----------------I Believe
Words of wisdom from highly decorated Special Forces Combat Veteran and ex-POW Major Mark Smith:
1. When one free American is engaged by an enemy, the entire Nation must be dedicated to his defense.
2. When an enemy stalks us, the time for talk is over.
3. If any country, group, religious sect or individual threatens America, we must kill them.
4. There is no need to search for answers as to why some overseas do not like us. We should not care.
5. The military is not a social experiment and the debate ends when one signs the dotted line.
6. Presidents have very little to do with the economy going up, but can play a great role in it going down.
7. No school teacher or social worker has the right to tell my minor child that things I have taught are morally wrong are alright.
8. Anyone breaking into my house deserves to be shot. Regardless of his habit, social background, ethnic group or even if his family is hungry.
9. Every nationality which denies an American; services, land rights, home ownership or the right to work should be treated by those same rules in the USA.
10. Any nation which refers to Americans in a derisive way; foreigner, farang, Yankee, honkie, white/black man and etc, should be prepared to be referred to in those same terms or local equivalent.
11. That no minority in America has the right to refer to White Americans in a derisive way (honkie, cracker, redneck) any more than White Americans have the right to refer to people as; Niggers Gooks, Greasers or Rednecks.
12. If you desecrate my flag, I have the right to show my "political dissent" by kicking your butt.
13. Whatever discharge you got from the military should only be changed to correct technical errors and must be an open book to all future employers, voters etc.
14. The Boy Scouts are allowed to keep homosexuals out of the camp site.
15. Michael Jackson is a serial molester.
16. O.J. is a multiple murderer and Scott Peterson deserves a lethal injection now.
17. The KKK members who killed the White and Black "Freedom Riders" should be hung now, regardless of how old they are. The same goes for those that bombed churches, schools and homes.
18. If you are high on PCP, the police can beat you till you stop resisting.
19. If you are caught in civilian attire, using civilians as a shield, killing soldiers or civilians, you are not covered by the Geneva Convention/Law of Land Warfare and can be shot on the spot. If I decide to capture you out of the goodness of my heart, you have no rights.
20. If you go on the internet and advocate the killing of Americans, including our military personnel, I have the right to beat you to death if I meet you.
21. John Kerry could not carry the C-rations of a real warrior.
22. We have every right to call our country America and don’t care if the rest of North and South America do not like it. You are two hundred years late.
23. That dope dealers deserve to be shot.
24. No illegal alien should get anything but a trip home the first time and substantial jail time the second.
25. If a foreign country starves it’s own people, we have no legal or moral obligation to feed them, but we may arm them to rebel if it is in our interests.
26. North Korea should be allowed to wallow in it’s own crap until it’s own people rise up and kill the leadership, then and only then should we help them.
27. We won the Cold War because Ronald Reagan outspent the Soviets.
28. Johnny the Taliban should have been hung.
29. Germany and Japan will never overcome their past crimes and should never be allowed to debate a right to permanent status on the UN Security Council. That France sits there was a favor and the French should never be allowed to forget it.
30. You have no right to sue McDonalds because you are a slob or R J Reynolds because you smoke. Your choice stupid.
31. If you want to talk trash about how much you dislike soldiers or just real men, stop trying to pick me up in bars when you are drunk.
32. Any woman that would put up with the shame Bill Clinton brought to the Presidency and her has no right to even think of being President. You can’t deal with your own problems.
33. Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, Ramsey Clark et al were traitors and should still be in jail.
34. Universities are for learning and if someone, professor or student, tries to turn it into a political entity, all public support should cease.
35. No American today is responsible for slavery and has no need to apologize to anyone. Too many soldiers died to make it disappear.
36. You come to America, swear allegiance to my flag and then claim you are really English, Thai or whatever, your citizenship should be revoked and you should be sent back to be "who you really are".
37. If you were born in America and try to treat a refugee as something less, you need your butt kicked.
38. Humans take precedent over every animal on earth, including whales and cute little seal pups.
39. Marriage is between a man and woman, there are no "alternative life styles", only abnormalities.
40. There is no debate, we are allowed to own and bear arms.
41. If I am participating in a legal activity; smoking, praying or just looking at two gay caballeros kissing and you touch me, I have the right to break your arm.
42. The fighting capabilities of our combat arms are too important for our military to be required to allow women in. Besides it remains against the law.
43. There never was a precedent set by Israel for women in combat, only a smart propaganda campaign to cause problem in the Arab ranks and to belittle them.
44. Stalin was every bit as big a criminal as Hitler.
45. Any American who works his butt off has no requirement to "share the wealth" with those not so fortunate or motivated.
46. We are Americans and any ethnic race or religious differences are not even in the equation.
47. Fidel Castro is a war criminal for his actions in Africa, South/Central America and in Vietnam. He will never do enough CNN Specials to overcome that.
48. Ted Kennedy is a grotesque creature with no right to speak on moral issues.
49. Bill Clinton was disgraced and impeached by his own actions and no one else’s.
50. Richard Nixon had more class than Bill Clinton and resigned.
51. The French lost the high ground on challenging U.S. "interfering in the internal affairs" of any Nation by their actions in Canada, about Quebec.
52. The left in America may owe Vietnam something, but the rest of us do not. We gave them fifty-eight thousand of our best.
