The current administration is corrupt, morally and politically though I don't have any idea how a politician these days can get to the office of commander in chief or vice c.i.c. without being a touch so.
You have lost personal freedoms,the "Patriot Act" has accomplished this in the very function that Ol Ben Franklin warned about.
Government for the People and by the People is no longer a reality on the federal scale and is rapidly being lost on the state scale and in some town meetings.
Our President is a liar and unworthy of the office he holds and his Vice President is even worse. Turns out that Rumsfeld was actually the only one who wanted to get out of Iraq when it was realized that they, after going in on false pretenses and not fully prepared ( exit strategy), had screwed the pooch.
Can you be of differing political and social values and be an American and Patriotic? YOU BET YOUR ASS YOU CAN! And that is what makes this country great. One idealogical path for all citizens is no different than a view of communism or Marxism in it's intolerance of other types if it allows no dissention or differing thought and squashes those views from being heard by the act of Freedom of Speech.
Soldiers can harbor differing views as well and though some be be radical as long as they do not promote harm or injustice to others they are free to harbor those ideologies. It's guaranteed by our Constitution. Soldiers and sailors and airmen will all tell you that after thier tours are over and after they have been through war or posted in less fortubnate countries that they feel more patriotic because of what we have here and what we have here is because of our constitution. The patriotism is not based on support of the administration but of the people and the freedoms we have to think differently, worship or not worship as we see fit, go where we want ,wear what we want, listen to whom and what we want say what we want to say and so on.
Soldiers do thier duty, they have sworn to it and most don't like most of the situations they are in and all in all when put in a bad situation they fight not for the administration's ideals ( or lies as in our current Iraq involvement) but for the support of each other in that situation once there, for survival of each other. The current Iraq mess is not a patriotic war where we were attacked and our way of life threatened. The war on terror may be but Iraq was not part of that war. The guy who we needed to go after who actually does threaten us still lives in a cave in Afghanistan/Pakistan. He probably laughs his way to and from daily prayers about Iraq.
Patriotism and being a true American means following the ideals of the constitution and the core values that it speciffically states. Free speech, right to assemble, pursuit of happiness and equality and that being the case, in a true constitutional America anyone is free to say and believe what he wants when he wants and where he wants no matter how radical.
The constitution is under attack today by a manipulating adminstration who seeks to change the basic core values to suit thier agenda. In that case our current administration is actually totally un-patriotic and un-american don't you think?
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