Do soldiers and vets deserve automatic respect?

[Dotanbatan]

Cry away sonny boy .... your freedom to be a cry baby is protected too. Protected by the armed forces who will sacrifice their lives for you if the Chinese army attack Japan. Try practising your freedom of speech under a Chinese Government .... you would have something very real to cry about then!

 

[thomas]

Chill-out time.

FW, if your personal attacks and your expletitives won't stop, you'll see the red card. I am sick and tired of that permanent rudeness and arrogance.

 

[Mark of Zorro]

Protected by the armed forces who will sacrifice their lives for you if the Chinese army attack Japan.

The Chinese army would pretty much have to swim to get here!

Anyway, the only reason China would attack Japan is for Japan using its military to keep territory it stole. The claim that they are protecting my freedom is much like saying the man with the hose putting out the fire in my house just saved my life...and never mind that he started the fire!

I sure did not see the Japanese military raid the Diet when they passed that new secrecy law. They sat and did nothing as the constitution was "re-interpreted" as well. They are most certainly not protecting my freedom of speech!

Try practising your freedom of speech under a Chinese Government

Why should I go to China? I never said I preferred the Chinese way about anything. I don't much like any country's "way". I only want justice and peace and all countries manage to screw those up, in part, with the propaganda about militaries protecting us when its the militaries responsibile for all the mass violence.

And let us also not forget that a major enforcer of the Chinese lack of freedom is their military! Militaries can and do change from claiming to be protectors to becoming enforcers of authoritarianism practically over night. It happened in Japan before. It happened in Germany, Russia, North Korea and Italy as well. Its like yearly occurrence in Africa.

 

[Dotanbatan]

Communicating with you is so tiresome … which is an outcome you probably enjoy I suppose!

I would love to live in Shangri La but unfortunately it's a big bad world out there.

I am happy to have a democratic government and armed forces to secure my freedoms in all their forms. I am grateful to have the good fortune to be able to live in countries that have these protections against the evils of humanity (in all their forms).

You obviously do not feel the same. I get it …. you don't need to keep on tapping out anymore on your keyboard to make your point!
It's unfortunate for you that there isn't a country, to my knowledge, that has an 'opt out' on National Security. In Japan and the USA you are protected by the armed forces whether you like it or not.

I take comfort in that. You don't. Fine.

I admire people who want to peacefully right things that they think are wrong.

You have strong opinions on a myriad of subjects by the look of things. Perhaps there are better platforms for you to initiate improvements in this big bad world than J Ref.

It is possible to make changes in a meaningful way.

I appreciate the transparency of open political activists even if I strongly disagree with them. People, be they the Tea Party in America or George Galloway in the UK, put their money where their mouth is, as the Yanks like to say.

It's easy to whinge on the internet and hide behind the excuse 'it's not worth trying to change things anyway'.
Here is an example of a foreigner in Japan who decided to try and make changes in the real world.

Foreign-born politicians put new face on Japanese officialdom ? Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

You seem to enjoy being the Pub bore of this forum … again, your freedom to do so is protected by you know who!

 

[Mark of Zorro]

Communicating with you is so tiresome …

I have noticed that people who lack the ability to rethink or deviate from the positions instilled in them are easily made tired by consistent and logical arguments. Logical thinking takes mental energy. Its hardly ever just plain convenient.

Smash and bang can be done by any neanderthal. And the world seems full of them.

 

[Dotanbatan]

I have noticed that people who lack the ability to rethink or deviate from the positions instilled in them are easily made tired by consistent and logical arguments. Logical thinking takes mental energy. Its hardly ever just plain convenient.

Smash and bang can be done by any neanderthal. And the world seems full of them.

Mr Logic obviously doesn't understand the meaning of 'tiresome'.

I'll write it more 'logically' for you -Tiresome, like the 3 year old next door smashing and banging his sister's Barbi doll against the garden fence for 30 minutes!

 

[Mark of Zorro]

Something I think you forgot since you got tired is that I am not against pure self defense forces or the right to self defense. And I do respect people who are hardcore self defense only. Trouble is, I cannot tell who they are by their uniform. Thus, I do not respect soldiers automatically.

Moreover, if I see someone in the uniform of a military that I know is currently or recently engaged in offensive wars, BOOM, that's it. Respect not proffered.

Soldiers of the Swiss and Austrian militaries are about as close I come to automatic respect, but even among them I know there are people with the merc mentality. Unlike the Swiss and the Austrians, the Japanese SDF has gone from a self defense force to a stolen islands protection force and has painted a target on my back. They may now participate in America's wars of aggression and that is another target on my back.