Post-Christmas thoughts about dead people and "supporting our troops"
Happy Boxing Day, all. I have some iconoclastic thoughts today.
Reggie White died this morning. As an Eagles fan, I loved Reggie White when he played for Philly and never forgave him for leaving the team and going to play with Nancy-Boy Favre in Green Bay. I guess it was his right as a free agent, but damn those were some good defenses in Philadelphia in the early '90s. So he's dead at 43, of a massive heart attack.
My thought is: how's that God thing working out for his family? White was a good Christian, and got in a bit of trouble a while back for saying some obviously anti-gay things. Whatever, he can have his own opinions. He seems like a good Christian, and God apparently wanted to hang out with him in heaven, because God didn't care about his wife or his two children. Now, I suppose they're not hurting for money, since White made a crapload of cash during his NFL career, but it seems kind of capricious of God to "bring Reggie home" when he had so many responsibilities down here. It's just another example of one of two things: a) God doesn't exist; b) God's a mean son of a bitch. Which one makes you feel better?
Meanwhile, all good Americans, whether they are conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, black or white or yellow, are supposed to support our troops. It shows that you are a caring person and that you can rise above the partisanship that this illegal war has engendered and that we're not going to spit on our troops when they come home like we did in 'Nam. It's not the troops' fault that Bush sent them over to Iraq to prosecute his war that proves to his daddy that he's a real man. The troops are doing their job and we need to respect that, because they are dying to protect our freedom.
Fuck 'em.
Shocking, I know. Don't I care about our troops? Well, no. They're freakin' soldiers, people! This is what they are supposed to do! It sucks and all that they're paying for Bush being a macho asshole, but most soldiers, I would bet, went into the armed forces to learn a trade and get some money for college. Others like shooting things. Well, the first group -- maybe you should have thought that you might actually have to go off to war. The second group -- congratulations, you get to shoot things. We have a volunteer army! The only people I have any smidgen of sympathy for are for those who have already completed their tour and have been cycled back over there or never left. Yes, that's a little bit of a shame, but apparently it's not terribly uncommon to happen. So, once again, fuck 'em.
"But they're fighting for our freedom!" Well, I don't know about you, but I wasn't aware that Saddam Hussein was infringing on my freedom at all. Maybe in some abstract way, he was, but so is Bush (and in a more concrete way), and nobody's deposing him. You can argue that it's a whole domino thing, and if Saddam stayed in power, the whole Middle East would become tyrannical (whoops, too late) and eventually, we would elect Hitler to run things here, and you can argue that Saddam was the inspiration behind September 11 (if you're stupid, you can argue that), but those are all weak arguments. The fact is, the troops in Iraq are not fighting for our freedom. They might be fighting for Iraqis' freedom, but that's certainly a different thing. Therefore, I don't support the troops.
Maybe I should. Maybe if I don't support the troops, some day they won't support me. Maybe.
Reggie White died this morning. As an Eagles fan, I loved Reggie White when he played for Philly and never forgave him for leaving the team and going to play with Nancy-Boy Favre in Green Bay. I guess it was his right as a free agent, but damn those were some good defenses in Philadelphia in the early '90s. So he's dead at 43, of a massive heart attack.
My thought is: how's that God thing working out for his family? White was a good Christian, and got in a bit of trouble a while back for saying some obviously anti-gay things. Whatever, he can have his own opinions. He seems like a good Christian, and God apparently wanted to hang out with him in heaven, because God didn't care about his wife or his two children. Now, I suppose they're not hurting for money, since White made a crapload of cash during his NFL career, but it seems kind of capricious of God to "bring Reggie home" when he had so many responsibilities down here. It's just another example of one of two things: a) God doesn't exist; b) God's a mean son of a bitch. Which one makes you feel better?
Meanwhile, all good Americans, whether they are conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, black or white or yellow, are supposed to support our troops. It shows that you are a caring person and that you can rise above the partisanship that this illegal war has engendered and that we're not going to spit on our troops when they come home like we did in 'Nam. It's not the troops' fault that Bush sent them over to Iraq to prosecute his war that proves to his daddy that he's a real man. The troops are doing their job and we need to respect that, because they are dying to protect our freedom.
Fuck 'em.
Shocking, I know. Don't I care about our troops? Well, no. They're freakin' soldiers, people! This is what they are supposed to do! It sucks and all that they're paying for Bush being a macho asshole, but most soldiers, I would bet, went into the armed forces to learn a trade and get some money for college. Others like shooting things. Well, the first group -- maybe you should have thought that you might actually have to go off to war. The second group -- congratulations, you get to shoot things. We have a volunteer army! The only people I have any smidgen of sympathy for are for those who have already completed their tour and have been cycled back over there or never left. Yes, that's a little bit of a shame, but apparently it's not terribly uncommon to happen. So, once again, fuck 'em.
"But they're fighting for our freedom!" Well, I don't know about you, but I wasn't aware that Saddam Hussein was infringing on my freedom at all. Maybe in some abstract way, he was, but so is Bush (and in a more concrete way), and nobody's deposing him. You can argue that it's a whole domino thing, and if Saddam stayed in power, the whole Middle East would become tyrannical (whoops, too late) and eventually, we would elect Hitler to run things here, and you can argue that Saddam was the inspiration behind September 11 (if you're stupid, you can argue that), but those are all weak arguments. The fact is, the troops in Iraq are not fighting for our freedom. They might be fighting for Iraqis' freedom, but that's certainly a different thing. Therefore, I don't support the troops.
Maybe I should. Maybe if I don't support the troops, some day they won't support me. Maybe.
posted by Greg | 2:17 PM
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