I have no issue with the guy personally.

Its an opinion,probably uninformed but its his nevertheless.Folks have that God given right in this country.Of course a fellow like the author would never say such things publically live in person,unless surrounded by a bunch of antiwar people and police details but hes free to type it from the safety of his PC,possibly in Moms basement.

Plently of soldiers are pieces of (*)(*)(*)(*) as they only reflect a slice of society in general.Like society the (*)(*)(*)(*)bags represent an extreme minority.

__________________
“I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”-Barack Obama

all a Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine (plus the Coasties of course)

is...

is an Ordinary person

in Extraordinary circumstances

I agree with you 100%. They are just people, put into extraordinary circumstances, and it brings out the best in many soldiers! But being human, there are some soldiers who don't live up to our high standards for them, just like there are people in society who do the same!!

__________________
"He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security"
Benjamin Franklin

R.I.P. Molly, I miss you every day!!


Beatitude # 9- "Blessed are those who spread freedom and democracy, for they shall invade the earth!"

So then we are all in agreement that soldiers are regular humans, sometimes good and sometimes bad?

__________________
"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

Who is saying otherwise?

Government policy, which is all you are quoting, has nothing to do with international law.

You ever see the uproar when someone does point out an atrocity committed by a soldier? Usually in the period where the atrocity has just hit the news and we're still awaiting a verdict...

Anyone who even seriously entertains the possibility that the soldier actually did do wrong is tarnished as unpatriotic. The news outlets covering it are tarnished as hating our military.

You don't hear that when the press and larger numbers of people act the same way about a yet-decided case involving a civilian.

__________________
"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

Examples of this tarnishing?

I was a Reservist. I wasn't a "full-time" Airman. I get deployed, return home and go back to being "Joe civilian".
Speaking from personal experience, what I noticed most about returning from various deployments: Our Nation is not at war. War is only for those part of it. I noticed a lot of complaceny. The media ignores the ordinary Soldier/Marine doing their job and doing it well.
The media has a bias towards the war in Iraq and refuses to acknowledge the efforts, instead presenting those serving in as poor a light as possible.

This is my opinon. The ordinary citizen gets their opinions from the media and their attitudes are reflected through this.

I've seen both sides, as a civilian observing and as a participant.

My loyalty belongs to the participants.

But it's the same way the media treat everything. Unless a celebrity is involved, how often do the media report on teachers doing a good job, small businesses holding on, a government department doing something right?

Media are biased toward scandal and bad stuff... Urgency makes ratings. When life goes well, we take that for granted.

I take it that it's the media outlets' job almost to point out what's going wrong. People just need to take it with a grain of salt... And the feelings toward the war based on negative coverage are nothing compared to the assumptions of people about the crime rate and the effectiveness of the justice system.

But we only hear protest when it's the war!

And let's face it... when it comes to contextual questions... whether soldiers do good or not is largely irrelevant. The critique is limited only to the episodic things such as disasters vs. school buildings... and that critique should be across the board- not just when war is involved.

It strikes me that most people have their opinions before the media are involved. The media reports tend to just affirm them. It's either "This backs up what I think" or "That (*)(*)(*)(*) biased media!"
I don't think soldiers are any different in this regard, other than the type of bias they are likely to have pre-media.

__________________
"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III