For Your Service

There was a flyer up at my work that was noticed by a few friends of mine. "Free tickets to the Nebraska - Kansas St. Game". We just had to go in uniform.
Two of my friends, Copp and Wing, saw it, and they being football fans, wanted to go. I said I'd go too, thinking it was in Omaha. It ended up being in Lincoln, 45 minutes away, but not horrible. We drove down there today and stood on the sidelines, just behind the fence where the players and media all go. I think we may have gotten on TV too. During half time we were all leaning on said fence and one of the cameras came over and we were put up on the big megatron thing, or whatever it's called - bunch of Air Force cats in flight suits.
The whole day people were going by, shaking our hands, saluting us, some 10 year old said "Thank you for your service." Why is it that when people say that I just want to say "Shut up, leave me alone."? I wonder if it's cause I joined for purely selfish reasons, or because I don't want to be in anymore. It's because I don't like the system, and don't like how I feel completely pointless where I am - going thru 2 years of language training to just be a warm body on a plane.
I'll never go to China, never really use Chinese again in my job, once I graduate from this class. I appreciate being able to learn chinese, and yeah I've had to deal with this shit, some of which the vast majority of the population can't really relate to at all and will never experience even to a small degree- but I didn't do it for anyone's service.
I did it for free credits, free college money, and free parking. It must be a kind of shame I feel. Like I should be more patriotic, should look at the kids and say, "I'm fighting for your freedom kid." Just leave me alone. I'm just another working stiff that hates his job, it's just cause I wear green and a dumb looking hat that you might think I'm special. But I never graduated from college, gave up on my dreams, took the structure over the freedom, god knows why. I'll probably never be shot at, and if I am, it's cause I'll go to jail if I refuse to run out into the line of fire - not because I believe in anything - any kind of cause. That's how most of "The Service" is, whether they admit it or not. There are the few gung ho master sergeants and wannabe pilots - but the rest of us just want to get our 20 year retirement, or 3 year GI Bill, or clearance, or alcohol, and then forget we ever -literally- signed our life away. We appreciate the appreciation, somewhere deep down, and some of us think we deserve it, but for most all of us it's a job with good benefits, crappy pay, bad hours, and low morale. So if it's a service to you to deal with that, you're welcome.
Your taxes pay my salary, but then, my own taxes do too.

Some Say We'll See Armageddon Soon...

The Palestinian President has dissolved the government and is now ruling by presidential decree to hope to control the situation between them and Hamas...

And the crickets outside MY window won't shut up!

Fascism

Take a look at this.

I think it was probably more controversial when it was made 2 years ago, when what it says wasn't so close to what a lot of americans themselves are saying. So do you think it's true? Or what parts of it do you think are false?

Another question I guess would be, if it's accusations against America are correct, is America's position on this matter morally wrong? When it says that the war on terror is the war on anyone that opposes American domination, should American leaders feel remorse about anything except that that's not a very sensitive way of putting it? Is it wrong for a country to go to war against people that oppose their own global domination? Or is that what all countries do, and America just currently has the power to make their war the most far reaching?

Give me your thoughts, if you have any on this subject.