if a country is not worth dying for, how long will it last?

just curious since it seems that there are very few who see the united states as worth defending.

so what are your predictions? 10 years? 20? maybe 50?

at what point will there be absolutely no people left here who are wiling to sacrifice their lives, if necessary, to defend the freedoms that they enjoy? the freedoms that citizenship in this nation afford them.

who'll get the spoils? the chinese or the islamists?

for the record, while i respect your right to have opinions differing from mine on this issue, i enjoy my own right to hold the opinion that you're a buncha f*cking spineless douches unworthy of the sweat off a soldier's balls.

to answer the inevitable question: i tried to enlist twice and was rejected for medical reasons both times.

---

Updated On: 11/7/07 at 04:24 PM

Well, there will always be people joining the armed forces, so I don't think the reservations of BWW are going to bring down the empire.

Maybe if I lived in the same country you did, papa, I'd feel like it was worthy of defense. I live in a country where I'm told on a daily basis that I'm not welcome and that I don't deserve the same basic rights as the rest of the country.

Updated On: 11/7/07 at 04:29 PM

Plus, Phyllis, we couldn't defend it even if we wanted to do so.

'the freedoms that citizenship in this nation afford them.'

It's here where we run into a little bit of trouble. Not all citizens are treated equally under the law. And that colors many peoples' views in regards to this country. You may think they are small concerns. You are welcome to that. But you are also someone who enjoys the full benefit of the rights some of us are hoping to receive at some point.

Of course, you've conflated 'defending a country' with 'dying for a country'. And they are not exactly one and the same. Soldiers are a remarkable breed of people, but they are not the only remarkable breed of people around. People who fight daily against injustice, receiving very little recompense, I consider to be heroes. Attorneys, teachers, outreach workers are also defending America. They just are not necessarily putting their lives at risk. I hold those people in the same high regard that I hold soldiers.

Defense of America can and does take many different shapes. Yours isn't the only way.

---

Robbiej just makes me wanna fly my flag!

---

I'll take a squad of seals anytime. My place or theirs.

---

I agree 100% robbiej!!!

i'm not getting glib. at. all. i think you're the one conflating things.

let me change the title since what i meant was dying. and i think it's f*cking pathetic to equate a person who's willing to lay down their life (in the sense of actual dying) so that others may live to someone who's busy bitching about tenure or suing a corporation for a 30% commission or figuring out how to get more people on the public dole.

---

If we're discussing dying for a country (and that alone), then my answer would be different. Very different.

Is there a scenario in which I could imagine dying for my country? Absolutely. Does that mean I have to sign up for the armed forces (which don't want me, by the way) to prove something? No (plus, I'd be denied for medical reasons as well, were they to accept gay people).

Now...of course I'm reading into what you've written...but if a Red Dawn scenario came to pass, I'd grab a gun and go down fighting. If a plane I was on got hijacked, I'd go down fighting.

But do I think the war in Iraq is a good enough reason to lay down my life? Absolutely not. And I don't think it's a good enough reason to ask anyone to lay down their lives.

---

thank you, robbie. you may now have some soldier ball sweat.

---

oh i couldn't get through that other thread, i was loading the guns and i had to come down a bit.

---

i feel that civilian contractors who are working in protection details do not qualify as mercenaries, they qualify as rent-a-cops.

---

You say potato and I say...soulless mercenaries hired because no Republican children want to fight for their country.

Hessians. Nothing but Hessians.

---