I had one of my friends here contact me via PM, not to chastise but to comment on the "vigorous" banter between myself and NixonsBest.

It did make me think about why the uninitiated (for the want of a better term) so easily misunderstand blokes like me, so I thought it only right to offer an apology and something of an explanation.

It's hard for veterans to re-assimilate back into society, we surface from being submerged deep within an alien lifestyle and culture really, and for good or bad we're forever changed.
We can never be what we were before our military experiences, similarly we can never fully identify with conventional social groups or cliques in the population we once were a part of.
It doesn't mean we believe that we're right or superior to anyone else, it's just that we have a strange and bullshit-free way of comprehending things at times; and too often it rubs people the wrong way.
Inevitably we offend and alienate even our wives and family members, not intentionally; but from from their point of view with a distanced, blunt and insensitive manner.

Unfortunately we are hardened and at times scathing to the sensitivities of those of you who remained in a civilised and caring society, that's the daily struggle we have to manage within ourselves.
I can’t understand why anyone could be jealous of a veteran, we might be proud of our service; but most of us carry a burden of personal guilt for surviving, when so many within our own experiences were horribly wasted and lost.

We don't ask for your thanks, or even your expressions of respect; all we expect is some tolerance and understanding.
I never want anyone else to endure the degradation and deprivation of war; and I can't agree with many of our deployments to far-off parts of the world where we knew it was pointless.
Those of us still sane enough, do everything to make light of our remaining lives, we call it “shit-stirring” and for us it’s a conscious strategy for getting by one day at a time.
I tend to do it a lot here on PA and in my own daily life.

To my own discredit I get too easily seduced by current politics and issues close to my heart, and yet I'm here on PA to learn all I can about financially "seducing" P4P Thai Girls....how fucked up is that when it comes to a man's thinking! LOL.