others in the military? You would have been kicked out of the military for being a subversive if you spoke the truth about 9-11, but instead you have chosen to be complicit in the slaughter of countless innocent people.
You've invested 19 years of your life in a corrupt/degenerate/bloated/wasteful/murder machine and you and many others like you can't even see it for what it is. You may thump your chest with others and feel all puffed up about being in the military while "serving" your country. Fine. My worlds here probably won't change the way you feel about yourself and the military. Go on believing all the military madness you want to. One day you may just come to realize the difference between true Catholic patriotism and the evil falsification of it; a falsification of it which manifests itself in the military and by those outside the military who nevertheless feel subservient to it.