53. You never bring democracy by investing in Socialist States. You only allow them to stay longer.
54. The only thing Ron Kovic, Bobby Mueller and others terribly wounded in Vietnam got was an unlucky break and have no special insight into the morality or politics of the war.
55. Only the Enlisted Infantry Soldier or Marine truly knows the day to day hardships of war and the human cost on both sides.
56. Jenkins, the defector to North Korea should have been dealt with in the harshest way.
57. The glorification of POWs must stop and those that fought on to the last bullet and prevailed, held up as examples to be emulated.
58. No nation should ever be forgiven for brutalizing our POWs in their care, until a total change of leadership takes place.
59. The leftist "mainstream media" are the greatest assets the enemies of America possess and that no "talking head" has any special insights into how the world works.
60. Any media person who enters the enemy camp should be given no consideration when the military targets these instillations.
61. Any American, who slips into the enemy camp to support their efforts, should be targeted as the traitor they are.
62. There is a new world order; we won.
63. Our longest war deserves more space in High School textbooks than Jackie Kennedy, the Space Program, bra burnings and even Martin Luther King.
64. Any Collegiate or Pro athlete who cheats through steroids, corked bats or betting deserves to be banned for life.
65. Representative Franks has no right to speak on morals after his adventures with the Congressional Pages.
66. Monika would be just another fat girl at the bar if not for Bill Clinton.
67. The next time Jesse Jackson takes off on his own to interfere in any foreign problem or hostage negotiations, he should be arrested upon return.
68. Sean Penn is a punk with a certain expertise at impersonating real men.
69. JFK died at the hand of Oswald and the myths of the left about JFK planning to pull out of Vietnam are just that. Nobody loved and used the dark arts better than JFK.
70. The New York Times, CBS and CNN should hang their heads in journalistic shame after their actions in Iraq and the last election.
71. Dan Rather should say he never made it through Marine Boot Camp and thus never refer to himself as a "former Marine". Any real Marine will tell you, there is no such thing.
72. Fighter pilots are a unique breed.
73. Chopper pilots fly machines which by all rights have no business being in the air. But fly they do.
74. Infantrymen have a closer relationship with Chopper pilots, FACS and Fighter pilots than with any other breed of fighting men.
75. If you are going after an enemy head of state, you send the SEALS to his luxury boat, Marine Force Recon to his beach side villa, Rangers to his mountain retreat and the U.S. Army Special Forces to his Palace downtown.
76. No author should write a book on war or a specific battle without talking to all ranks involved.
77. The leadership of most military associations ends up in the hands of the support troops.
78. We do our children a disservice by teaching English as a second language.
79. Rap is not music.
80. Jimmy Carter should be embarrassed to even venture a comment on foreign policy.
81. The next time young Koreans start demonstrating against us, we should start withdrawing troops.
82. Most of Eastern Europe has a greater appreciation for America than our traditional allies, especially the French and Germans.
83. Old people know more than anyone and remain a largely untapped resource.
84. Only those who stood beside them in war will ever truly understand Soldiers.
85. Time colors the memory of the coward, but sharpens the recall of the brave.
86. Police on horseback exercise better crowd control than motor officers or those on foot.
87. Shoeless Joe Jackson had more class than Pete Rose.
88. AIDS is at it’s primary source, a self inflicted wound.
89. A child accessing internet porn has inattentive parents.
90. There is no greater sense of freedom than experiencing America astride a steel steed with those who have fought for her beside you.
91. Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth, told exactly that and those like Kerry and his VVAW "Band of Brothers" were lesser men than they will ever be.
92. The Green Beret is a hat and the man wearing it is what it is all about.
93. They know more about being an American in Rainelle West Virginia, Kokomo Indiana and Akron, Ohio than most folks in Washington DC.
94. If you marched against my war, burnt my flag and besmirched my good name, you owe me and all like me an apology.
95. A man who has never had a dog will have a hard time understanding leadership.
96. A Solider may leave the Army, but the Army will never leave him.
97. If you do not like our President, in a few years you will get another chance, but if you are from another country, you have no say.
98. Internet companies who would censor the net to eliminate words like democracy for Communist governments have no shame and should be shunned.
99. The awards above the left breast pocket tell more about a military man’s participation in battle, than any war story he might tell.
100. Our forefathers meant exactly what they said in the Constitution and need no interpreters, unless English is your second language.
Major Mark A. Smith
United States Army, Retired
My list of things I believe would be short. In fact it would only have one item.
1. I believe nothing.
This is not so much a statement of fact as it is an aspiration. I try to believe nothing. I don't always succeed. I'm tempted to believe what I see or hear or read or taste or smell. But somehow I believe that these are all illusions too. There I go again, believing in something. See, I told you I wasn't perfect.
What is the definition of believing? Doesn't that mean that you come into a situation with pre-conceived notions? Doesn't this prevent us from seeing things the way they are at the moment?
Just the fact that this guy listed these hundred 'beliefs' makes a statement about what sort of regimented mind he has. He wants everything filed and pigeonholed and neatly arranged. There's only one problem with this approach to dealing with the world. IT AIN'T LIKE THAT. The world is messy and chaotic and surprising and above all, ever changing. Beliefs are static. Once you believe something you have eliminated your capacity for understanding anything different. It limits your ability to be in the moment and observe the world as it is.