Veterans day and Fox Sports – WHAT?

I first want to thank EVERY one of the men and women who are now serving and have ever served in the military of this great country, from the bottom of my heart - Thank you.

So when I look at Veterans Day lately I see a day that means little to most, I am not sure how I feel about that. I was watching the Fox football pregame this past weekend and Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan and Jimmy Johnson and Jay Glazer did the pregame from Afghanistan with the troops. I do however, know how I feel about that! Having been deployed I know it is AWAYS nice to see other Americans, let alone a performer or even a pregame football show host, but…….. I wonder about the sincerity of the performance. I do not know, and probably never will know if that was their idea or the network, trying to drum up ratings by looking patriotic. Do not get me wrong, it is a great thing ANYTIME the media can show, even in a controlled and narrow view, what America’s military men and women have to go through, it was a GREAT thing to see the troops happy. I am glad that the troops enjoyed it, that is the way it appeared anyway and anything that makes them feel good, about anything is GOOD by me. Fox Sports Chairman David Hill said, “Our men and women in the military put themselves in harm's way to protect everything we hold dear, and none more so than those who are stationed in the Middle East.” “It is our privilege and honor to take Fox NFL Sunday to them in November, right before Veterans Day. Amidst the fun and football, it's our hope to showcase the dedication of these men and women who have to defend a lot more than the wildcat.” DAMN RIGHT David, it is your privilege to be allowed to take your silly football show to our troops serving in Afghanistan.

A New York Times article mentioned that, “it’s too bad Bob Hope isn’t part of the Fox NFL Sunday crew”. I would hope that Bob Hope might have been able to do something with Sunday’s program, broadcast from Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. A program, glorifying wanna be warriors and their game, yes football is a game to the these real life warriors. This pregame show was playing to a crowd of real fighting men and women locked in an eight-year-old conflict, a real war with real consequences! One can only imagine the disdain Bob Hope might have had for such blatant attempt at comparing football players to members of our military, especially ones serving in an actual war zone. The hosts were laughing and yucking it up, while wearing some facsimile of a uniform, I was not happy – AT ALL. Jokes and comparisons like “You grunts think you’re the only ones worried about dodging bullets?” one said. “Heck, Plaxico Burress gets nervous every time he sticks his hand in his pocket. You flyboys and gals think you’re taking risks? Michael Vick got shot down in a dogfight, and he never even left the ground.” They are not worthy of even sitting in the same room as our fighting men and women is all I could think as I watched this ridiculous show of asinine behavior by men pretending to care. Could not these television star dunder heads taken a couple of hours of sensitivity training, comparing Plaxico Burress and Michael Vick to these hero’s literally turns my stomach, especially since nearly 1000 Americans have actually died in that god forsaken country. While Sunday’s show was a nice gesture by Fox in advance of Veterans Day and they were surely well intentioned but for me - it was a disgrace. The complete and utter stupidity and insensitivity of the people who host that show was worse than a carnival act. Like the Times article said, by the end of the two-hour broadcast a visitor from another planet might easily have concluded that football and warfare were the same thing – SHAME ON YOU FOX SPORTS!

I guess, somehow, I am somewhat jaded by the whole thing, I DO NOT think we should be in Afghanistan or Iraq. I sickens me that young men and women are dying in a far away land and I still can not figure out the what for. Hell there is not even oil in Afghanistan, their cash crop is poppies – which we should not be fighting for. I want you to think about that for a minute. What is the reason we are there? I have even asked my Nephew, who has been in Iraq as a Marine during the invasion and later, for the second time, in the Coast Guard. He was able to describe the missions of the individual units but was unable to sufficiently explain the overall mission, at least in a way my simplistic mind could understand. What is the goal of being in Afghanistan? If you know, please tell me. Maybe it is to bring stability to the region, OK say it is, why and how did that become our problem. If they want to decimate their neighbors, why is it incumbent upon us to police the area? I am a life long Republican and for the first time in my life I voted for a Democrat in the last presidential election – let me tell you why. I was very upset at my offerings, on both sides really but I was upset that I was forced into being a one issue constituent. My one issue was getting our fighting men and women out of harms way – out of Iraq and out of Afghanistan. The current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania avenue talked a good talk about bringing the troops home, much better than the Republican candidate. He, while on the campaign trail, seemed to always be defending his statement that U.S. troops could spend "maybe 100" years in Iraq -- saying he was referring to a military presence similar to what the nation already has in places like Japan, Germany and South Korea. Dude, my Mom used to say, just because someone else is doing it does not make it right and if they jumped off a bridge would you follow them. WHY ARE WE THERE? Well, as evidenced by the fact we are still in Iraq and might be expanding the forces in Afghanistan the guy who got elected was full of shit on that subject, or more likely he just misunderstood the power of the military industrial complex.

I feel very passionately about our military, they should not be used as pawns in some global political game. When they are, and I think they are, it pisses me off. While in the Navy I enjoyed a lot of safety from any actual fighting. I served on a Spruance class Destroyer and later on an Aegis Cruiser, both of which were more than capable of defending themselves so I never felt the anxiety that accompanies the lead up to battle, I can not imagine what that must be like. But I do recognize that it exists and it breaks my heart that some of our fighting men and women have to feel it, ever and especially in the current conflicts. My heart goes out to each and every member of the military and, AND the families left behind to deal with the day to day mundane task of living life without their spouse, mother, father, son or daughter. They live with anxiety as well, maybe even more than the folks who are in theater. I can not even imagine the feelings when a chaplain shows up to the door to tell you your loved one has been killed – FOR WHAT!! I know the military is still a 100% volunteer organization and that speaks countless volumes about the men and women serving, I am proud of each and every one of them. They all want to be doing this work for the country, the shittiest of work, for us, while we sit back and watch our big screen TV’s and watch the dumbasses on Fox sports degrade them, and in my humble opinion that is what they did.

I for one want to send my heart felt appreciation to every member of our military, at home and abroad. I think we owe them that much and much more.  Maybe you should write your federal representative and ask them, why are we there and see if you can get an answer that satisfies you and more importantly justifies even one American military members life. Let alone the 4,359 who have died in Iraq and the 916 who have died in Afghanistan. Those numbers DO NOT take into account the 31,557 who were injured, all manner of injuries from broken bones to missing limbs and missing eyes and loss of hearing and the silent, mostly unreported injury, the emotional damage that war ALWAYS imposes on its victims. Those are just the American casualty and injury numbers (according to http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/). That is not including the estimate of over 100,000 other HUMAN lives that were unlucky enough to be Iraqi or Afghani that have been lost on what appears to me to be nothing but cattle feed for the private companies who are profiting wildly from these misdirected military actions abroad.

I am glad our military men and women got a reprieve from their daily drudgery while the football show visited and I hope they enjoyed it. Instead of sending sports announcers to see them why don’t we bring them home? Bring them home and buy each one of them a big screen LCD so they can watch the game on their own television, if they had those two choices which do you think they would prefer? Maybe I am reading something into that show that was not there but, I cannot help how I feel and that is how I felt.

God Bless you, each and every one of you serving our Country in the military you and your families are and will continue to be in my prayers!