By Steve “the Mailman” Breen Going Postal
I GOT A PHONE CALL FROM MESOPOTAMIA over the Memorial Day weekend from my son, Nathan, who is currently deployed with an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) unit in Basra. He is, in his own words, “living the dream” of taking out the jihadist trash in the rebel Mahdi Army. Nate and I yakked and trashed talked on each other, as military guys are prone to do. It’s all part of the camaraderie of being or having been in “the Club.”
My Dad was in the Club in Korea. I had five uncles on my Mom’s side of the tribe who were down in the front row of the Pacific Theatre at Tarawa, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima in WWII. My paternal grandfather served as well and a great grandfather in “The Great War.” In the current cultural milieu, however, we are considered, well, an oddity.
We’re a family of volunteers. Jack Neworth, in his May 16, 2008 “Laughing Matters” column in the SMDP, offered a curious opinion.
There was some dialectic drivel about taking walks and talking talks and a list of Republican pols and pundits who were either remiss in serving their country in the conscript military during the Vietnam conflict or who serve on the cheerleading squad in the current Iraq War.
I noticed, however, that Bill Clinton’s name was missing from Jack’s list, as were Democratopian House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and patriarch Ted Kennedy. And in what branch of the volunteer Armed Forces did Barack Obama serve?
Or should it be the “Armed Farces.” Hillary Clinton probably has the most extant military street creds of all of them. Dodging sniper poems and rocket-pro-pelled posies from a schoolgirl at a Bosnian airport nearly interrupted tea time.
And I’ve included the ladies on my list as I think it sexist of Jack to believe that not serving one’s country should be limited by gender differences.
My Dad once told me, “There are two kinds of men, son: Men who serve their country in the military and the ones missing their …. There isn’t a third choice, really.” By that bit of paleo-conservative logic, there are women currently serving in the military that have a bigger set than B.
Hussein Obama. I understand he plays basketball.
Currently, 844,480 officers and enlisted members that serve in the volunteer Armed Forces identified themselves as Republicans. That is nearly 60 percent of our current complement in all five services. Republicans do most of the dirty work. We like it that way.
So why is it that a Republican without a bullet on his military resume is not accorded the same liberal fascist hall pass as his Democrat doppel-gag-me?
Or is it because Democrats find all the suits in their own party closet either empty or a little too big to fill? Seems that the Whine and Cheese Party wants to claim a moral high ground without wrecking their manicure.
Speaking of “gagging me,” it is interesting to note that in the same edition of the SMDP, Bubblemeister Tim Dillenbeck had threatened me personally with physical violence after I pugnaciously, yet accurately, impugned the ersatz credentials and vapid validity of B. Hussein Obama’s credibility in my column.
The Bubster took more issue with my “style” than he did with the substance but to his credit he does seem to agree with me since he offered no serious refutation of the facts presented.
It seems to stretch the bounds of Obamatopianism, however, that a white man can still threaten a man of color, a US Navy vet and career civil servant with the phrase, “… you just want to tie [Breen] to a chair, gag [him], shut the door and walk away…” and then hide like a schoolgirl behind the tired little vignette of “… but hey, freedom of speech; it will test us …” What grade did you get on the test, Bub?
Obamamaniacs like Bub seem to forget that veterans like me and my family, as well as the men and women buried here and abroad, who took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, protect the very “freedom of speech” that allows him to threaten those same veterans while he sits blowing bubbles on the beach.
STEVE BREEN is former US Navy Aircrew Cryptologic Korean Linguist and still “the best looking Mailman in the U.S. Post Office.” He
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 28, 2008. Read the original PDF.