Link of the Day: Satire – The Irony of Being an American Soldier
[High Praise! to The Duffel Blog]
[CAUTION: Contains some uncensored cursing]
Soldier Fights For, Gives Up American Freedoms
On a personal note, it occurred to me while I was in the Navy that, in order to preserve American freedoms, members of the military must – in their day-to-day lives – live under a communist dictatorship. The entire organization is a gigantic central bureaucracy that uses people as mere tools to further the organization’s goals, with very little consideration for individual needs or desires.
That’s not a complaint. Just an observation.
And if you think about it, it’s quite sensible.
Nothing’s more efficient at killing people and destroying things on a massive scale than communism.
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February 4th, 2013 at 6:47 pm
Active duty military service also allows one to see
1) What it’s like to go to prison, courtesy of Navy boot camp, and
2) What fully implented socialized medicine is like, and how it isn’t a step up for a society. (Do you have a fever? Motrin. Break your arm. Motrin. Hatch slam on your hand? Motrin. )
February 4th, 2013 at 7:38 pm
Yep… realized that while I was doing it.. The wall was still up. Brezhnev was still alive.. The irony was on a grand scale.
February 4th, 2013 at 9:20 pm
I didn’t serve in the Navy but I did become a shellback and pay the necessary dues to Poseidon. I think that earns me some sort of street credit. If that doesn’t then you should at least appreciate that I was able to convince 3 ultra libs with me that there is a piece of twine in the ocean at 0 degrees latitude to indicate where the equator lies.
February 4th, 2013 at 10:09 pm
CarolyntheMommy, as possibly the only shellback among us, you are commanded by King Neptune to write-up your crossing and submit it to Harvey.
February 4th, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Oooh. I’m getting a mental image of a ginger King Neptune going by code name: Jimmy. Rawr.
I can’t say it was the most exciting day that everyone had: I still had a full head of hair at the end of the day and nothing with a blow-up doll was involved.
February 5th, 2013 at 4:21 am
I, too, am a shellback. And I seem to recall being told not to tell outsiders about it. (Holds as much weight as the White House saying don’t photoshop their pictures.)
Regarding being active during the Cold War: During the late ’90′s, I was a full time student at a college in CA, and I’d sometimes get into a conversation with another student who was convinced the economic boom at the time was due to President Clinton’s leadership. “No,” I’d say, “we are living in a post war economic boom.” “Which war?” they’d ask, “the Desert Storm one?” “No, the Cold War. Did you miss it? Sometimes I do.” Funny thing is, it seems like some people in the former Soviet Union have been missing it, too….
February 5th, 2013 at 9:34 am
It is also important to understand that there are plenty of recruits who are mentally ill – before the join the military
and before they are sent to a war zone.
February 5th, 2013 at 11:07 am
True, but they mostly kill their own citizens, not the enemy.
February 5th, 2013 at 1:35 pm
Apostic, I broke the first rule of the shellback club. You never never never never talk about the shellback club!
February 5th, 2013 at 2:46 pm
9. CarolyntheMommy
Heh. Yeah, you and about jillion other shellbacks. This stuff is just too enteraining to keep to one’s self.