Leftist...
I am the most liberal person who works in our office of seven people. It's strange to me, because I'm the most Republican of my friends back home, Republican as far as my stances in international foreign policy and homeland security, but still very liberal with all of the moral issues. I've often thought of liberals in the pejorative sense. Though I wouldn't be surprised if I came back from this deployment a bit more left on the political spectrum than when I arrived here.
The idiotic discussions which occur in my office absolutely amaze me. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills a lot of the time, and as time is going by, I'm much less likely to keep my opinions to myself. It seems like certain days are just one big gay joke, which I can stomach to a point, but eventually when the discussion ventures into "Keep the fags out of the military" or "I don't want any gay dudes around me", I can't help but get annoyed. Up until this deployment, I've been against gays in the military. Not because of any homophobia on my part, but strictly due to the fact that the army is so homophobic, that it would damage morale. People just wouldn't be able to handle it. I used to not really hold it against people, but there's just certain days where it's just.... c'mon. Obama is not going to force us to marry gay dudes. He's not going to allow gay guys to fuck us whenever they feel like it, because from what I understand, most homosexuals are not evil rape monsters.
Like today, people in my office were discussing the issues which would arise from gays living in close quarters with the rest of us. There was discussion about showering with them, getting raped by them, making gays live together away from the straight soldiers, etc.
"I ain't living with no gay dudes. There are just too many issues to be addressed by them serving openly. The army isn't ready to handle all of them. Just leave them out."
Me: "Well... seeing as just about every other modern country in the world allows gays to serve openly, couldn't we just see what they're doing and adapt it to our own military?"
Awkward silence.
I enjoy my status as the conversation killer. I haven't yet really had anybody who has tried to counter argue me with these sort of issues. It's like... they all choose to discuss issues that 99% of army personnel agree on, but they don't have anything worthwhile to say to someone who is in that minority. The conversation just awkwardly trails off...
There was also another stupid conversation in the office today. We had an E-6 and an O-2 discussing how in Desert Storm, the Kuwaitis gave military personnel some sort of medal for liberating them from Iraq, and they were wondering why Iraq hadn't given us any sort of reward for liberating the Iraqi people this go-around.
I then had to explain in detail how Iraq was a sovereign nation that was pretty much minding its own business when we invaded it. There was no liberation needed. We're the fucking occupiers. Now we're stuck here because of the terrorists. The Iraqis are not giving us medals, because they're not happy that we're here.
"But... the Iraqis are free now. They're safer."
Me: "Safer how? Yeah, things have gotten better this past year, but people are still getting blown the fuck up all the time. They've exchanged their perpetual overall fear of reprisals from Saddam with the fear of random terrorist violence which to many people is hardly an improvement." Etc... etc...
Another awkward trailing off.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't have a problem with us invading in the first place. I understand the fact that the government has to fudge the truth a bit to get the proletariat riled up. I'm actually a fascist in many ways, but I have enough trust in my government to understand that it tries to behave in a way which is beneficiary towards our long-term best interests, but don't expect me to believe the hype. I'm a goddamn propagandist in the US Army. Jedi powers only work on the weak minded.