Americans (...unfortunately)

I'm starting this post with a disclaimer. It's likely going to piss off some- a lot- of you anyway, but here it is:

I SUPPORT THE MILITARY. I do NOT hate our troops. I'm not, never have been, and never will be a member of the Westboro Baptist Church (more likely to be the guy who shoots up that damn so-called 'church'). I have served in uniform, in Afghanistan, and meant to do so for at least one full enlistment (four years). I was, and am, and likely always will be, in full support of our troops and I am eternally grateful and in awe of the job that they do (I feel like I haven't done that much, which is why I say 'they' and not 'we')

However, I
can
NOT
STAND
the civilian populace of this damned country.
They are, not entirely but mostly, weak, whiny, spoiled children. They can't bone up and actually take any sort of suffering- they demand that their government and laws not only protect from from injustice, but they seem to feel that they should have a full free ride. They want to do as little as possible while raking in more benefits and money than they should have earned, even had they actually done the work they should have done in the first place. They sue companies who have not maliciously done them harm or injustice for far, far more than the injustice- had they actually been done some injustice- would have cost them.
For example, my dad recently sent me a story about a man who bought a $75,000 pool table (billiards table); it was made of special glass, and had a coating on it to give it the same feel and resistance as a standard felt-topped table. The man used regular pool balls on it, like you would find in any pool hall, and the balls scratched, scuffed, and otherwise damaged the surface of the table. Now, it should be noted that, having spent SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS on a pool table- a table made entirely of special GLASS- he did NOT check, did NOT make sure to ask, if there were any special instructions, any special care he needed to take, any special way he needed to use the table- the $75,000 table of GLASS, don't forget.
So now, the man is suing. Okay, well, modern 'logic' says that the company should have made sure that the customer knew that he could only use special billiard balls with the table. Now, the story says that there was a letter included with the table which said that the table was made to be used with the special balls that the company makes; it doesn't say that you may *only* use those balls, or that if you use regular balls it will damage the table. (at this point, I'd just like to say- if I ever spent that much money, a considerable figure even for a billiard table, on a billiard table, I'd make *damn* sure I knew everything about it, any special usages, anything like that) And the letter DOES say "Please use only these balls" meaning the special balls which were sent with the table. No, it doesn't say "don't use regular balls," but really, does it need to?
Well, if the company didn't make absolutely sure the customer was informed- although I think that it was his money and his decision to spend it and as such it should have been his responsibility to use it correctly- they are, by modern legal logic, responsible. So, he's suing so that they are held as such, and he either gets his 65 grand back, or a free new table, right? Company's fault, so they fix it. Right?
Nope. Not even close.
He's suing for- wait for it-
$219,000 in damages.
WHY?! Was he so emotionally harmed by the trauma of the scratched table that he needs some other compensation? I guess so- with that kind of mark-up, you'd think he lost a leg to the thing. (Actually, I did lose a leg, and TSGLI gave me $100,000- $50K for the original injury, another $50 for the eventual necessary amputation)
Here's the story, so you can see I'm not making this up:
http://gma.yahoo.com/lawsuit-73-000-glass-pool-table-not-scratch-141107703--abc-news-money.html

Okay, no, I really don't get it. How is a $73,000 table suddenly worth $219,000? Why? Well, as far as I can figure out, it is such because Americans are whiny, spoiled, bitchy little children who think that if someone is mean to them, they'll tell mommy and daddy and they'll fix everything- and buy them an ice cream cone to make them feel better, to boot.

Now, this is a slight departure from my little rant, but it's along the same lines (i.e. "why I think the majority of Americans are whiny, childish bitches").
Also, this part has its own additional disclaimer:
I do value human life. Now, I'm a Marine, so it's not like I'm a weak, tree-hugging, sensitive, bleeding-heart guy. But I do value human life. (I'll explain this more as I go)
... This, by the way, is where a lot of you are probably going to be incredulous and/or pissed reading this. You know what? Start your own blog and trash me- this is my blog.

