A clarification note on the post below:
US military men and women have ALWAYS been in the position of cleaning up reality after some space cowboy in the White House made an international mess. The EXPECT that will usually be the case.
And that includes the Halls of Montezuma, the Shores of Tripoli, the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the Spanish, etc...
They have ALWAYS known that's their job, and they have ALWAYS done it with all they've got -- still do. Doing the job, of course, includes a lot of necessary grumbling and mocking of the higher-ups. As any real officer knows, "Once they stop complaining, watch out."
(Incidentally, I also regard the practice of fragging as being among the highest of military traditions -- sometimes there's nothing else to be done with or about some newbie with shiny bars on his collar. )
But what military personnel ALSO expect is for those politicians to keep their word,
to fulfill their contractual obligations, including (but not limited to):
Providing medical care for injuries incurred while on active duty
Paying the monies they have promised
Releasing personnel from active duty according to the contracts they signed
Paying pensions according to degree of disability, again, incurred while on active duty
I support -- unconditionally -- the people who put on the uniform and who live in situations surrounded by things no human should ever have to see.
I am ALSO continually and unconditionally clamoring for this corrupt administration to keep its promises to those troops.
However -- and this is the reason for this clarification, I also regard ANYONE who at this point in the game, actually believes that ANY promises made by the government will be honored and won't have an escape catch -- I regard those people as almost certain to be too dumb to figure out which way to hold the boot, in order to read the instructions written on the heel that tells them how to pour the piss out of it.
US military men and women have ALWAYS been in the position of cleaning up reality after some space cowboy in the White House made an international mess. The EXPECT that will usually be the case.
And that includes the Halls of Montezuma, the Shores of Tripoli, the Cheyenne, the Sioux, the Spanish, etc...
They have ALWAYS known that's their job, and they have ALWAYS done it with all they've got -- still do. Doing the job, of course, includes a lot of necessary grumbling and mocking of the higher-ups. As any real officer knows, "Once they stop complaining, watch out."
(Incidentally, I also regard the practice of fragging as being among the highest of military traditions -- sometimes there's nothing else to be done with or about some newbie with shiny bars on his collar. )
But what military personnel ALSO expect is for those politicians to keep their word,
to fulfill their contractual obligations, including (but not limited to):
Providing medical care for injuries incurred while on active duty
Paying the monies they have promised
Releasing personnel from active duty according to the contracts they signed
Paying pensions according to degree of disability, again, incurred while on active duty
I support -- unconditionally -- the people who put on the uniform and who live in situations surrounded by things no human should ever have to see.
I am ALSO continually and unconditionally clamoring for this corrupt administration to keep its promises to those troops.
However -- and this is the reason for this clarification, I also regard ANYONE who at this point in the game, actually believes that ANY promises made by the government will be honored and won't have an escape catch -- I regard those people as almost certain to be too dumb to figure out which way to hold the boot, in order to read the instructions written on the heel that tells them how to pour the piss out of it.
posted by Saintperle at
10:08 AM
