What Grinds My Gears

You wanna know what really grinds my gears?

Ok, I stole that from Family Guy, but it seemed the most fitting for this post so I don't feel bad about stealing it, especially since I outright give credit to where I stole it from.

But seriously, do you want to know what really grinds my gears? Anti-war people grind my gears. I will forewarn you that this post might display a little more of the harsh person in me; the one that occasionally enjoys standing on my homemade soapbox, voicing my opinion on some subject (that I feel I know enough about to speak my mind intelligently) usually in response to some idiotic statement made by some stranger that just grinds my gears.

People like Cindy Sheehan and other naysayers who think they understand what they are talking about and really have no idea. Most of them are just jumping on the bandwagon of complaining when they really have no clue what they are talking about or what they are doing. I mean really people, do you have nothing better to do than waste your time supporting the anti-war effort that will probably never accomplish anything?

My outburst on this comes from something that I ran across on the Internet yesterday. You see, I have been checking other soldier blogs while writing my own and a while back, I came across a wonderful blog that all should read. www.afemalesoldier2.com or click the link to the right "A Female Soldier's Story."

It is written by a female soldier; she's a mother, a wife, and an Army medic in the 101st Airborne Division. I have been reading her posts and following her website for the past few weeks, relating to how much her feelings on deployment are much the same as mine. Yesterday, I checked in on her site again, where she had written her final stateside post. She has left for Iraq and I wish her and her unit the best. What grinds my gears are the comments left by some people after this post.

While most of the posts are extremely supportive and encouraging - others read like this:

"Amanda" writes:

"Do you not feel guilty that you are helping in the killing of innocent Iraqis - what did they do to deserve what has happened to them? You can always choose not to go.
As for prayers and sympathy to your family - forget it! And when you get back and realise all the death and destruction (which you helped to cause) is a complete waste - dont say you have not been warned."

As well as - "I know freedom isnt free - but as long as its the Iraqis that are paying the price in lost lives, I suppose thats ok. . . . you went to Vietnam to stop the spread of communism because that was the big fear back then. But, you lost the war, and it still did not make any difference - the politicians lied to you then and they are lying again. Our baby-killing soldiers are continuing to die for nothing."

Plus this - "If you think you are doing an important job for your country, just look at how much you or your family will get compensated for your death or injury. Now tell me the President thinks what you are doing is important. Our country needs idiots like you so we can over-run other countries and take their natural resources."

This - "Go ahead, waste your life, just like so many other young people have done in Iraq and Vietnam. As for Bush's "good vs evil" speech - well, this is the same guy who told us about WMD, etc, so why would you believe him now."

And the best one yet - "I'm not anti-war - I'm anti-killing- people-based-on-a-lie. I'm also pro-women's rights, which the women in Iraq will not get. As for 25 million oppressed people, are we talking about South and Central Americans who are living under brutal right-wing dictators who were installed by the US? Be proud of yourself when you see women in Iraq now forced to stay in their homes because of the religious zealots you helped put in power."

"Christians for Cheap Oil" write: (How very not Christian of them I think.)

"Who cares how you, as a soldier feels, our great leader and the other politicians dont! And, when you come home with psychological problems from seeing young lives shattered (hopefully yours wont be one of them) dont expect much help from the army. Well, go off and do your duty so we can continue to have cheap oil and our leaders can get richer."

Ok, seriously folks. Idiots. I just want to ask these people if they are retarded, because they are obviously about as ignorant as a person can get.

First of all, if you are so all about being against this conflict, then talk about this conflict. Don't hide the fact that you have no intelligent argument to stand on by bringing up side issues that have nothing to do with Iraq.

Second, why don't you base your argument in fact instead of some crap that you heard from Michael Moore who distorts the truth more than a kaleidoscope distorts your vision.

Third, and what really got me going yesterday, is the fact that these idiots have to take a soldier's website and graffiti it with their idiotic statements. I mean please, this is a place to post your comments. It is not designed for "Amanda" to argue back and forth with every other comment because she feels the need to always get the last word in.

Fourth, if you anti-war people hate it so much, move to Canada, or France, or Germany, or maybe even Iran or any one of dozens of countries in the Middle East. I am sure they would welcome you there if you are so into supporting oppression and abuse and genocide. I hear it can be quite popular in other parts of the world while it obviously is not here in America.

Fifth, which really goes along with #4, if you have such an earth-shattering revelation to state, get your own damn website. Or are you afraid that no one will visit it?

Folks, being a soldier isn't easy. It doesn't provide the luxury of second-guessing every order given and of putting all decisions to a vote. It is a job that thousands of people choose to sign up for each year because they believe in our country, in our history and in our freedom. It is something that very few people have the intestinal fortitude to do and thank God there are people who do it, when the majority of Americans just reap the benefits of a strong military force.

I'm not going to even debate whether or not we "should" be in Iraq. The fact is that we are there, we have started something and we need to finish it. Do you anti-war people ever stop and think about how devastating it would be for the people of Iraq if we just up and left tomorrow? Please, the good people, the majority that support the Coalition, would be crushed, just as they were before under Saddam. It doesn't matter how we got there - you don't stop putting out a fire because it should have never started in the first place.

One more thing for "Amanda" - I hope that in the future your family doesn't get caught in some natural disaster somewhere where you end up with no food, no water, no fuel, no shelter, and no transportation because the only people that are coming to help you are those "baby-killing soldiers" that you seem to be so fond of. What will you do?

Like I always say, "Everybody hates a cop until they need one." The same appears to go for you anti-war protestors when it comes to soldiers as well.