Our Commander in Chief saluted with a cup of coffee in his right hand, and while the military is up in arms, so to speak, Starbucks couldn’t be happier.  Well, perhaps Starbucks could have been happier, would our Commander in Chief been holding a cup from their fine establishment.  Imagine the advertisement: Starbucks (and our President) salutes the military!

And while coffee is great (I’m as hopelessly addicted as the now deceased Hugo Chavez, who reportedly drank fifty cups a day), the salute is sacred.  The history of the salute goes back in time to the stone age, or later, when General T Rex, not to be confused with the hip-hop artists Ty Rex, and General Spino Saurus approached one another on the field of battle to negotiate a treatise.  The two generals came together and saluted, showing that they weren’t carrying ninja stars.  They talked, negotiated, and only then did they go about savagely killing one another.

Show up with a hot cup of joe, and the other might assume that you intend to splash this in their face, or that there might be a dagger inside.  Do this with a Starbucks logo on the cup, and you could be facing a lawsuit, for this is neither the preferred nor authorized method of waking up in the morning.

So get it right, Commander in Chief; hold the coffee in your left hand, if you must (and of course you must, I mean, everyone loves coffee) and salute with an open hand; it shows that you’re a trustworthy guy, and not sneaky in the least, honors the tradition, and then, and only then, should you go and bomb the terrorists.

For further lessons in military etiquette, please feel free to contact me via email.  We’ll hold a coffee summit, and chat!