Tell it to the Marines

Great entries below in the caption contest. A winner will be announced by mid-week.

In the meantime, in the interest of keeping a fair and balanced website, here are some other responses to the photo:

Ahem: it's no mystery. These people include many violent brainwashed killers, they consume troughs of right wing propaganda, they're xenophobic and racist, they reject nuance like anorexics reject digestion, and, surprise, surprise, they don't like Democrats.

Kerry is pursuing a foolish, self-destructive strategy with his GI Joe routine. The right wingers will never go for him. Meanwhile, he's alienating those of us in the anti-war movement who are tiring of watching him play soldier while Iraq bleeds.

Yes, it's time to share the love from the Democratic Underground crowd! (For those unfamiliar, DU is a message board that until recently enjoyed a very prominent link from John Kerry's homepage)

More insightful commentary from the Kerry/Edwards '04 crowd:

I support them, but sometimes it's hard when they insist on working against their own self-interest. I chalk it up to ignorance. Sometimes honest ignorance, sometimes self-imposed ignorance. But ignorance is ignorance.

and

You call them "ignorant," and yet you "support" them. They bitterly oppose your politics, yet you feel support is the correct attitude. Do you think they support you and your right to dissent, to free speech? Test that theory, some time: tell some soldiers you think them ignorant. Then tell them you "support" them. Then run.

Let's be clear. These guys are going for Bush in a big way--"100 percent," as one boasts in the article--and their political worldview intends to roll over your values and way of life. They're the very muscle of imperialism. We can only pray they won't soon be used to enforce fascism here at home.

Many a New Democrat could do with less sentimentalizing of the military.

and

Would they do the bidding of George W Bush to attack or imprison our own people? That's a very scary thought that should reinforce the need to have civilian control and a more strict oversight. The Repubs have lead and guided the Marines and our troops in a very dangerous direction.

and

Indeed. After running and escaping harm, there would not be one left on this board with illusions of "supporting the troops". There are troops who were never eager to go there and are not like these thugs. I support one troop at a time...one at a time as I am made aware of their story. I also loathe one troop one at a time...one at a time as I am made aware of THEIR fascist imperialistic ideals. Person by person...not this jingoistic "the troops" bullshit.

Your point should be a revelation to those who would think on what you have said.

More...

the chimp and a DUer would make "the hostile Marines meet Kerry" look like a love fest. That said, those guys were being rude. And they must be very uninformed or living under a rock if they are unaware of Kerry's military heroics. For his Vietnam service alone, they should have shown the man some respect.

And still more...

How can anyone support a coward and not a man who was wounded 3 times? An aWol coward drunk for 25 years? An aWol coward who never even flew solo but tells everyone he did? An aWol coward who couldn't pass a physical because he was a alcoholic/drug addict. A student who cheated to get D+, C-'s. A commander in thief who sent them out without body armor... Are marines that unaware?

Hope the Marines are unaware of this guy:

The active duty military has been given a pay raise every year since W took office. Last year he gave them 8%.

Plus most of the career military think war is great. They don't care where they are being sent or who they are killing. They are just doing their job and this is what they have trained for most of their lives. War is good for their careers, and combine that with the pay increases, and W looks great from their POV.

At least, this is what one young marine, that I know, told me a couple of weeks ago.

This one's brief:

Bush feeds their addiction to killing.

This one's not:

Remember most of this people that go in the Marines weren't the brightest light bulb in high school. They would make good Nazis. Remember the snipers in Iraq are mostly Marines and they like killing children and killing people so they can't get into hospitals for medical care. I don't have a bit of sympathy for them---hope they're headed somewhere the rest of humanity doesn't want to go to---and they never come back. These are really sick individuals---my brother-in-law is an ex-Marine and is he ever Cheyned-up!

Early this morning this comment was on the site:

I found this site from another site, and just thought id check it out, im not overly conservative, but to your standards thats probably enough to catagorize me as a fascist imperalist baby killer. I support all of our troops, and our President, and pray every night Kerry isnt elected president, as that will mean more fighting, more wars, and more death as our enemies will know how slow and hesitant the dems are to fight, so they will fight us more so. Some of you people make me wanna vomit. where do you think this stuff up? Calling Marines fat. Ummmm, you might hate em, but they arent fat, or out of shape, no matter how stupid you are you cant deny what you see. And Marine snipers killing civilans going to the hospital, WTF? With all the prison abuse being aired all over, how in the hell do you expect them to get away with killing kids and civies in broad daylight? I understand you hate our government right now, and our country, but get real. Comments like the ones here are just stupid, bizzare, out of this world scenarios that could never happen. If you take time to learn anything about the military, its pretty appearent that it requires alot of discipline, hard work, and dedication, something that not many of you know about Id guess. Ive accomplished nothing, and am pretty lazy to be honest, so for people to acheive what our soldiers have and do what they do amazes me, and i respect them all the more for it. Its people like you that make me want to turn off liberal or Democratic speeches and hearings, but not all liberals are as fanatical and crazy as you are. Im actually pretty shocked you people can honestly think this way, in the world we live in with information so avaible its amazing you are as misinformed as you are, its one thing to have a bad opinion, but its another to create fairy tails about why you feel that way. Wake up and come back to reality. Its floors me you can have such hatred toward soldiers, who have and would give their lives for you, all the while you spit on them and bad mouth them. Someone here said how their parents taught them to talk back if they disagreed with something. How is that any different than what he Marines were doing? Obviously they disagreed, but they were polite enough to stifle it. Theyre Americans, they have the right not to like or support Kerry, just like you dislike Bush, i dont see the difference. They dont like Kerry, so why would they help put him in office, nor would you help put Bush into office if you were in a situation like that. This site is absolutely crazy, theres more hatred and militant feelings in here than in any other group or community ive ever seen, about anything. It saddens me people are dying for our country (if you think its right doesnt matter) and you dont have the respect to at least appreciate them. How would you like it if your dad or brother or sister died, and all i could say how f-ng stupid they were, and how they deserved to die, and how i feel no sympathy for their family. thats sad and pathetic, and makes for a pretty sick human being

But that last entry has since deleted by the moderator. Not up to the site's standards.

Democratic Underground has featured this sort of commentary from well before John Kerry's page was ever established. What did he hope to gain from linking himself to them?

(I mean, besides more votes than he'll ever get from Marines...)