No One Should Be Kicked Out of the Military for Hating the PresidentS

Gary Stein is a 26 year-old nine-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, meaning he's been in there since he got out of high school. He's served in Iraq. He does not like our President and Commander-in-chief, Barack Obama. He made his displeasure known in the following ways:



Yesterday, Gary Stein was kicked out of the Marine Corps with "an other-than-honorable discharge" for his Facebook comments.

Gary Stein may be dumb, politically speaking. (Or he may not be, who knows? He could be Glenn Greenwald.) But somebody willing to go fight in a stupid war for America should not be fired for not liking the president, on Facebook. Some soldiers hate Barack Obama? Any half-bright political pundit can tell you that. Some soldiers hate their commander-in-chief? Any half-bright anyone who has ever met a soldier who has fought in any war in recorded human history can tell you that. What's the big secret that Gary Stein was spilling? Ridiculous. We don't allow any declared ideological opponents in the military now? it's like Chris Rock said about gays in the military: "If they wanna fight, let them fight. Because I ain't fighting."

However outraged you would have been had an Iraq war veteran Marine been dismissed for saying something bad about George W. Bush on Facebook, that's how outraged you should be now.

[LAT. Stupid cartoon via "We Support Sgt. Gary Stein" FB page]