yes
I will put it this way. If I was watching TV one day and saw our President say that the armed forces need men to serve our country, I would be packed and on my way to boot camp.
Is our country perfect? No, and there is no such thing. Do I love this country with all my heart and soul, yes. And I always will.
To piss off some of the forum members, I say God Bless America!
That depends. What is the American way of life going to become? It might be better.
If you all were being taken over by communists or fascists then I'd kill to save your way of life. Not die for it, though. You don't win a war by dying.
To para phrase MLK, “If you have not found anything worth dying for, then you have not found anything worth living for.” Freedom isn’t free. I received the following article this morning and if any of you have seen it already I apologize for the redundancy. I thought it a great article.
You may have missed this in the news, but there was actual report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one:
An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to have no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When the Soviet army overran Afghanistan 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they also welcome the least.
The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America… Some of them wereworking in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. I’ve been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did, so did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every blood thirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place.
They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit,everywhere, is an American.
Serving proudly, just another American in the Middle East. R.Dimon (DimonsRtrump)
Certainly I would die for my country. How can I enjoy the fruits of the freedoms other people have died for and think I am too good for dying possibly for those freedoms myself? Its the height of arrogance and false pride to think otherwise.
Don
Very well said!!!
im already of here for my country. i know that my country is not perfect but im here fighting for it but not just for that but for the thousands of inocents that died on sept 11. you know how would you like it if some one killed you while you were at work a place you already dont want to be and you have to worry about being killed too
How is Yao Ming paying the US tax and a tax in China different from a US citizen working in another country paying their taxes and also being requered to file a state and federal taxes in the US ??? At the very least Yao Ming got all the free basketball lessons and training from the State of China. As long as you are a US citizen yor are required to pay the US taxes (even on interest on you savings) regardless of where you made your money. Ofcourse if you are a billionaire with a off shore account or a off shore corporation these laws do not aply to you. Since our new “atiterrorism laws” have past, off-shore corporations are allowed to bid on goverment contracts and profit from our taxpayers dollars while not payin a penny in taxes themselves.
The tax rules are a little more complicated than I can explain in this post, but, as a general matter, expatriate U.S. citizens are not required to pay U.S. taxes on income earned outside the U.S.
Porkchop
I spent a few years sneaking around the Pacific and Indian Oceans on a fast attack submarine. Hours of boredom punctuated by brief moments of panic is good description. The things we did we don’t talk about but they contributed directly to the fall of the USSR.
Putting my ass on the line isn’t some abstract idea. I’ve seen the elephant. I’d go visit him again. Die? There are worse things than dying. It’s good to avoid it so you can be more effective at protecting what’s yours. The risk of dying is part of the game.Yes. Chris above must be in west europe.
Thanks porkchop for clearing that up for me. Also HOV if you read my thread more clearly you will also notice I said that he pays US tax I believe and a percentage to China not taxes to China but a percent on what he makes I believe its like 60% or something like that. Granted he still is making a lot more in the US then he ever would in China.