Everybody’s already linked to this story about Kerry and a couple of Marines eating at Wendy’s, and while I certainly agree that getting bothered by a Presidential candidate and the press entourage that clings to him like barnacles on a hull is a hassle, I did get a kick out of this bit:

“I’m 100 percent against” Kerry, he said. “We support our commander-in-chief 100 percent.”

So, if Kerry were to become the next Commander-in-Chief, would you still be against him 100%? Or would it come down to 60 or 75%? I’m trying to figure this out, because support for the current CINC is one thing, but when you openly express that you’re 100% against the guy who could be your next CINC, then you’re setting yourself up for a situation you don’t want to be in. We serve the Position, not the Man. The military has no business forming personality cults around politicians.

Oh, and what is this?

This is how the overwhelming number active duty military in this country feel about the Democratic Party and its Michael Moore-loving elites. Clip and save and reread when you hear Kerry-Edwards talking about how they will strengthen the military. The would-be commander-in-chief doesn’t have the respect of the men and women he seeks to command. George W. Bush does. So whose judgment do you trust when it comes to which man is better equipped to lead the military and guide the war? The active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, or John Kerry’s band of brothers?

I’m going to say this as nicely as possible: Go to hell. It pisses me off when fucking moonbats portray us as Pathetic Victims of the Man or Dumb Brutes Who Kill People for Fun. It pisses me off even more when people presume to speak on my behalf, and on my comrades’ behalf, as if we were some data point on a score sheet.

Let me clue you in on something, Hugh: We’re not fucking idiots. You will find as many opinions on Bush, Kerry and all the rest of it as you’ll find in the rest of the country. There’s about as many Democrats as Republicans in the military, especially among enlisted folk. There’s an even greater percentage of people who don’t care at all because they know that it doesn’t matter who’s President or who’s in control of Congress. Our lives don’t change.

When I first joined, Bush I was President. He deployed the military to Saudi, threw Saddam out of Kuwait and then authorized a series of deployments to various locales in and around Iraq. He also deployed us to Somalia. His Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, tried to nix or seriously reduce many of the critical equipment and programs that we eventually came to rely upon during the last 3 years. He also started the RIF, which gutted our force. It tooks us years to recover from that fuck-up.

Then came Clinton. He deployed us to Bosnia, Haiti, and a score of other countries for relief missions. The Ops Tempo remained at a constant high throughout most of his Presidency. Toward the end, we started getting money for quality of life stuff and the Ops Tempo decreased a little bit after the Kosovo Air War.

Then came Bush II. The quality of life stuff started drying up and he’s deployed us to Afghanistan, Iraq, Central America, and God knows where else. The Ops Tempo went back up.

Now you tell me: What has exactly changed during the past 15 years? I can’t tell any real difference between the three Presidents. I can’t tell any difference between the Congresses that have come and gone. Everything remains the same year after year and the motto remains unchanged: Do More With Less. In the Air Force, we’ve been on a wartime footing for what seems like my entire career. That’s three Presidents, Hugh. Nothing’s different and most people I know are aware of that, so don’t assume that we’re all gung-ho for Bush and the Republicans, and please don’t use us to lie to the citizenry. Some of us don’t like Kerry and a lot of us don’t care much for Bush, but most of us don’t care at all because it doesn’t matter who sits in the Oval Office. The only thing that changes are the places we go.