Soldiers and America

In light of all the anti-war and anti-American talk out there, I decided I would make a comment. I came across this quote the other day and thought it was fantastic. Despite the fact that the man who made the statement originally was an actor with not a huge amount of professional education or international experience, he is considered one of the greatest presidents America ever had- Ronald Regan. In regards to the military, specifically when the elite Special Forces and Marines came under fire, he said "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the Marines, they don't have that problem" I think it's amazing the sacrifice that our troops make; not just the Marines-the Army, Navy and Air Force as well. All deserve places of honour in our society. I know its a tired cliché, but they fight and die so that people have the 'right' and freedom to complain and condemn them. What a crazy world we live in. I am, and always have been, partial to the military. It is a brave profession in my eyes. Well done soldiers, well done.

In response to the seemingly constant condemnation of America, I personally don’t see what is so bad about it. Freedoms like you wouldn’t believe, plenty of jobs, unending amounts of land, enough food and food sources to feed millions, beaches, mountains, oceans, forests, amazing cities and a huge variety of cultures, religions and people. Seriously?! What is so bad about America? and Americans for that matter? I don’t want to seem ridiculous and always writing pro-American sentiment, but lately I have had so many encounters with those who think very negatively of the states and by default, those who hail from them. Tony Blair, when asked about America in a recent interview said "A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in and how many want out." I like that. For all the crap that America gets, how many people want to make a better life for themselves on the good ole' US soil? Currently we have 21,441,807 illegal immigrants living in the US. That figure doesn’t even include the number of people who have legally immigrated to the states. I read in a newspaper not to long ago that every day 80 British leave Great Britain to live abroad. In contrast, 23 leave America every day to live abroad. This is not intended to be a tirade against Great Britain. I really do love the UK. But I have reached my limit apparently with anti-American comments, especially from the British. I felt the need to say something. Sure not all the actions of the states are great; even I don’t agree with a lot that government does. But every country has their short comings and every country makes mistakes. I will take President Bush, even with all his faults, over Columbian rebel 'freedom' fighters, Communist China, the Venezuelan President who is more of a dictator than anything else, Saudi Arabia and Iran, where there are literally no rights for women, corrupt, unjust and murderous leaders in Sudan and other African nations and a Russian leader who is ruling the country in KGB style- no public TV, newspapers, cutting off oil etc...