Sigh.

I am at a bit of a loss for words at the moment, having just learned of a website entitled Forsake The Troops. I'm saddened by the choices made and opinions expressed by the author, Mr. Michael Crook, who apparently hasn't thought his position through very well. As a military veteran, I disagree with his views, but of course, I have spent my entire adult life working to ensure he has the right to express them.

I joined the Navy in 1979, just four years after the end of the Vietnam War. Most of my high school friends thought I was crazy. Shortly after graduating from boot camp, a group of friends and I went to the local mall, and as we walked out of a Christian book store, a patron in a surplus Army jacket walking in muttered, "Baby killers." Three weeks later, while I was home on Christmas leave, I was accosted by a grocery store manager who thought I was shoplifting...his rationale was that I was wearing a parka (in Connecticut, in December, go figure) and had short hair. He simply cornered me, demanded I open my coat and squeezed my pockets; finding them empty, he insisted that I leave the premises. At the time, I took these incidents a little personally, but now with twenty-five years of hindsight, I can see that those two men were simply ignorant and probably a little afraid. It had been less than ten years since Kent State, after all.

I saw public opinion change dramatically during my twenty-three years of service. By the time I retired from active service, a year and two days after 9/11, every member of the uniformed services was considered a hero.

Did I consider myself a hero? No. I've known more than a few, served in the company of many. The closest I ever felt to being a hero came during the ABC Evening News one night, as Peter Jennings delivered a story about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. He ticked off a list of nations known to have or be developing nuclear weapons, and then wrapped up the list by saying, "...and one country no longer has the ability to produce nuclear weapons: Iraq." I thought, "Hey, cool. Peter Jennings is talking about me."*

Now, whether or not that particular act can be considered "supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States" is debatable. It was certainly "obeying the orders of the President of the United States." And by extension...you. (Assuming that you live here in the United States, that is.)

That's one of the parts of Democracy that gets forgotten in the wonderful, constant debate that makes this country great. Who bears the ultimate responsibility for the actions of our President? Who is he accountable to? Simple: he's accountable to all of us. Whether you voted for him or not (and I served as faithfully under a President I did not vote for as I did under Presidents for whom I did), you participated in the process of Democracy, and since he's accountable to you, you're responsible for his actions. You didn't vote at all? Shame on you, but you're still responsible. If you live here and you've ever shared your opinion, you are part of the process.

I love that. I love that you and I are part of something so vast and meaningful. I love that the principles of Democracy are universal, that they're accessible to anyone, and that they are most definitely not compulsory. Sometimes we forget that last part.

Don't believe me on the compulsory part? If you voted, was it because armed men came to your house and forced you to? If you voted, did anyone give you a ballot that was already filled out, or offer to fill it out for you? Tell you who to vote for? (Not who you should vote for, but who to vote for.) If you didn't vote, was it because you chose not to?

I love that we have the freedom to debate in this country. If you think that watching C-Span can give you an idea of how this country is run, you need to get out more. You need to hang out in the break room of pretty much any office in the country. Go anyplace where you can find people talking, and you'll see and hear what really makes this country run: discussion.

That's why I think guys like Michael Crook should feel free to do what they do. It doesn't matter that my personal opinion of Michael Crook is that he's an ill-informed, inarticulate, hateful little dweeb who's incapable of making a credible argument. He's a low-rent Michael Moore. His opinions on military service and military pay are so wildly opposed to my own that there's no hope he'll ever convince me that the sky is blue...but he's out there actively contributing to the process and if I don't give him props for that, then my entire professional life has meant nothing.

And speaking of Michael Moore, I'm gonna give him props, too. I think he's a borderline narcissist who was born seventy years too late to fulfill his true calling, which would be to work as Stalin's chief propagandist. But agree or disagree, the man is a raving bloody genius, and he does get people talking about issues with greater substance than Janet Jackson's nipple flower. And that's a good thing: it's Democracy In Action.

Perhaps the best example I've ever seen of stridence and Democracy in opposition is here. Notice how Sean Hannity uses personal attacks and overwhelms the Mr. Crook, preventing him from answering...stridence. Contrast that with the way that Alan Colmes' line of questioning moves along and gives the guy a chance to present his ideas. That's Democracy.

Several years ago, I dated a woman who had vastly different political views than I do. Debate was a regular part of foreplay for us, not because we were fighting, but because conversations that challenge beliefs are incredibly stimulating (and Good God is that sexy!). One night, she asked me if I would carry out an assignment I disagreed with, and when I responded that I'd already sworn an oath to do so, she called me a goose-stepping Nazi. (Ouch. So, how did you know when the honeymoon was over?) Stridence is not so sexy, by the way.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Oath of Enlistment, I'll share it with you now:

"I (state your name) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the Orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

The reasons why it's right to support our service members are all right there. They...we...swore to support and defend the concepts that provide you with your way of life. It's not something we take lightly, and since they were first put on paper 218 years ago, hundreds of thousands of us have died for those concepts. For your way of life, just how it is now, today.

Think that trust is being violated? That our military is being misused? There's another election coming in 2008, so we've got plenty of time to talk about it.

* We blew up Saddam's nuclear weapons facility in 1993, and UN weapons inspectors had been present in Iraq for a solid two years, having identified about 250 WMD sites by actually visiting them and finding weapons present.