Chris Westley gets a letter from Kirkuk, Iraq, about his article:
That was a great article on government employees, but perhaps I can add something that may help you understand why Marines (and other elite military) put those stickers on their vehicles. I’m a former Marine currently in the Army in Special Ops and there are a number of reasons why guys do that stuff, none of them really good.
1) Ignorance and pride. These guys honestly believe that everybody else is impressed and in the case of the truly ignorant, they sometimes are. At Fort Bragg they have their entire 201 (personnel) file displayed on their rear windows, no guessing where they’ve been or what they’ve done. The truly ignorant who rattle off phrases to me when in uniform such as “Thank you for fighting for my freedom” as they vote themselves new tyrants to rule them.
2) Brainwashed. Every military branch pumps its members up with the “you are the BEST” phraseology and the Marines can take some sense of satisfaction in their performance, albeit the unquestioning obedience to all orders thing was part of my reason for leaving.
3) Fraternal. Former Marines instantly identify with one another, much the same way as guys in a fraternity would. I have a small tie tac that I wear for this reason (I also have a cross that I wear for the same reason). It instantly identifies me to other former Marines and as we are a small organization, it gives us a chance to touch bases - more often than not I will speak to somebody that knew somebody else that is a good friend.
4) Defensive intimidation. Some guys post these stickers to intimidate other people and if you live in an insane city with belligerent drivers, this is often the case. I drive a tiny little economy pickup truck and have bumper stickers on it for precisely that reason. I drive slowly and courteously and this enrages the psychotic who often drive big red monster trucks to compensate for their lack of courage, compassion, or empathy. I have found that since applying these stickers to my truck, I no longer have enraged/psyshotic drivers attempting to run me over, run me off the road, or following me to my destination to challenge me in the parking lot. I used to put up stickers indicating my firearms preferences but with the hysteria regarding firearms ownership in our formerly free society, these only invited the wrong kind of attention from other government employees.
As to your comments on government employees (including myself) being sponges who are working off of stolen taxpayer money, I have to agree with you completely. This old warhorse is hanging up his shoes when he gets back. Since 1976, as both active and reservist, I have YET to fight in or serve in any operation that was defending the Constitution of the United States and I don’t think with our new neo-con empire builders we will do anything but attack other sovereign nations. I’m going back to what I know and do best, being self employed; an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wages and maybe something left over after our elected tyrant-masters in Washington get done raping and pillaging my wages.
All I can do now in my position of leadership and influence with the younger soldiers is keep them from shooting or abusing innocent civilians here in Iraq, encourage them to get out while the getting is good, and encourage others to not join at all. All that having a large standing army has done in my opinion is to allow tyrants to attack other nations, meddle in foreign affairs, and feel they have a weapon to control their own people with should they defy their un-Constitutional decrees. Thanks for a great article!
