My thoughts upon leaving for the Marine Corps. My question: what is my country?

In this speech, I addressed the question of why I want to serve my country. I then asked, "what is my country?" I hope you will find this encouraging in the midst of these tumultuous times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uUVG1EDHLA

 

The world police. Welcome to the force.

 

If you haven't left for bootcamp, you should opt out immediately. You have been brainwashed by government propaganda and are joining the enforcement wing of the corporate power structure. It's possible that you will wind up dead or injured and you will have done absolutely nothing to protect your "country" in the process. Don't ruin your life, go learn a trade and be productive.

 

Just read your intro thread and found out you're already a Butterbar. I guess my advice would be trust your enlisted guys and try not to get yourself killed. What's your MOS?

 

It takes real guts and a love and appreciation of this country and the freedoms we enjoy to join the best branch of service and the toughest branch of service this country has.

You will be tried and tested and I hope you always prevail.

A man must do what a man must do.

Go forth. Become the man you will be proud of and may God be with you, always.

Good luck.

Oooh Rah.

Semper Fi.

And God Bless America!

 

They have the most physically challenging basic military training, but I wouldn't regard them as better than any other branch, being essentially the Navy's infantry.

 

The Rangers and SEALs, along with Delta Force, are good too. Problem is we're developing robots that do better than all of them, and they don't run for office afterwards.

OTOH, would that they did

Really, if the kid wants to effectively defend his country he ought to join the FBI. The Twin Towers, contrary to what seems conservative belief, were not brought down by the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan but by the al-Qaeda, who are more like a Mafioso of terrorists than anything else. The War on Terrorism is a police matter, not a military one. As long as we continue attacking countries for the depredations of people they THEMSELVES are treating as wanted criminals we are just making the problem worse.

 

Gawd I wish you had been able to convince a few hardline righties of that back in '02. They were having none of it.

 

:icon_pee:

 

[video=youtube;5TNhS81w4bM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNhS81w4bM[/video]

 

You may have drank too much of the kool-aid. Here's hoping you are not killed in a hostile foreign country making your rich republician buddies richer.

" Beware the military industrial complex" - Dwight Eisenhower, republican

 

Sorry, but it's the truth. The US military is nothing more than the enforcement wing of the political class in Washington DC. Ask Smedley Butler:

[video=youtube;F3_EXqJ8f-0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3_EXqJ8f-0[/video]

 

Why did you leave out the Democrats? Been dipping into the Koolaid yourself?

 

Good Lord,

I said almost those very words to a man my age.....almost 50 years ago.

And we are still saying them to our youth...

I need to cry now...I thought I would at least see a slow down.....

 

First, the biggest wealth coming out of these wars is in the financing of them...Obama's buddies whom he handed over a $ Trillion so they could pay themseleves bonuses, so by making it political you invited that shot.

Second, "President" Dwight D. Eisenhower said no such thing. He identified what he called 'The Military, Industrial complex, and suggested in his farewell speech that American should be "vigilant"....

He never said "beware" like some character out of Shakespear.....

 

Ok how about.. lets hope the lad doesn't die making rich men richer. Feel better now?

 

Regardless of the naysayers it is still an honorable profession.
Addressing the author of the OP. You're going to read a lot of negative comments from the peanut gallery. It's a hazard in this post-modern semi-anonymous blackhole called the internet. Don't look for validation online anywhere, find that in the mirror and in your fellow Marines.

 

Yes, much better. There have been too many good people killed or hurt by the greed of the war profiteers.

 

What's so honorable about it?

 

Nothing about the Marine Corps is honorable if it is directly responsible for producing a nation of whiny, leftist, selfish, self-loathing, brain numbed, game playing, metrosexual, drug taking, terrorist loving, pseudo-intellectual America disparaging, entitlement collectors.

Thank God the USMC has nothing to do with producing those kinds of individuals except to protect their freedom to exist and breed and be whatever they wish to be.

 

[video=youtube;Vg6oYDJ9hSU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg6oYDJ9hSU[/video]

Here's a few minutes of an excellent PBS program called, The Marines.

All of you will find it interesting, if not entertaining and inspiring.

 

Spare me. I was in the Marines. I demand to know what's so honorable about it. It's not like our military is used to protect the US anymore. It's just there for politicians to abuse and misuse as an apathetic public watches NFL football. So tell me what's so honorable about being part of the military industrial complex these days. Why risk your life for politicians and partisan voters?

 

That's some spiffy propaganda but the real thing is much less glamorous and inspiring, I can assure you. If you want to know what the US military is really about, just ask Major General Smedley Butler...

War Is A Racket, by Major General Smedley Butler

 

Sounds like a very balanced point of view.

 

It comes from experience and observation. Besides listening to his enlisted guys and trying not to get himself killed, he should also keep in mind that his orders might get someone killed or hurt, so he should ask himself if the mission at hand is really so important to US national security that he has to risk his or someone else's life in order to accomplish it.