Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff - The Lone Survivor edition

I saw "Lone Survivor" this weekend.  I thought it was phenomenal.  The thing I came away with was the awe in which those guys loved and protected each other, and the fact that they were able to withstand so much physical punishment, and still have the will to fight, and go on.

You read or hear about this all the time in regards to high speed guys.  That they train and train and train in order to develop those capabilities, however I think you have to either read a book describing what these guys go through or see a film that accurately portrays it.

Then of course, I see that the liberal media is already disparaging the film, calling it pro-war propaganda and that some ass face at CNN (Jake Tapper) did an interview with Marcus Luttrell where he basically insults Marcus, and says that his brothers died for nothing.  Essentially, that is what he said.

It's hard for me to write with enough venom to describe how I feel about sackless pacifist cowards like Tapper.  It's hard for me to write with enough disdain in regards to people who say things like "the war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with our freedom".  You can't educate people who don't want to learn, and you can't prove to people who believe that there are terrorists and evil men out there that want nothing more than to see as many American's dead every day as possible.  I'm not talking Marines, or SEALS, or Army infantry, either.  I'm talking you and me, and your neighbors and kids.  Whether you agree with that doesn't matter.  It's not political.  Those are facts.  Hard truths that whether you accept them or not, exist.

More so, I can't stand when people write or vomit tripe like "I do support the troops, that's why I don't want any more to die because of some political bullshit."  I'm not sure of any war or military op that isn't laden with "political bullshit".  How most people feel about that, I've found, is where their partisanship lies.  If you're a democrat or a bat shit crazy liberal, and Obama decides he needs drone strikes or to give a go ahead for an assassination, then nothing is said.  When Bush was in office however, it was an uproar everyday from the liberals over the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

My issue is this.  The men and women who are over there, signed up for this, have trained for this, and believe in the cause and the mission.  Yes, there will be some that do not.  Indeed, there will be those that signed up for the G.I. bill or because there weren't any better jobs back home and they are bitter because they didn't know the military would be involved in conflict.

That's sarcasm in case you didn't catch it.

But for the most part, the men of high speed units signed up for this.  It's what they trained for, and are prepared for.  They didn't make their decision based on who was in office or political partisanship.  They did so, I believe, out of a desire to be part of something honorable.  A code that they wanted to be a part of, and live.  Actually LIVE that code.  Something few men can say they walked through life and accomplished. They went through training that separates the weak from the strong, and the strong from the elite.

Yet they still have to listen to garbage from people like this Jake Tapper.  That their sacrifice was "senseless".
For nothing.

How many people do you know, that will put themselves in harms way and battle until they have taken their very last breath, and never whine about it, in order to defend something they believe in?

How many people do you know, that believe in something so strongly, that they would suffer tremendously for it, and die for it?  How many people do you think you know like that?  Very few.  Probably none.

People love to believe very highly of themselves and their perceived sacrifices about life and love.  But the fact is, most people do not posses the will, the courage, or a deep enough love and belief in something to suffer and die for it.  There is nothing in life that they are so passionate about that they would put themselves in harms way to protect it, or to defend it.  People like Jake Tapper.  The cowards who sit on the internet in the safe confines of their home or work and take shots at people like Marcus Luttrell, or any other honorable soldier that puts his life on the line.

Your love or hate for the government has nothing to do with what these men do, and the kinds of threats they expose themselves to.

"But they wouldn't have to if not for (insert president you hate here) and political bullshit."

In case you weren't paying attention, I covered that.

Anyone who has a passion and belief for something so great, and so overwhelming, that they are willing to fight and die for it, did not "die for nothing".  They died for the what they believed in most.  Whether or not you agree with them, their cause, their passion, their code, is irrelevant.  We should all be so lucky as to have something we love so much we'd be willing to sacrifice everything for it.

That is living with a purpose.  And purposeful living is a rare thing these days indeed.