“The army has got a brand new toy / And they're just waiting for the word”

I should have known that a consequence of listening to rock music is having to endure the senselessly liberal lyrics.  The above quote is from the new Strung Out album, and I started to laugh when I heard it. 

The Army is waiting to try out its new toys?  Well, of course.  We sink money into defense for top-of-the-line--top-of-the-globe--equipment and systems and we need to test it out.  More importantly, we need to train more officers and career sergeants in the heat of combat, so there’s not two generations of active soldiers who have never had the privilege of serving in combat. 

And this is bad?

We are not warmongering.  We are not only defending the interests of the US.  We are defending the interests of the entire orderly freeworld’s.

The musicians and actors and college students say it’s sheer greed and bloodlust. 

They compare the U.S. to the other orderly democratic countries--in France, they do this; in Sweden they do this; in Canada they have that.  Those civilized countries spend little on the military and have free healthcare for all.  But in fact, it’s our military might and our duty to defend our allies that allow Western Europe the luxury of small, under-funded, and largely impotent, standing militaries.  They know America will step up if there’s a hostile aggressor.  And they can have socialist programs because they don’t have unwashed hordes breaking down the doors in the public sphere: schools, hospitals, the dole. 

What do these socialized European countries not have:  The right of private gun ownership.  Or, if you will, the right to defend one’s person and family with equal or greater force than some malevolent pervert lurking in the night.  After all, would you want your wife raped in the bed you shared while you lay bound and bleeding on the floor--or would you like to be able to brandish a firearm and shoot at any thing that breeches your castle’s walls? 

We have the most security and prosperity and modernity of any civilization in the history of time--as a result of our mix of know-how and innovative free market flourish.  We are on top, and we gotta keep it that way--with the biggest God damned tanks and bombs money can buy.