Your mother is a bitch, I'm sorry. You should always respect your troops, even if you don't support the war. I'm on the fence with the war. I support, but I don't. It's hard to explain and I won't get into it. I support all the soldiers. Ours, and theirs. By that, do I mean I support/respect the terrorists? Absolutely not. I don't respect the terrorists, but I do respect the citizens who are forced to fight/kill themselves for their country. I respect that our soldiers are trying to help those citizens. However, I absolutely do not respect the soldiers in our military who do stupid shit. By that I mean abuse their power. Raping innocent women and children, and disrespecting/beating up our own allies just because they're different (GLBT, etc). You have to respect to be respected.

@ OP, it may have been wrong for your mother to say those things in public, especially in front of a soldier (situational awareness), but it IS her right to say what she wants to (to an extent). I do not blame you for what she said, I do however feel that it is wrong for the soldier to take his anger out on you. Had I witnessed what he mouthed to you, I would have reprimanded him (Article-15 for conduct unbecoming) or at least made him push until muscle failure, because as a Soldier, especially in uniform, one needs to keep their composure at all times. @ everyone who thanks soldiers or wants to with hugs, kisses, words, whatever....continue to do so. I personally don't feel the need to be thanked, I usually just say "No, thank you...", but it still feels nice to know that people care (or at least act like it). I have lost several friends/"co-workers" in Iraq, it sucks, but they signed up (so did I). 99.99% of military personnel are not like Officerpat, meaning that they actually have some military bearing and would never demean you for trying to show your appreciation or support. @ everyone who does not thank soldiers or back us/the war/the government up, that is your right. Thank you for voicing your opinions, they are necessary to keep the World progressing, without negative feedback everyone and everything would be the same and we would still be stuck in the "Dark Ages". @ officerpat: First things first...if you are going to be going to Basic Combat Training soon, you need to begin training your mind now (learn to respect and value the opinions and beliefs of others, especially civilians...after all they are the ones who will be cutting you a check on the 1st and 15th.) From my observations of your posts, you do not seem to have what it takes to be a good officer (it seems you have too large of a temper and you are too outspoken). In the military this is not necessarily a good thing, especially during BCT, AIT, OCS, OBC, or when you make it to your unit and the time comes for your promotion board. Second, if you really do like to drink as much and are as irritable as you previously mentioned you will never make it through OCS (you may not even get to go if this is known to the public, the US Marshals are very good at doing the complete background checks for your security clearance...they talk to everyone...Alcohol, violence or violent behavior/rhetoric, work performace, even your credit score are all things that they WILL find). I have sent off many troops to OCS only to find them back in my platoon a few months down the road due to several factors; Alcohol, temper, the inability to "play with others", etc...all qualities which you are currently showing. That said, I am curious why your name says officerpat, when currently you are not even a soldier yet, heck, you're not even a recruit. You have not earned the title of soldier, and will not earn it until you take the walk down the tarmac on BCT graduation day, with your fellow soldiers (even then, you may not have earned it...not putting you down, just stating a fact from personal experience.) Third, I am curious what degree you currently hold, as well as what MOS you are wanting to get in the Army, or what branch (as an officer). Are you going AD, NG, USAR? Also, where will you be going to BCT, AIT, OCS, OBC? Again, curiosity. Now, you do seem fairly educated in world events, or it could simply be good usage of Wikipedia.org, so on that I guess I commend you. In conclusion, I honestly believe that when you finally arrive at BCT, if you still have this perceived attitude towards kind-hearted civilians, that one of two things will happen to you; 1. You will be noticed by the Drills from the second you step off of the cattle car, (this WILL happen), and they will ride you until you break, or, 2. You will simply fail out, unable to figure out how to work well with your peers, because the "Army of One" slogan from a few years ago did not mean an Army of one person, it meant an Army of soldiers that work together as one team. If you do make it through BCT and OCS/OBC, you will arrive at your unit with this same attitude (hopefully not) and a hooah NCO or a ranking Officer notices this, they will end up putting you in your place. Then, when you finally get deployed, if you STILL have issues several things can, in all probability, happen; 1. Your wife (sort of) can take all of your money, while cheating on you with your best friend, then leave you shortly before you return, all because you decided to be a disagreeable, ill-tempered, human being. 2. You could die, (this is why signing up for the lucrative bonus and tuition reimbursements are not a good choice), in which case, your spouse STILL gets all of your money, including the 400k life insurance policy that you are forced to take out before deploying and will still end up with your best friend. 3. You could be maimed, which may end up being the worst case scenario for yourself, causing every single person who sees you to give you hugs, salutes, thank-you's, etc...So I implore you to rethink your decision before you go, or at least apologize to these fine young civilians (as well as the fine young Marine you posted negative things to earlier) for your rude behavior (conduct unbecoming of an Officer). This is not the way a soldier acts, a soldier simply smiles, drinks water, says thank you sir or ma'am, and drives on. We do not say things such as, "...a fifteen year old girl who was sexually abused by her step-father...". I also ask that you make an attempt to change your outlook on life and the kindness of strangers, they mean Soldiers like myself and almost-recruits such as yourself no harm, they only mean to show their appreciation to what they perceive as someone doing a courageous and heroic job, and if you cannot take positive feedback, whatever will you do when you're in the sandbox where the rubber hits the pavement and bullets are coming up range towards you? Thank you for your time, and everyone else, thank you for voicing your opinions, (pro- or anti-military/war/government), it's your right and duty to continue doing so. Sorry if I offended anyone, that was not my intent with this post, I just felt like some things needed to get ironed out. Thanks again! Oh, one final thing....ESSAYONS!!

