As a U.S. Army, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF1 & OIF2), and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Veteran I believe that my opinion should matter to any who claims to “support the troops” or even care about them. The entire Iraq War was based on lies told to the American people & the American Military. Because I was on active duty in the military at the time I did NOT have the luxury of questioning my commanding officers, let alone the audacity to call my Commander in Chief a “LIAR”. Obviously the South Carolina National Guard has a different idea of how its members should conduct themselves. Or maybe it is just the FACT that Joe “wrong-way” Wilson has taken $435k+ in campaign contributions from the health sector that causes his lack of respect for his Commander in Chief and/or the truth.

What is even worse is that this is only the most recent example of how far the radical right a.k.a. republicans will go in order to keep getting paychecks from the insurance industry. If the republican politicians had their way we would all be SLAVES to their corporate overlords just as they are. These companies don’t have any incentive to help us. They give you “insurance” but as soon as you get really sick or god forbid they find out you have a “pre-existing condition” and they will yank your coverage so that they don’t have to pay. They will say you have met your lifetime catastrophic cap for coverage or that you no longer qualify.

It seems to me like all these republican members of congress only care about one thing, and that one thing is the money in THEIR OWN POCKETS. They do not care about the American people. They do not care about the well being of the economy. They do not care about the environment. They do not care about the infrastructure of the country. I mean who in their right mind wouldn’t want a new more modern rail system for us? Who wouldn’t want new roads and bridges? Who wouldn’t want new power lines, power plants, water treatment facilities, airports, improved telecommunications services, schools, hospital, fire stations, & police stations? You know all the things that are needed to support a society. The things that are needed to grow an economy. The things that should be first rate in a first world country. All the things that we (American citizens) should have. The republicans wanted to stop the Federal stimulus money because they said we didn’t need it.

Oh, and back to healthcare for a moment. The republicans keep floating around this idea that we should just “let the insurance companies do business across state lines”. In other words they want to deregulate the insurance companies. Look at the last time we deregulated the insurance industry. Does AIG ring a bell? Well it should because AIG basically stacked a hedge fund on top of an insurance company because nobody told them they couldn’t. Then it all blew up in our faces. That’s what they (the republicans) want to put in place of a public option. Those republicans want to take away any type of real public option because that’s what their Big Insurance overlords commanded them to do. They are just the puppets of the insurance industry.

The republicans are the ones who got us all into this big mess by telling us that private markets would “self-regulate”, and they told us that government regulation was bad. Well I know they are wrong and I offer the current financial mess we are in as proof. I don’t even think that the republicans believe it. I think that the only reason they say it is because that’s what they get paid to say. They say it because they have sold their morals & their souls to the insurance companies. Those companies bought the politicians by paying them directly & by contributing millions of OUR dollars to the election/re-election campaigns. Then the companies (puppeteers) just pull the strings of their republican politicians (puppets) and the puppets say/do whatever they are commanded to say/do.

It is all just one big feedback loop. The politicians make sure that the government stays out of the way. Then the companies use that freedom in order to take OUR MONEY away from us. Then the companies take their cut. Then they give their executives their cut. Then they give the politicians their cut. Then we the customers get the remainder which amounts to almost nothing. Then the cycle starts over again.

Well now we have finally opened our eyes. We have started to turn the tide by replacing most of the republicans with democrats. So now hopefully the democratically elected Democrats can start fixing things. They have a really tough job since the last administration screwed everything up so bad.

Now on to another subject that I ,as a Veteran, feel very strongly about. TORTURE, IT IS WRONG!!! I don’t care who does it. I don’t care what they call it. I don’t care what the reason for it is. I don’t care what method is used. I don’t care who you do it to. I don’t care if you think it works (because it doesn’t). There is NOT any legitimate evidence that it works. I am also pretty sure that it is against U.S. and international laws. I know it is prohibited in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Convention. If you don’t believe me then look it up for yourself. The Geneva Convention applies to everyone. You don’t get to just ignore a law because you don’t like it or because you don’t understand it. We are Americans!!! That used to mean something. That used to mean we would uphold the law not break it. It used to mean that the other countries of the world looked to us for leadership. We used to lead in all areas of society, art, science, technology, human rights, commerce… the list goes on. Back then we could have said to anyone who captured one of our soldiers or taken one of our citizens hostage “you cannot waterboard them”. Now that would make us hypocrites. Now we have lost the moral high ground and we are starting to lose the lead in just about every area. We once helped prosecute war criminals. Now we are protecting them. It makes me sick to say that but it is true and I’m not going to just ignore it because I don’t like it. That is not the direction we should be going. I believe that the only way for us to even start to gain back the moral high ground is to face the facts. We need to investigate who did what. Then we need to hold them responsible for their actions. If it is too hard for us to be honest with ourselves then we should ask the international community to help us. We need to cooperate fully with them. I am not saying that the lowest ranking individuals who just followed the orders of their leaders should be given the maximum punishment. But I do think that every case should be examined separately and that anyone who is found to have broken any law should at least be convicted of that crime and have some sort of punishment. Even if that punishment is simply a permanent record that they committed that crime. But the people (the term is used loosely in this instance) at the middle and upper parts of the chain of command who gave the orders should receive some very harsh punishment. Especially the ones at the very top. The ones who came up with the ideas to torture & the ones who tried to make it look legal. They should receive the highest of penalties like the death penalty or life without the possibility for parole.

Now another short subject. Just how exactly is gay marriage a threat to straight marriage? How are gay rights any different from women’s rights or any other rights for that matter? What makes it ok for any government to say who can get married? I mean if marriage is a religious matter then why not let each individual church decide who they marry?

Lastly, what kind of person would use the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 to further their own political beliefs? Terrorists! Who would say they hate the September 11^th victims? Glen Beck would. Let’s think for a minute about what the terrorists wanted when they attacked the U.S.A. They wanted to destroy America. And if the right wing terrorists here in America aka the republicans get their way that’s exactly what will have happened. The states will start seceding from the U.S.A. which will in effect destroy America. There will be a second civil war. That’s what these crazy 9/12 tea party marchers want. They want to make sure that the terrorists accomplish their goals. Which I think makes them terrorists too.