Now, another reason why I don't like American citizens. And this one is much closer to home for me, as a Marine.
I remember September 11th; I was young, and I didn't fully understand what was going on- I saw some buildings come down on the news, I didn't know what buildings or why it was terrible other than civilian casualties. But I do clearly remember weeks of Americans going up in arms, hating all Muslims, all Arabs, how they screamed for blood- they didn't want justice, they wanted blood- how they kept asking, over and over, in loud, angry voices, why our government wasn't acting. I heard, many many times, "Nuke Iraq!" and such. Americans wanted the ones that they thought were responsible dead, mutilated, smeared into bloody pulp on the ground. And I don't blame them- it was a terrible thing.
It wasn't about chemical weapons. When that threat was announced, yes, everyone was more afraid. The country got paranoid as hell.
So, we invaded. Everyone was ecstatic, bloodthirsty, and there was no discussion of peace, or trial, or 'should we do this?' Nope. If you were against the war, you were un-American, a traitor; you may as well have flown the planes into the towers yourself; you were just *wrong*.
Then, all of a sudden, people saw troops wounded. They heard stories about captured soldiers and Marines, they saw footage of bloody battles, they saw death tolls and casualty counts, and all of a sudden everyone hated war. They didn't understand how our President could do such things to their little babies (the soldiers), they hated how he'd sent men and women into harm's way, they kept talking about how unjust it was and how they'd never wanted war, how it was criminal because there weren't WMD's... it went on, and on, and on, and on... on... aaaaand on...
I got so sick of it.
Everyone who was for the war before, who called pacifists un-American and traitors, all of a sudden, they'd never wanted war! They wanted their poor children home!
1) those weren't their babies, weren't their little children.; they were grown, adult men and women who VOLUNTEERED to put themselves in harm's way and to do their duty. It's great- ALL VOLUNTEER, no one was forced to be there, they were all either old enough that their parents had no control over them legally or they enlisted when they were 17, with their parents' permission. And now that we're suddenly in a war, they've all realized that their children aren't just off at a fucking summer camp in the desert- they're fighting a war, like they volunteered to do, like they were trained to do.
2) wait- what happened to the bloodlust, the anger, the passion for vengeance?! WHY  is our President, the one who heard your war cries and answered them, suddenly criminal and incompetent and stupid?
3) Okay, fine- even if you insist that you were against the war from the beginning (which I'm sure you weren't, but fine, if that's what you say...) even then, WHY don't you support the TROOPS?! I understand being angry with the government, I understand not supporting tits decisions. However, the TROOPS are NOT responsible. They're the people you know, people you love, who volunteered, honorably, to defend your weak, spineless life. So, really, why would you not support them?!

'Oh, it's because so many of our men and women have died!'
Oh, really? Let's go back for a moment, here...
Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941. We lost 2,402 on that single day- 2,402. That's more than  we have lost during the entire campaign in Iraq!
Normandy beaches, Tuesday, June 6, 1944. 1,465 dead Americans.
Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945. 6,800 dead Americans- over 26,000 American casualties.
OIF and OEF (that's Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom), all told, *together*, have claimed about 6,000 American lives.
So, in over a decade of 'war', Americans have lost as many troops as we lost in one battle during WWII.

Now, second disclaimer: I am NOT saying that life has no value, or that 6,000 dead is of no importance. Every one of those dead was a son, daughter, brother, sister, father, mother, husband, wife, loved one; every one of them was a person.
What I AM saying is that I don't understand why we've lost all nerve.

In WWII, America rallied around Pearl Harbor. We lost the bulk of our Navy, so we rebuilt it. Factories nationwide went into overdrive; families went without an awful lot of luxuries to support the War; women stepped up and, in a resolute fashion made famous by the image of Rosie the Riveter, did what was traditionally men's work. They hauled, chopped, melted, pressed, drilled, cut, lifted- they worked hard, and long, with very few men around. The entire country stepped up and at least bought War Bonds to support the efforts.
Now, what does the entire country do? They hold rallies; they say that they were tricked into this war; they rail against the Presidents we've had because they seem to be doing nothing.
It's absolutely ridiculous. (and not in a good, funny way)

 So here we are, in America, the land of the disgustingly obese, where you don't have to work because if you whine the right way to the right people, where you don't have to study because you can go to the doctor and claim ADD or whine because your teacher isn't making every concession to drag your lazy ass along in class because you don't want to study and do the work.
Americans go all over the world and speak only English. In other countries, they walk up to restaurant workers and store clerks and random locals to order, get directions, etc., and they have the nerve to be OUTRAGED when the person doesn't speak English! They go all over the world and demand that locals in other countries speak English- but tourists in America have to speak English. If they don't, Americans are outraged at their ignorance- 'why would they visit our country and not speak the language?'
But Americans don't speak other languages. Maybe they speak some Spanish- maybe. But German? Nope. French? Not likely. Chinese? Perhaps, but even that is only just being introduced to schools.

In fact, China is the largest English-speaking nation in the world.

That's right- CHINA. Not actually surprising, since a LOT of Americans don't really speak English. I know Asians who know better English than most Americans I know.

Where do we get this arrogance? Okay, perhaps just after WWII, we had some cause to be proud of ourselves- we had rebuilt the country's military to be the greatest and strongest in the world. Seventy years later, however, we just aren't hot shit. We aren't.
China, Japan, and India are moving beyond being 3rd World Countries, and are blowing away the rest of the world in math, science, and are gaining ground in medicine. And Americans sit here, getting fat, being lazy, working as little as possible, and expecting the world to acquiesce and give them everything that they want on a silver platter.

I feel a little hypocritical right now, yes. I don't actually speak another language- I'm working on Chinese, but I'm not even 'conversational' yet- I have a tendency to procrastinate quite a lot... But I think that the fact that I hate this makes me different. Most Americans don't feel the need to apologize to the rest of the world for being arrogant, stuck-up, insulting, ignorant people. I do.
So, I'll say it:
I'm sorry that I grew up in this country, and that I'm a product of this nation- and as such, do not speak any language other than English, am not well-versed in any science- not biology, electronic, mathematical- and I don't study 7 hours every night so that I can excel in my classes. yes, I'm an American. I do take a lot of my life for granted.
I just try not to.
Yeah, I know- it's not really 'the thought that counts', but that's all I have right now.

I don't really know what else to say here.
I think my angry rant has gone on long enough, and that I've offended enough people.
Also, I don't know what else to say right now.

So, if you've suffered through this whole thing, I'll say goodbye- see you later.