AFA2013,
As an American citizen, do I care if the rest of the World feels a little hatred and anger towards us? Sure, it hurst my feelings a little that my country and my President was disrespected. We americans have this great Hollywood image of ourselves as the hero in the white ten-gallon hat, riding in on a shiny steed, six-shooters blazing away and dealing justice 6 shots at a time to those evil ones who would do others harm. To realize that quite a few of them there townfolk think WE'RE the ones in the black hats, with black bandanas over the lower half of our faces, kind of stings. No one sees themsleves as the guy wearing the "black hat". We're America, we INVENTED Hollywood, we're the star of this here Western...
But as an officer (at least formerly) in the US military, I also realize it really doesn't matter a hill of beans what our global image is. For the most part, and from the people and places I've been to, America is still seen as the good guy -- especially when our Armed Forces are the ones putting themselves in danger and at risk in order to keep the world safe. They may not agree with our political agendas, and they may even get a little angry when our military easily defeats someone from a similar culture as theirs, but they are the first to scream for help from us when it is needed, and the first to shake our hands and thank us when we arrive.
As a future officer, you let those folks in ranks waaaaaaay above yours worry about our global image. We're just there to clean up the mess, whatever that may be. And to keep the world safe, whenever and whomever calls.
And when you run into those who sneer at you and call you ruthless invaders of innocent countries, you smile at them, and politely explain the facts. Never before in human history has one country's military been so overwhelmingly strong in power and capability and they have not EXPANDED their borders through conquest, or just taken whatever they wanted. You can be proud that you're joining history's first example of a military strength that is used for protection and benefit of ALL (at least, we try to be that way)
We ain't the Romans, or the Mongols, or the Aztecs, or the Persains, or the British, or the Germans. We're AMERICANS, and yes, we do wear the white hats....
) that there are a few SS agents just a tad embarrassed and getting the Mother of All Harrassment sessions from their colleques; a few SS agents higher than them looking at each other and raising their eyebrows in a Mr. Smith-from-the-Matrix kind of way, thinking "bad time to be fired, with the economy in the tubes and all"; and a few more SS agents even higher than THEM sitting down as we speak going over every contingency imaginable for every situation where somebody (or something) might throw something at the POTUS ("OK, the next time the President goes to the zoo, I want three agents between the Pres and the Monkey cage!")
