Years ago I was in a mechanized infantry unit. I loved it on many levels, except correspondence courses while covered in mud and oil wasn’t something I was willing to do. Liberal professors who lied about the U.S. military on a daily basis prompted me to look into conservatism, and the living legend Thomas Sowell brought me home.
After graduate school I worked at The Heritage Foundation, conducting youth outreach in its External Relations department. I now serve as an editor at Times247.com.
While directly searching the internet to find someone to comment on the liberal critics of the movie Act of Valor I was quite pleased with your take on the movie and the critics. I too am an infantry veteran and have deployed twice to Iraq with a third deployment to Afghanistan looming. Being from California my father once invited me to his work at a DMV management type area and I was quite shocked by some of the things I was told. He seemed proud of me yet his subordinates did not share his enthusiasm. Seems the Vietnam era anti-military sentiment had filtered down a couple more generations and my impression of liberalism has been solidified ever since. ‘Soldiers are just population control.’ ‘I would never let my daughter marry a soldier.’ So on and so forth, unprovoked insults to the very service I had experienced firsthand and had respect for. This was early on in my military career. Democrats and liberals since the time of president Bush have seemingly chosen their words carefully when it comes to the military but many of us are not so easily convinced nor willing to forget the actions of the Code Pink and other leftist organizations. I’ve had buddies get spit on in public and called ridiculous Vietnam era insults such as ‘baby killer’ and so forth. We take pride in precision and our service yet it seems the country has been convinced in many places that we are ALL mindless robots and baby killers. What I hate most of all is their ‘sympathy’ most of all. When they talk about Navy Seals in a review, bash their lack of acting and say they just feel sorry for what they have to go through, it’s a slap in the face. These men volunteer and are the pinnacle of what men should be. If we can’t stand up to these loud voices of valueless ignorance and fear then we would be doing a disservice to our brothers in arms. Anyway, sorry for the rant.
First of all Darrin, thank you for your service. You served at a time when our country deeply needed men like you, and while liberal critics might not be kind to you … history will.
Years ago I wasn’t particularly political, and then my liberal college professors began blatantly lying about the military, the men who serve and their motivations. It prompted me to look into more of their claims. Imagine my surprise to find out that the guys I was paying to teach me something were generally a bunch of liars with a twisted agenda.
Don’t feel sorry for that “rant” because it wasn’t. You spoke the truth, and you should continue to do so. Keep calling the shots as you see it, because it seems to me like you have 20/20 vision.