To Stir the pot once more.
 
I am not a patriot.  I was adjutant in my American Legion Post for 16 years when this nation elected Bill Clinton.  Bill was a draft dodger.  Bill went to the Soviet Union as their GUEST, when he was in college and avoiding service to his country!  The Soviet Union was not in  the habit of paying for things until they got something first.  I wonder what Bill gave them? 

Before he was elected, I swore that I would never salute the flag of the USA (Stars and Stripes) while he was in office,   I swore that I would never again honor the flag, if the US re-elected him.   If Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are an example of how the people of the US think, then I was a sucker to risk life and limb for eight years in the Army.  The pay wasn't that great and my deferred pay (Lifetime free VA hospital care) was suddenly subjerct to the whim of crooked congressmen and senators.  I look back at the days when I thought I was a patriot, and a tear came to my eye when the national anthem was played, and then, I apologize to God for that form of idolatry!

I am not a patriot. 

I no longer owe allegiance to what I used to call the "flag of the United States".  That flag was hijacked by; Draft Dodgers, Unrepentant Communists, commercial opportunists, Hyphenated Americans, "Summertime Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots".   The flag that I once pledged allegience to, has been sullied beyond redemption.   To me one of the most disgusting things I used to hear was a Politician or a crook wrapping himself in the flag. 

Crooked politicians used to get up and make speaches how we had to bring the MIAs & POWs home.  They were the words spoken "loud and proud" just to get the veterans vote!  Yet they knew full well, that it was just free political sloganism that could would never come back and hurt him politically.  This also is a form of patriotism and wrapping onself in the flag. 

Now, I think the people of the US deserve it.  My motto now is; "ELECT CHARLES MANSON FOR; ...PRESIDENT  OR  SENATOR, ... OR CONGRESSMAN, OR DOG CATCHER OR WHATEVER.  He is more than you deserve!  (And despite what you may think, he never killed anyone.) 

HOWEVER, I still well up with a tear or two at the playing of TAPS.  I still refuse to admit that I cried at the "BLACK GASH IN THE GROUND" at the National Mall in DC. 

So, everyone else can believe what they want, call themselves what they want, well with pride and / or cry when they want, (except where prohibited by law. Or the Patriot Act)

An ideal and belief I can understand, but the nation can and is being destroyed from within. We don't need al queda, or any other group, all we need is CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX, coupled with greed ridden corporations and the ACLU. Those freedoms and liberties have been and are being stripped from us as we speak.

Tim, it is nice to see there are some people out there that still respect and honor our flag.

Here is another contemporary definition of Patriotism.  Author unknown

President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decision to go to war in Iraq .  Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII.  It is not.
Back then, they had just come out of a vicious depression.  The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country.  They knew that the people had elected their leaders, so it was the people's duty to back those leaders.
Therefore, when the war broke out the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not.
And war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great then as it is today.  Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire Iraq war.  But that did not matter.  The people stuck with the President because it was their patriotic duty.  Americans put aside their differences in WWII and worked together to win that war.
Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old pitched in.  Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort.  Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort.
Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition trying their best to join the military.  Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to soap, to butter was imposed, yet there was very little complaining.
You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the President.  Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President.  Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops' morale.  And a bunch even enlisted.
And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the day off with a Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops!
Back then, no newspaper would have dared point out certain weak spots in our cities where bombs could be set off to cause the maximum damage.  No newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies.
A newspaper would have been laughed out of existence if it had complained that German or Japanese soldiers were being 'tortured' by being forced to wear women's underwear, or subjected to interrogation by a woman, or being scared by a dog or did not have air conditioning.
There were a lot of things different back then.  We were not subjected to a constant bombardment of pornography, perversion and promiscuity in movies or on radio.  We did not have legions of crackheads, dope pushers and armed gangs roaming our streets.
No, President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism.  He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers.  He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve.
It is not the same country.  It is now a cross between Sodom and Gomorrah and the land of Oz. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices.
We are in great danger.  The terrorists are fanatic Muslims.  They believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam.  It has been estimated that about one third or over three hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists' cause...Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits.
So...we either win it - or lose it - and you ain't gonna like losing.
America is not at war.  The military is at war.    America is at the mall.