why be patriotic??

[Sephiroth]

Though i am not anti-american in anyway i still ask people this. for some it is a good reason, child in military, fought in a war, veteran, lossed loved one in war or attack. others cant give a reason and go "because i am american"
reason i ask my self this is i was not american born. many of you know i was born in albania and lived there for some time. I grew up seeing both american and USSR propaganda. so i have seen different view points of what many americans have never seen.

one reason i question some peoples patriotism is are they really doing their part?
i mean come on, do u really support our attack in iraq. I do to an extent. yes sadam was a bad man, however our motives i dont agree with. there are other countries we should pay attention to. like latin america and south america. drug cartels and internal threats are more of an issue than any third world musslim leader. then a personal viewpoint, bosnia, kosovo and the entire region. That is my home and yet america and the UN did help they did not stop genocides.
My family wanted me to fight in the kosovo liberation army, an albanian militant group in kosovo. I would have had i not been in highschool. 1 of my 6 cousins did fight in that army, and was shot in the leg because he was screwing around with his rifle (dumbass) however they also killed many innocent people as revenge. all america and most UN forces did was bomb stuff.

Africa is also a very sad story. I mean we did nothing, except clean skulls afterwards. that was a very large genocide and its still goin on. civil war and violence cover much of that contenant with no end in sight. the only reason i see no american troops there is because they are black, yes america still has race issues. if whites had been the victims we would have been all over it, and chances are those whites would deserve it.

personaly if we are to say we are working with peace we should, and yes if it requires military action to stop a genocide then do it. yes we will loose a few good men but that is war. right now we are doing good as far as losses in iraq. however we should not just pull out and finish what we started.

[fodders]

The KLA are as bad as any terrorist group around today, their attrocities are well documented.

[Rellik]

I'm patriotic because I'm Canadian and proud of what this country is and what it stands for. Sure we take our lumps like everyone else but there's lots of good stuff to be proud of. For example I was proud to discover a Canuckian now holds the record for longest sniper kill in combat. I was extremely not proud of how this particualr soldier has conducted himself on occasion, especially for desecrating a dead enemy soldier. There is good and bad in everything, but the bad doesn't mean you have to ignore the good.

[Lord FlatHead]

I'm Belgian and I have no 'patriotic' (god I hate that word) feelings for any of the countries I have ties to. I like my country, but I'm not going to give up my basic human rights for it.

[Hobo]

Most "patriots" I see are sporting a large mullet and missing front teeth, and never shut up about teh USA and how supreme it is (which it's not).

[Naked Snake]

I don't really care, as long as we're not being attacked or something.

[Draconio]

Personally, I don't feel a strong degree of loyalty to this country. The best I can say about it is that it hasn't given me any trouble.

I'm the sort of person who would probably have a tendancy towards being a turncoat. When I feel that whoever I serve has treated me well, I do my best to serve them well in return. But, if I feel that someone I serve treats me badly, I'm perfectly happy to turn my back on them or even realign myself with others who are against them.

[Doom-Child]

I would have to say I hold a modicum of patriotism, mostly on principle.

In actual combat, I would be worthless. I'm too tall to go into the Air Force or Navy (must be under 6'2" if I remember correctly, less for a submarine), I'm too blind to handle a gun, and my mental...instabilities make it unwise for me to do so. So basically, if I were drafted into the military, I'd probably never leave the country.

DC

[Sharessa]

I consider myself a patriot of sorts. I believe in the ideals this country was founded on: liberty, individual rights, equality. Adn yet the government continues to piss on these ideals, which I cannot tolerate. Fucking bullshit, it is.

Also, I feel a unique kind of regional patriotism toward the Northwest. And by Northwest I mean Washington and Oregon, and sometimes B.C. Canada. I love this region and I shall never move away from it as long as I live. The people here are mostly cool, the cities are awesome, the atmosphere is great, the weather is excellent. It's sad to know its part of the U.S.

Rellik said:

For example I was proud to discover a Canuckian now holds the record for longest sniper kill in combat.

GODLIKE

[IMJack]

I'm patriotic. I love my country, and hate to see it be corrupted by Bush's hatemongers.

D/L & listen to "Sage Francis- Makeshift Patriot" when you get the chance.

[Fredrik]

Patriotism is not in my vocabulary.

I consider myself a patriot of sorts. I believe in the ideals this country was founded on: liberty, individual rights, equality.

Patriotism is the love and devotion to one's country, not to the ideals it claims to represent.

I love and devote myself to many of the practices and ideals in Sweden, but I do so for rational reasons and not because I was born here.

[Captain Red]

Fredrik said:
Patriotism is not in my vocabulary.

heh. ditto.

[Disorder]

I was simply born in the Netherlands. I could've been born elsewhere, I realise that so I have little patriotic feelings. Of course I'm proud of a lot of things that my country has to offer, but I will not follow my country's decisions blindly.

[sargebaldy]

patriotism is a deriviation of faith, and i despise faith because despite the nice name, it just means thoughtlessly believing in something without any logical reason for doing so.

[Sharessa]

Fredrik said:

Patriotism is the love and devotion to one's country, not to the ideals it claims to represent.

Well my point is that I genuinely do care for the people, though they tend to resent it. Actualy, it's more of a care for humanity in general, being a bit of a humanist and all. So I dunno. What I'm saying is this country had potential, but it's kind of blown it.

[Doom-Child]

That is so wrong, but we went through this on the Christian Game Review thread, so I'm not touching that bitch.

DC

[Melfice]

sargebaldy said:

patriotism is a deriviation of faith, and i despise faith because despite the nice name, it just means thoughtlessly believing in something without any logical reason for doing so.

I agree entirely with you, Sargebaldy.

[Livo]

Ditto sargebadly and melfice, and unfortunately, most people associate their "love" with their country with the belief that the government truely represents the people and is always right :/

[Zoost]

Patriot = One who loves, supports, and defends one's country.

I guess it all depends how you define "one's country". If you define it as support the current governments policy, whatever their policy may be. Then don't call me pattiotic. If you define "one's country" as the history, values and habits of a country I can image that someone call himself patriotic. To speak for myself (I'm Dutch), Yes I do feel a connection of me being me, and the country I grew up in. But i cannot feel proud of thing other Dutch people achieved, because they are Dutch and I am too.

So I guess for you American, you can be Patriotic and dislike the actions of the current government.

[dsm]

Fredrik said:

Patriotism is not in my vocabulary.[/B]
*Proceeds to talk about what the word "patriotism" means*

Maybe I should comment on this?.....



....Naaaah, who cares?

[Fredrik]

dsm said:

Maybe I should comment on this?.....

In the abstract sense :P

[fodders]

dsm said:

Maybe I should comment on this?.....



....Naaaah, who cares?

He obviously went to dictionary.com and looked the word up :P

[Fredrik]

fodders said:

He obviously went to dictionary.com and looked the word up :P

Sort of funny, don't you think? :P

[Scabbed Angel]

Lord FlatHead said:

I'm Belgian and I have no 'patriotic' (god I hate that word) feelings for any of the countries I have ties to. I like my country, but I'm not going to give up my basic human rights for it.

Agreed. I enjoy living in a free coutry but it is also very frustrating. The American lifestyle, (I've never been out of here so I can't say for other countries, although "Bowling For Columbine" gave a really interesting view of Canada. Please let me live there!) is basically you have the freedom to try to fuck everyone else over to get rich and then dance on the backs of the poor. The wrong morals and ideals are glorified on TV, pushed even I think. Sure they'll through a black person or a metally challenged white person in there for good measure (What does that relay to an audience about equallity?) but it a white domintated, you're equal because we gave you the right to be, not God mentallity. And freedom is part of the reason we have so much fucking crime. I wish cheating on someone (another beef with me) should be rewarded with having your dick cutoff. I can say that the word patriot makes me cringe.

[Sharessa]

Scabbed Angel said:

I've never been out of here so I can't say for other countries, although "Bowling For Columbine" gave a really interesting view of Canada.

Heh...that moive was cool. I need to watch the first half.

/me has the tape lying around downstaris but is too lazy to actualy go down and watch it.

Also Canada rlz. I've been to both Vancouver and Victoria several times and the people there are so damned NICE! It's CRAZY!

[læmænt]

Well I dunno about patriotism but AMERICA SUCKS

[Fletcher`]

America could be better, and the education system leaves a lot to be desired.

And why the fuck is there barely a budget for shops?

[Captain Red]

I don’t know about patriotism, but I have noticed that people who use the word Patriotic a lot also seem to use it with words like Un-American and Immoral, and 9 times out of 10, turn out to be full on bigots or raving lunatics.

[sargebaldy]

lament said:

Well I dunno about patriotism but AMERICA SUCKS

damn canadian patriot

[DooMBoy]

I love my country and support it (to a degree), although I have never yet defended (and God willing I'll never have to) it. Would this make me an unpatriotic bastard?