Disabled War Veteran Porn

Lately I've noticed an interesting bit of pro-war propaganda hitting our newsstands. I'll call it "disabled war veteran porn", because that's what it is -- porn, just glossy images that in no way reflect reality.

Now, here's how it works. You get this war veteran who had shit blown off of him. Maybe his legs got blown off, or his arms, whatever. So here comes the porn part -- the inevitable story where some dude who got shit blown off of him is playing lacrosse, or running a race, or climbing Everest, or some shit like that. And then the American sheeple nod and say to themselves, "see, getting your legs blown off in war isn't such a bad thing after all! What a brave man" and go fucking shopping instead of doing something to end an illegal-ass war that's accomplishing nothing except educating a buncha goddamned jihadis in how to kill Americans, and killing and disabling a shitload of people who ain't done nothing wrong other than have the bad luck to be in the way of bombs or bullets intended for someone else.

Let me educate you on something here. That dude isn't playing lacrosse or climbing Everest or whatever because he's "a brave man" or some shit. He's doing it because the alternative is blowing his fucking brains out. Because when you're missing a piece of your body, that's it. You're never gonna have it again. And you goddamn well know it when you get out of bed every morning, you know that a piece of you is gone and it ain't ever fucking gonna come back. So either you whimper and whine, or you live the best way you can with what you got left and do what you fucking gotta do to keep yourself from blowing your fucking head off. And we're tough monkeys, so most of us don't eat a barrel. But I assure you, I might go off hiking in the middle of a goddamned wilderness even though I'm missing part of my foot, but I damn well know I'm missing part of my foot. And it ain't comin' back. But I do what I do, and what I can't do, I don't do, or I figure some other way to do it. That's just how it fucking works.

So next time you see one of those feel-good disabled war porn stories in the media, remember the real story -- the story of some poor bastard who is never, ever going to be the same person he was before he ended up in the cat box getting pieces of himself blown up, and all the brave-ass goddamned feel-good stories in the media ain't gonna get him whole again and he fucking goddamned well knows it even if the average American is too goddamned stupid and apathetic to know or give a shit. You see some disabled veteran climbing goddamned Everest or running a race or whatever bullshit the media is pumping at ya, remember this: you're looking at a dude who is doing that because the alternative is eating a bullet. No more, no less. But it ain't ever going to make him whole again, and he's never going to wake up the same person that he was five years ago. Never. Regardless of how many goddamned feel-good stories get written about his ass.

-- Badtux the Rude Penguin