Brian Amberg
Aug 9, 2017 · 4 min read

Cute. Guy who accuses me of “flaunting my service” shoots back by claiming that nobody is a soldier except a grunt. You’re flaunting your own service, hypocritically, while claiming that I am flaunting my service. If I am guilty of that, so are you.

I never said I was “more American” than John the Too Important Businesser. What I said is that he is less worthy of an American than someone who trudged hundreds of miles through the desert, which I compared as being similar, in terms of desert, to those of us who have served this country.

Since you seem slow on the uptake, I’ll explain my thought process to you:

Dear Leader Trump declares that we need to get rid of “birthplace citizenship”. I did not declare that, your Dear Leader did. Getting rid of birthplace citizenship, a *constitutional issue*, is a very, very bad policy (like everything else he recommends). I turned it on its head. If we were to get rid of birthplace citizenship, that would remove any justification for anyone being born here being allowed to be a citizen. Trump EVADED military service. Under Trump’s own ideal of getting rid of birthplace citizenship, he has NOT earned any right to be an American. Under the current rules, he was born here and is therefore a citizen. But if he had his druthers, he would not be qualified to live here. So, if we were to get rid of birthplace citizenship we would instead have to move to some kind of “merit” system to determine who is and who is not a citizen. Under such a system, John would have no right to remain an American and neither would Trump. You and I have earned our citizenship under such rules. Trump has not. Your Dear Leader had skin that was FAR to precious to put at risk in any way, shape, or form. While it is true that I was not in the infantry, I could have been reclassified at any moment with the stroke of a pen. That did not happen, because unlike you, the policymakers who run the military realize that there is more to the military than trigger-fingers. It is a good thing they are in charge, not you, else we’d lose every war we ever engaged in.

“You can’t act like a warrior class and then advocate for illegal immigrants to be granted safe passage into the home you just said that you defended from all enemies, foreign and domestic!”

Immigrants are NOT ENEMIES. They are people who want to live here. They are people who think enough of our country that they left theirs in order to come here and be a part of this great nation. We do have some domestic enemies though. We have the Klan, the longest-running terrorist group in history. We also have Trump, who is a willful violator of the constitution and a man who committed treason for his own benefit. And then we have billionaires like John The TIB, parasites who produce nothing of value but suck all of the income and wealth from our economy in order to impoverish the masses of our country.

“You are a shitty veteran who make other veterans look bad. There is humility that comes with the job. We know we are better, but we don’t flaunt it.”

I received an honorable discharge from the US Army. You make veterans look bad by insulting every veteran who was not on the front lines. You are also insulting every soldier who has ever served who was not on the front lines. Don’t talk to me of “humility” when you’re so full of hubris. I don’t go around calling myself “better”, YOU do.

“You were trying to silence a man because you served”

Nonsense. Daring to criticize someone is not “trying to silence”. How *DARE* I express an opinion without having been a grunt? You put more value on a self-described billionaire who would never put himself in a position where he’d be in any danger whatsoever, a billionaire who spent his early adulthood setting himself up to be rich; while you disparage a fellow soldier who put his own future on the back-burner to sign up for his generation’s war. You are so ate-up it isn’t even funny.

For your information, I was an inpatient psychiatric counselor. It was my job to help soldiers with PTSD, suicidal ideations, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, among other things. I can’t talk a whole lot about my service because of patient-provider confidentiality. Unlike you, I can’t tap my experiences in the military in order to write blogs (also, unlike you, when I served we were not allowed to speak to the media, we were not even allowed 1st Amendment rights; but you have it OH SO HARD….you whiner, I’d have been court-martialed for even writing the blogs you write).

The Army employed me in a role where I would actually be USEFUL instead of putting me in the infantry where I’d probably have gotten people killed because I’m a lousy shot (but you want to hate on me because the Army wisely put me in a position where my skills would actually be helpful). A wise military takes stock of the skills of those willing to serve and puts them in the position where they’ll do the most good. A stupid military puts everyone in infantry and hopes for the best. Based upon your hatred of everyone not in infantry, if the military was run by you we could not win a war period.

But oh boy would you feel like a big-shot. And that is really the only thing that is important for you Trumpers.

Nice to know that you also resent the people who make sure you get paid for doing your job. Funny how you call the people who do so “civilians” and disparage them for BEING civilians, but you stand up for a billionaire who never served and WOULD never serve because his own personal skin is more precious to him than yours is. Get used to the fact that the top 1% makes money every time someone in the infantry dies. John the TIB is your enemy, not me.

    Brian Amberg

    Written by

    Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
    Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
    Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade