Seventeen months ago, give or take, I found myself as a hardcore Conservative Republican, but deep down in my soul I felt uneasy about the Iraq War. I felt disturbed by the fact that I no longer felt a twinge of pain when I heard of the most recent deaths of American soldiers, or that I found it easy to ignore, and walk away from the television when news about the war was on. Now this is a post for another time, but lets say my conversion began when I heard one Ron Paul speak in my hometown of Columbia, South Carolina at one of the first Republican debates, and I began to see that my attitude and political philosophy was dangerous. Now intertwined in all that is a war I admit that I wholeheartedly supported at first, but have turned against. Let me clarify, my father is an E-7 Combat Photographer (Ret.) who served thirteen months in Vietnam. I have heard of the stories of soldiers being spit on, my father witnessed and was the recipient of such an act. Soldiers being called “Baby-Killers” and such. Now you can see my quandary here, cant you? I am a patriotic American, a firm believer that the greatest document to be written in the History of mankind is the United States Constitution, I believe the Iraq War is wrong, but I wholeheartedly support our troops. I believe they are an arm of a strong national defense, and that while we endlessly labor in Iraq that arm is becoming weaker. I have been told, as have many who hold my position or positions like it, that we are aiding the enemy by condemning the Iraq War. It has become part and parcel of Conservative hardliners to accuse anyone who opposes the war or the actions of our current president as unpatriotic. It ceases to amaze me how good men with our countries constitutional best interest in mind are made to be on par with Devil himself.

Now in closing. We have all heard of the saying, “My rights end, where yours begin.” That is an apt illustration of my view on this matter of spitting on, and assaulting men and women of the United States Armed Forces. We all believe in the right to freedom of speech, “I disagree with what your saying (doing) but I will defend your right to say it.” I defend a persons right to protest the war, to say what they think, but I clearly draw the line at assault. Knowing of the character of many of the honorable men and women of our Armed Forces, many, if not all walk away. For that they should be commended. For they show a grasp of honor, and respect for what our country believes in that the average individual who contemplates, much less acts upon, such a vile act as spitting in someones face or assaulting them, has no clue about.

Jonathan B.