Hey BC:
Just wondering...If Bush decides you need to
go and orders someone who orders someone...
who eventually orders two marines to 'light you
up' (don't you just love military euphemisms to
avoid words like kill and murder?) will you still
think of them as heroes and not even take
'Baby' off safe, or will you think of them as
the paid assassins they would be?
I think your question is invalid.
If Bush sends two assassins to Tulsa to murder
some old, white guy with a computer, I'm guessing
the soldiers might ask why, since this isn't
a combat zone and I'm no more a threat than my keyboard.
But if a 16 year old kid is lurking in the shadows
of Fallujah and a Marine catches a glimpse of
reflected light that tells him that the kid is
holding some metal in his hands, they would fire at him.
The word hero has lost most of its meaning ever
since Reagan declared that the freed Iranian hostages
were heroes - for nothing more than going to
work and getting kidnapped. More recently, Jessica Lynch
took a wrong turn, got captured, and was declared
a hero. By that logic, or lack thereof, if I take a
wrong turn in New York, end up in Harlem, and
get the crap beaten out of me by some dudes who
took offense at my white ass being there, then
I too would be a hero - not because I actually DID
something but solely because I was in the right
place at the wrong time.
Maybe we should try this in reverse: Who
do YOU think is a hero?
It can't be a fireman, because what kind of idiot
signs up to run into burning buildings and then has
the gall to whine about the years of pain after
his mask melts to his face and his fingers fall off?
Can we seriously consider that guy a hero?
How about the 350 firemen who died on 9-11?
All they did was go to work that day, right?
I wonder if most reasonable people would agree
that at the very least, a hero must do something
and the something must require courage and the
willingness to sacrifice. Remember Frank Burns
getting a piece of eggshell in his eye and applying
for a purple heart? He thought he was a hero
almost as much as Bush thinks he's a great president.
Frank Burns was a cariacature of a joke in a television
comedy show.
Is that the problem? You see the soldiers
in Iraq as Frank Burns times 150,000?
Do you not have any respect for any
man or woman who fought in any war?
I guess what I'm wondering most is why you consider
anyone in the military a hero?
When you put on that uniform, you're volunteering
to charge the machine gun.
Maybe you'll never have to, but if you have to,
you run right into that mother-effer.
Me?
I don't have that kind of courage, so I salute
those who do.
Back in the Nam REMFs were in country, but for
the most part were in as much danger as being
in New York - wait a minute, actually less since
they couldn't walk around the Apple with a Kbar,
grenades, and an M16 stuffed with a 30 round
mag. Even worse, as has been pointed out in the past,
a guy launching a cruise missle 100 miles away
from an enemy who couldn't touch him if he had a
50 mile pole or someone dropping bombs from 6
miles up are in as much danger and about as
heroic as you or I cruising over Colorado on
the way to Vegas.
Then again, I could be right..
Lara K
Lara, let's not forget Pearl Harbor. Those
men were "safely" on ships, too.
So were the men from the Indianapolis
who were eaten by sharks.
So were the men aboard the Cole.
So were the men aboard the Stark.
They were hit by a cruise missle - no defense
against those.
Any heroes there?
John McCain?
He can't be a hero because he flew 6 miles above
Hanoi.
Remember Scott O'Grady?
He was shot down by a Serb missile while on a
NATO mission over Bosnia.
He covered his ass in leaves while Serbs walked
just feet away.
He ate ants until his rescue six days later -
he's not a hero, either?
Plus, nobody shoots SAM's at you flying over Colorado.
Granted, our military is being controlled by a
giggling murdering thug, so blame him.
Don't blame the people heroes
who are willing to die to keep America safe.