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Lisa,
Yes I am concerned with Rush, Salon, and every other far Right or far Left wing media mouth piece that spouts this mantra of hate. We could argue the point of War Service and what it does to qualify you to rise to national prominence as a politician. It serves one or two main points, and that is you KNOW what you’re asking soldiers to do, and you know the impact of poor funding, i.e. no parts to repair tanks, no dollars to train and hone your skills, etc. In Army speak, we always talk of "eating the same dirt" when we talk war stories and hardships endured. I found Salon through my home page of MSN (which links to it) and from National Media attention. (Which Salon was after, it’s all about the dollars, you can say they had some altruistic motive, but let’s NOT kid ourselves one bit, they were after publicity to pay their 100 staffers just like every other news organization) and I was sickened by their rationale to inflame a few more crazed Muslims to bomb our troops.
Just because YOU went through it (Military Service) - like I did for 20 years in the military, does NOT necessarily qualify me to get into it with Hugo Chavez on a National level. (See John Kerry) But, and this is a big but here, If no ONE who is in Congress has served, our military certainly would suffer. I was still a soldier when Bill Clinton was President and our funding dropped across the board. These FLAK jackets and VESTS everyone talks about in the National Media could have been purchased back then. (It was requested) But funding was withheld. (Hence Cheney’s comments, “You go to War with what you have.”) I also was in a separate Armored Brigade that was perfect for the Somalia mission. President Clinton did not want to put “Tanks” on the ground. We all know the consequences of that decision by having foot soldiers with no Armor to back them up in an area full of armored trucks with heavy machine guns attached. You could blame it all on Clinton, or his planners, or the military for not convincing him, you could blame him for our soldiers in Iraq not having Vests. But the bottom line is this is a very complicated process with procurement, funding, and having the industries and infrastructure in place to produce 1 tank, or 1 vest. But once the decision is made, (by Republicans or Democrats) I believe we need to support our troops and NOT encourage the ENEMY.
I have read more than one report that says our failures in Somalia acted as encouragement to our enemy. They think we will CUT and RUN every time a soldier dies now. This EMBOLDENS them to do these barbaric acts because they think WE, as a society, lack a SPINE to see things through to the end. So you tell me, now that you know this, do we cut and run? This is some of what I am talking about – I love Cindy Sheehan for speaking her mind, but she knows nothing of the effects of pulling our troops out before stabilizing the country and leaving on OUR OWN terms.
Vietnam is replete with examples of politicians playing Warrior with disastrous effects. At least that lesson was learned. You could argue that we don’t have enough troops. The Commander and Battle Planners said they could do it with 180,000 ground pounders or so… We see how that went don’t we? You would again have to blame President Bush Sr. and President Clinton for stripping us down to our current configuration. Cutting entire Armored Divisions to spend more on domestic programs, the so called “Peace Dividend”. That dividend is up to 2200 American lives. When I joined we had 780,000 full time troops, and we currently have about 480,000 (See the pain of those who joined the Guard and Reserve thinking they would never deploy and often missed training with no punitive measures taken) My point is, there are two sides to EVERY story.
I have been married the majority 20 years, and like I tell my wife when she disagrees with everything I have to say. “Honey, I’m kind of a smart guy, it’s statistically impossible for me to be WRONG on EVERYTHING.” It’s the same with you and me, and our politicians. There IS room for dialogue if they would stop going around berating each other.
Do I agree that our government may be doing things that harm my freedoms, yes! And I will work to correct that, but I won’t do it by calling people HITLER, and then expect them to actually listen to a logical argument.
So Lisa, you and I, we can meet in the middle, as can all of America, especially if you and I start taking an active roll in limiting the hate filled messages from our politicians, media pundits, and those who post hate on these boards. Most importantly we need to examine ALL sides to an issue, and then vote our conscience. See examples above in reference to troop levels, funding, etc. before you blame the current administration of NOT providing for our troops. If that’s your “one” issue that decides your vote, I ask you, and every American, to find out the facts first. Find out the facts on EVERY issue, then vote Republican or Democrat, makes no difference to me, because at that point we are an informed electorate – and we are not relying on SALON, FOX, CNN, and the talking heads to shape our minds through biased reporting and hate filled messages.
It's these people who are "convinced" we invaded for "oil" and we are going to make Iraq our 51st state that make me shake my head, and wonder, where did all the smart people go?
