Some People Need to be slapped. Really

I've heard a number of people saying some of the dumbest, most annoying things about the men and women who choose to serve in the armed forces.... the biggest loser said the following:
"...if your son's job [in the marines] is so damned important, then why isn't he dead yet?"

No. I am NOT kidding.

And this came from a suburban d00d who works at a local Sam's Club as a... what did he say? Technical Advisor/Forklift Operator. To me that reads as "STOCK BOY". But I'm not here to insult him directly. Oh no, cause there are several people who said many nearly as idiotic things - like the one boss who threatened to fire a man whose son was about to go back to Iraq because it was his third tour of duty, or the one woman who said to one distraught mother that she shouldn't be so worried cause it's "just like sending her own son off to college."

Umm, excuse me?

I don't recall seeing too many IED's and dogs with explosives loaded up their hoo-hole the last time I took a class at VCU or Va Tech. I don't remember seeing a lot of sandbags surrounding the campus compound to deter snipers and insurgents. Biggest thing I saw were sobriety checkpoints and plenty-o-pretty girls. I'm also thinking the ratio of women to men at your typical base in Iraq is quite a bit worse than your standard co-ed university, eh?

It astounds me how some people think. Now, this is what I said in response to the blog where I read several of the things these people said:

People who say these things live a nice, sheltered life. They live in America, where all things should be happy and wonderful and the biggest problems in their lives generally deal with the following:

• Where to go Friday night?
• is their spouse/significant other cheating on them?
• Does s/he like me?
• Golly, I don't like my job.
• What am I gonna eat tonight?

And while these earth-shattering issues confront many of us all the time, as well as the boys who have taken their voluntary service in the military, it is a sad sign that these people don't live in the whole, real world. They live in their own little space and nothing else matters except how it affects them. Their unfortunate and selfish narrow-mindedness is an unfortunate side effect of living in a nation where we take our freedoms for granted. Freedoms that others volunteer to protect and keep for us. These punk bitches and misguided , naive idiots don't have the guts or the gear to understand that there really is a much wider world out there and that things "out there" can affect them just as readily. Without what these boys do, we wouldn't have the freedom to say these simply pathetic, stupid, and downright insulting things to or about them.

Politics or no, the fact that these boys all volunteered to serve, full well knowing that the possibility of being deployed in a dangerous combat zone, means that the ONLY thing we should do is support them and respect them for doing that which we cannot or will not do for ourselves.

Period.
No discussion.
That's all there is to it.

Jack Nicholson said it best in these lines from A Few Good Men:

"Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."