Veterans of the armed services can pretty much poke fun at anyone and any place.
The right of free humor speech is something they served to defend, so it'd feel ungrateful to suggest that an ex-Marine shouldn't snipe at Detroit and Chicago just because they're easy targets.
Potshots fly in a six-paragraph mock news story at The Duffel Blog, "the military version of The Onion." Here's part of what an author identified only as Paul, "a former Marine grunt with eight years of experience," posts under the headline Pentagon Announces Pre-Deployment Training To Take Place In Detroit And Chicago:
Troops headed overseas will soon be offered the most realistic combat training yet, as Pentagon officials announced late Friday that pre-deployment training would take place in Detroit and Chicago.
“We wanted to offer our soldiers and Marines realistic urban environments, a local populace that hates police and other government officials, and lots of gunfire,” said Lt. Col. Mike Hayes. . . . “Think of how much better our medics are going to be.” . . .
Soldiers training at Detroit’s six-week infrastructure rebuilding and destabilizing course will learn to master providing electricity, water and other basic services to the civilian populace while being stifled by realistic government corruption and mismanagement.
The satire has been seen by more than 23,200 readers, a site counter shows. It's "liked" more than 750 times on Facebook and shared by more than 360 users. "The crazy part is, you can find a better shwarma in Detroit than in the sandbox," Christopher Leete comments.