Soldiers are faggots and deserve to die. ******* worthless scum.

Alright, #617... and every other ignorant **** on this site, let's see you get the balls to get out there and risk your life for the honor and safety of your country. Yeah, didn't think so.

Officerpat, Point taken, it makes a little more sense to me now that you have restated what you have said before. As I said in me previous post, I did not mean to belittle you or your point of view, I just wanted to gain some insight into your thought process and possibly give you some friendly advice should you need or want it. I agree that not everyone in the military or the 9/11 victims are, were, or ever will be heroes. I also feel that your point of being another dude is right on the money, I feel the same way, just because I am serving does not make me some sort of superhero, but I reluctantly accept the praise and thanks I receive. As far as the family tradition is concerned, great reason to join, I did the same thing and not a day goes by that I regret my decision. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my post, especially at 0400. Thanks for being civilized and explaining yourself to me. Good luck at BCT, I'm sure you will do fine, after all, it is just a mind game, especially nowadays when you can smoke cigarettes as a trainee. Let me know what MOS you get and where you get stationed, we may end up working together, I'm sure that you're a great guy under this hard ass facade, especially when you have a few adult beverages in your system, and I would love to discuss politics and many other things with you. Good luck with your career, just please, when you're an officer, try to remember, NCO's are the backbone of the Army (some officers forget we exist).

Sarahface u suck

My husband is a soldier in Iraq. While the soilder's reply may have been disrespectful, your mother's comments were completely uncalled for. Consider having a talk with your mom about the sacrifices being made for HER FREEDOM. MY PERSONAL SACRIFICES. This is not a subject to be taken lightly. And while your mother has every right to her opinion of the war, she has no right to judge those whom fight for what they believe. Your mother's right to speak openly was paid for with lives of such soldiers, perhaps you could remind her of this.

1.To all the ppl who think 9/11 and 7/7 is the reason why britain and america wer in iraq stfu we are in AFGHANISTAN because of those attacks.the iraq war was clearly only about oil and we wer lied to by blair and bush. be pissed off at those two idiots FFS, support ur country`s troops. they are only doing their job and trying to protect ur country (and from wot i can tell they are doing a pretty decent job considering there hasnt been a successfull terror attack on the uk and us since 7/7) and ur right to have the freedom to speak ur mind irrespective of wether wot ur going to speak is useless drivvle or no. 2.OP unlucky for taking the brunt of the anger towards ur dumb mum. i suspect i no one would really object if u slaped ur mum in the face for firstly being unsupportive and secondly being stupid enough to to have a rant against soldiers without noticing ther was 1 right next to u. 3.stfu ppl about english and grammer. no one who has a life cares if its wrong or right

YEAH. YOU ****** BETTER BE.

Uhm, we didn't "start shit". We're welcomed in Iraq by MOST of the civilians. The terrorists are only a small percentage, and most are from other countries like Pakistan. We liberated the country from an oppressive dictator, and are now training everyone from their government leaders down to their police force, border patrol and Army how to do their jobs. I don't know if you recall, but Saddamn Hussein was a huge threat to our country. The best defense is a strong offense, so we took him out before he got to us.