You expressed your opinion by enlisting. For the duration of your agreed enlistment, the policy decisions were no longer in your hands even as to you. You could serve or be court-martialed and punished if your constitutional pretensions motivated you to refuse obedience. The military is not an anarchy, not a democracy, not a republic but a disciplined force that necessarily submerges and suppresses your individual idiosyncracies in a common effort as you knew when you enlisted.
The constitution is a bit more complicated than the paleoPaulie stick figure version. Or than the delusional Libertoonian version (based on each anarchist singing I gotta be me).
Gee, you don't seem any better informed on Stalinism or on America than you are about the constitution.
The Bircher/Libertoonian fantasy of (whether you admit it or not) rank despicable isolationism may have worked in Washington's time for a verrrry fledgling nation primarily dependent on an ocean for its defense and even mqy have been a species of wisdom way back then. Baby elephants, like baby countries, are not in a very good position to throw their weight around. They tend to fly under radar to develop their resources. We have developed our resources. We needn't shun opportunities to put a stop to thugs wherever they are found. Nits become lice. We should have attacked Stalin as well as Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo.
If you are looking for those with Stalinist policies, try the real thing: the McGovern crowd, the various antiwar movements that facilitated soviet communism for soooooo very long. The best way of handling Stalin would have been to drive the Nazi army before us into Russia, let the main fighting be between Hitler and Stalin and then mop up the remains of both enemies.
Your "Was it worth...."question is pure John Kerry and no more American which is to say outright anti-American. Some of your buds died in wars??? Verrrrry few wars are ever fought without death and other casualties. You did not figure that out before enlisting???
If you think you love liberty, go find something worth doing like ending abortion or ending lavender marriage make-believe or abolishing gummint skewels (the parochial schools of the anti-American left. Of course, I would be presuming that you might be pro-life or pro-family or pro-truth in education. Since you apparently favor the ilk of the paleos and Paulie in particular, that is no guarantee.
I love certain aspects of the American government as exceptions to the rule. The Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State in 1970; the Strategic Air Command; the late Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis Lemay; General George Patton; the RTKBA; Ronald Reagan for whom I served as a state chairman when he challenged feckless paleopeaceweasel and babykiller Gerald Ford.
So, you make a tremendous amount of assumptions about me, but you won’t reveal your service record, or lack thereof. I’ll ask you another non-personal question again: To what oath do members of the armed forces swear? You should know that even if you never served. You should definitely know it if you know the Constitution and have any thought of voting for anyone who might send troops into harms way. I expressed no opinion by enlisting. I enlisted to do what I said I would do. I’ve come up against a lot of people that give me this argument: “When you sign up, you sign up to do a job”. No you don’t. You take an oath. C’mon - at least tell me what the oath is! You seem to know so much about my intentions. They’re all contained in that simple little oath.
You don’t have to tell me what the military is. Out of sensitivity to you, I won’t tell you what your version is equivalent to. I hate to say it, but you do come off as someone who never served, at least not on the front. If you think that your human rights end and you become a pawn of the president when you enlist, then you definitely don’t know the rules. I have every right to ask you what about your service record if you think that someone has the right to tell me or my buddies what cause we live and die for.
And finally, I shouldn’t even dignify you “kerry” comment about the guys from my outfit. I never said anything about the conduct of U.S. military personnel as he did. But you minimize their sacrifice with this stupid and cold-hearted “So what, some of ‘em gotta die” attitude. And then you call me anti-American because I believe that their sacrifice should have been for their oath and not for a light and transient cause. That was a downright despicable thing to say. How can you even think something like that about people who gave up everything in the hope that you can keep all that you have. If you are religious, as you allude to, you should ask for forgiveness from God. You won’t get it from me.