With "Support" Like This, Who Needs Friends

Let me apologize in advance for the profanity. I really try not to swear, but even after taking a day to cool off, merely thinking about the following story gets me talking like an oil-derrick worker. So, y'know, sorry for the four-letters.

Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican from North Carolina, placed a poster of the Camp Lejeune (N.C.) men and women who've died in Iraq and Afghanistan on the hallway wall outside his office. Speaker Pelosi, in her role as nanny-in-chief of the House, demanded the poster taken down. She attempted to defend the disgusting move by claiming the poster fell into the category of "any flag, banner, or device designed or adapted to bring into public notice any person, party, organization or movement" that had been banned by a 1999 statute.

Y'know, what, Speaker Pelosi? You're right. Why the hell should we allow someone to draw attention to the heroes of our time? As we all know, 'one man's hero is another man's genocidal stormtrooper of a neoconservative hegemonic power'.

These young men and women who chose to put their own lives in danger's path so their fellow citizens could elect asshats like you to office, these people who spent years in conditions far tougher and more austere than your worst day in order to prepare themselves for the hell of battle- fuck 'em. The mere action of putting their faces on a poster is too grievous a sin for any reasonable person to abide by. Good for you for standing up for America and her laws. /sarcasm

There are observers who will say that this maneuver is a political blunder, and they'll be right. There are those who will say that this is a good example of the Democrats' tin ear for all issues related to the military, and they'll be right too.

But the real kick-in-the-balls? That these ingrates in office, these assholes who don't even see the despicable nature of this story, will, with a haughtiness usually reserved for food critics, insist that they "support the troops." They won't even be lying. They really believe that their positions, actions, and opinions are more beneficial to the armed services. "Why," they ask, "is there war in the first place? That's the real pro-troop position. The Republicans just want to use these guys as pawns, while we care about the individuals."

My ass.

Right here in this story, Nancy Pelosi can only see these greatest of Americans as political playpieces. She's got her head so far up the anti-war ass that she is incapable of viewing soldiers as patriotic individuals with patriotic families that support them. After looking at anti-war posters and Moveon.org ads and "Bring The Troops Home" ribbon-magnets, the only thing she can see the troops as is a political statement. It's a goddam disgrace when a Congressman can't even put up a poster of men and women who suffered through the worst conditions, worked sleepless nights, and died heroic deaths for the safety of their peers.

The reason why it is no longer dulce et decorum to pro patria mori isn't because there are no longer values worth dying for but because the culture is so full of ingrateful wretches that they don't even want to think about those who've died.