If not now, when? If not me, who?

The wordings of the current oath of enlistment and oath for commissioned officers are as follows:

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God." (DA Form 71, 1 August 1959, for officers.)

From http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/faq/oaths.htm, "Oaths of enlistment, and oaths of office".

Read This, and also This. Otherwise, much of the rantings below will not make a great deal of sense to you.

I guess "Never Again" only meant "Never Again, will we let this happen to us, because we will become what we feared most." What's the famous quote? Oh right, "One must take great pains when fighting the monster, not to become the monster. For as you stare long into the abyss, the abyss stares long back into you."

What I most want to know is, at what point do we get our government back under control? Yes folks - this is OUR fault. This is OUR government. What they do, they do in OUR name. We have NO business supporting the kind of state sponsored terrorism that Israel is engaging in. This is NOT the kind of action you take as a reprisal for taking two soldiers (who knew what kind of risk they were taking, by the way) by Hezbollah. This is a planned, well executed, systematic, precursor to genocide.

As an 8 year, two tour vet myself, (HM3(FMF) United States Navy) I am disgusted. Disgruntled. Dismayed. How DARE they do this in my name? I once dated a lovely Jewish woman, who taught me the title of this entry. I'd like to ask you to ask these questions of yourself, regarding the genocide we are allowing the Israeli army to commit. Yes, WE are allowing it. Where everyone else in the UN wanted to actually DO something about it, we promised a veto to prevent any sanction against Israel. That makes us culpable. Not all arabic speaking people are as clueless as we often make them out to be.

I was very proud of the uniform I wore. I earned everything on it with hard work, and sweat. Though my accomplishments were modest, they were still my accomplishments. I no longer wish to be buried in my dress blue uniform. I think I'll just wear a suit, with a golden cross sewn into it.

Perhaps others will have a golden crescent sewn into theirs? I think the message here from Israel is, it's okay, because it's not them this time. Just like what they did to the USS Liberty was supposed to be ok. You remember that, right folks? When they intentionally targeted one of our ships, and shot at people for 75 minutes who were no where near the war zone, killing 34 American servicemen?

But, hey - Hezbollah is a convenient way for Bush and the other neo-nazis^H^H^H^H^Hcons to shift our attention from the violence in Iraq, to anything else. Hmmm. I seem to remember these same people complaining about that Clinton guy, and - wait, it will come to me - something about a tail, and a dog, and some wagging? Anyway, I'm sure you remember it.

If it wasn't so damn sad and pathetic, I'd be tempted to laugh. As it stands, I just want to puke my guts up. How long will we sit idly by, and allow these people to pander to the lowest common denominator, and kill others in our name?

The worst part of this of course, is that no one does anything. No one stands up, and says, "No, I'm NOT going to let you use a riggable, easily fungable voting machine in Ohio, or anywhere else for that matter" (This is also worth reading, as a follow up on that) "No, I'm not going to let you kill innocent Lebanese under the guise of 'diplomacy'" "No, you're not going to wipe your ass on the constitution. This is my country, and guess what - I TOOK AN OATH TO DEFEND THAT CONSTITUTION YOU ASSHOLE! SO STOP WIPING YOUR ASS ON IT!"

Meanwhile, everything that can be done to errode your freedoms are happening at a RAPID pace. What kind of brave new world do you want big brother to see you living in? It's not to late to stop this. All it takes is the courage to speak out, to talk to others, and to act. Become a voter registrar. Register people to vote. Drive them to and from the polls if you have to. Because if you don't, others will decide our future for us.

Is that really what we want?