I have so much respect for the Marines.. I really do..
in fact I respect all troops
but i have to say I get tired of hearing all the time how much I owe our troops.. they get paid and choose FREELY to join... they get paid by my tax dollars to defend me and the rest of us.. if they don't want to they don't have to join... the way people talk about our troops you'd think they were doing it as a free public service or something..
Like I said: I respect a marine big time.. Congratulations Rat Bastard on raising a marine. I'd be proud to have either of my boys be a marine. But I wouldn't expect or see why people should be so grateful to my children, if they were marines, for becoming marines. (Having said that I am pretty much against all war these days.. the odds of having a war one actually needed to fight seemed so small these days.. most wars are manufactured with lies) Presumably you do it because you want to do it and have a calling for it much like anythign else. If you don't you'd get into another line of work. Or you do it because its your only ticket out of a dead end existence. I respect our servicemen and women big time but I don't sit around thinking how grateful I should be to them every waking moment and it gets tiresome to hear that I should. Let me add that it is not a bad career to get into... if you can move up the ladder you can do pretty good for yourself.
Now if you were drafted then its a bit different in my opinion. If someone is drafted and send to fight for me, against his will and he still does it courageously then I'd have to say I really owe that person big time.
Maybe someone can explain to me what I'm missing, without being rude because I'm not trying to be rude.. I respect our troops and marines / seals are like the top in my book.
Hutch I do not mean to be picking nits here but it is Marine not marine. That word is ALWAYS capitalized. I understand your point. At the same time, what they get paid is precious little. It surely is not worth the fact that they are writing a check that is payable up to and including their lives. What these men and women do IS what allows us to sit here and be jerk wads to each other then right after go out and grab a brew (or in my case a Mt Dew) together. So yeah IMHO we do owe them a thank you.
I have no idea how much troops get paid or what kind of benefits they get but with that rationale any amount they were to get paid would not be enough as life is priceless. At the end of the day it is a job and I think if someone picks a job, even if dangerous, at a specified pay rate then.. well, thank you but you did not have to pick that job. [ rereading this a few seconds after posting and I'm not satisified with it: obviously many many people who pick military service do so out of a desire to serve our country so I am very thankful they want to do that..my brother in law was an officer for a few years and I can't say enough about his backbone]
I'll tell you how much I respect our troops. I would never send them into harms way for no reason and I would never send them in harms way if I wasn't able to provide them the health care they need when they return from battle. I would never make up a war to send troops and I would get them out as quickly as possible. Having said that troops don't just fight wars; their mere existence helps keep you safe by deterring aggressors, etc.
But I think this whole "we must thank the troops every day" is just jingoistic baloney meant to keep the war machine going and eliminate war protests of any sort.
In any case a United States Marine is pretty fuckin' awesome. There is just no argument on that... congratulations.
