posted by american short-timer at Sunday, August 13, 2006
writing for those who can't
short - tim·er shôrt tī'mer noun
1. one nearing the end of a contractual term of service; a military enlistee at the end of a tour.
2. one arrested in service past a mutually agreed upon date after invocation of an executive order.
3. one at the proverbial end of his proverbial rope.
Inference: declining institutional loyalty proportionate to the nearing of one's Expiration Term of Service.
See also: Boobus Enlisticatus.
ALSO:
I am not in Iraq and I am not currently in the Army and I am not getting my ass shot at. This site is in compliance with MNC-I #9 as per FICI-CE-I, DoD Directive 5230.9 and AR 25-1, etcetera etcetera andsoforth.
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Charlie Yankee Alpha... out.
live each day as though it were to be your last, and one day you're sure to be right.
--Harry Harbord Morant
6 Comments:
I enjoy the increased humiliation and abusive tact of the increased airport security. It reminds me of my time in the military. ohhh the memories,
the heretic
You're right, things are different. I don't know how I feel about it. I sure as hell don't want to be probed or manhandled either. I would love for America to be the safer place it once was, but I don't know if it ever will be. How do you suggest we go about keeping the airlines/traveling safe?
Glad to see another post, Short-timer. Very expressive as usual.
maybe we could end our foriegn policy that exploits lesser developed nations and stop using our military as a weapon of terror. perhaps people of the world will have less passion to sacrifice themselves in violent acts to attack america's infrastructure, government buildings, and citizens.
just a thought,
the heretic
actually, the other option is... you move to a country that is not habitually dispatching its youth to the four corners of the earth to uphold truth, justice and the Las Vegas way.
julie anna, i think it's a false dichotomy. i just don't think america was or is safer or less safe than it was / is. it's just that the _perception_ of safety has changed because now it's politicized. it's headline news. it's glossy and sexy and sells well. and the message is... be afraid. be very afraid. your odds of dying in a car crash are a thousand times greater than dying in an airline terror whatever but you don't approach driving as some fear-riddled horrific event of internationally calamitous proportion. so it's all just bullshit.
and the bottom line is, as the heretic points out, if we can't even reason causality into the whole phenom, what's the point having a discussion. these fuckers do this shit for a reason. the reason is... we're standing on their larynx, we've killed their kin, we manipulate their political institutions.
you know, i hear guys say, ooooooh, rebuilding iraq blah blah blah, in twenty years time etcetera. let's get a clue here. i was in korea 50 years after their war ended. they have the 10th largest economy in the world now. thriving country. basically courtesy of 38,000 dead Americans and 2 million dead Koreans. You think the Koreans today are grateful for the sacrifices Americans have made for them? News flash: Koreans are second only to Arabs in their HATRED of America. They fucking HATE us over there. HATE US. i wish, honestly, i WISH americans would pull their heads out of their fucking ASSES and stop investing their wealth and youth in propping up a world that doesn't want and didn't ask for us to prop it up. ain't gonna happen so never mind. this fucking rollick of a ride hasn't even gotten started yet. but you know what, i'm not on that carousel anymore and whoopie!!!!!!! i'll watch that fucker spin out of control all the same though. hey, i appreciate the decent entertainment value of a distant catastrophe like the next chimp. thunder and lightning... very very frightening! break out the chips and dip and let's BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!
Call it the War on Terror. It's the same fucking war it's always been. Only now you can't have shampoo in your carry-on and you can go to sleep on the tarmac knowing the a-hole you pay to inspect your backpack and lose your luggage is making less than the guy who flips your burgers...
They can spend billions on an aircraft carrier and a nuke-ular submarine even though neither one of those things is gonna keep Richard Shoebomber from blowing up your 737 or find a dirty bomb in an unchecked shipping container at the Port of LA.
What they will do, however, is keep the motherfuckers who built 'em in Luccheses and 10-gallons for the foreseeable future and that's really what it's all about anyway...
AST: I basically agree with you that we are no more/less safe than before, but I have a slightly different spin on 'why'. In my opinion Americans aren't 'politicized' more. What's happened is that the propaganda aimed at Americans is now so artfully done that individual citizens are now removed from the political equation. For example, when CNN runs a poll, it's not because they care about your opinion, it's to measure how well their bullshit is working. The US is torturing people, but nobody is martching. Our internet connections are all bugged, but nobody is protesting..why is this? Not because we're politicized...more like the opposite. Pump the people full of fear and they will gladly give up freedom for security, and probably even thank you for it. Because if you have security, you no longer have to worry about personal responsibility. So the end result it a mix of fear blended with a warm love blanket of a fascist police state to keep the populace cozy. So, sad, but evidently so easy. America was a pushover.
dboy
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