“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”

Is it ok to criticize the United States government? Often doing so will get mixed and intermingled with criticizing the military in the minds of those opposed to the expressed viewpoint. I have been asked in the past how I can have such “leftist” views with two of my best friends in the armed forces. It is horrible and unsupportive of me to not follow in blind submission the will of the powers at be. However I feel that such behavior is quite contrary to being unsupportive; in fact I would venture so far as to say it is even positively supportive of my military friends.

First off, we need to clarify the designed distinction between the men and women enlisted in the military and the executive powers that command them. Once we have established the military and executive power as two separate entities we may then move on to observe how criticism of the executive branch can actually be a supportive behavior toward enlisted men and women.

When our founding fathers began laying the groundwork for our nation, they strove to design a government in which power belonged to the people. In order to maintain this distribution of power it was not only encouraged but also expected that the citizens of this nation would stay informed and involved in matters regarding their government, and should a time come when the people did not agree with the actions of the acting government powers, our founding fathers saw it as the responsibility and obligation of the American people to speak out against their government and make their opinions heard. To sit by and disagree with the government in silence would be an offense most accurately regarded as treason!

(For clarification, nowhere does this concept of citizen rule mention the criticism of servicemen/women! Criticizing the military is a foolish and futile endeavor as it is an organization based solely on obeying a chain of command. Why pass judgment on workers when they are simply following the will of their manager?)

Some argue that to criticize the government is to devalue the blood shed by those on the battlefield; something only a “heartless leftist commy liberal freak” would be capable of doing. In reality questioning the actions and decisions of the government is actually fully embracing the freedom that those soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice for. What more could a person do to show their appreciation to these men and women but to live out their blessing of American freedom each day? Show our soldiers you are thankful for your freedom; let your voice be heard!