Fairy tales
Charles Marin
Saturday, February 16, 2008
ONCE UPON A TIME a great man told us he was going to FIGHT A GREAT WAR AND CUT TAXES. That is a fairy tale if I ever heard one.
Anyone aspiring to be President needs to face the facts of the real world:
1. Stay in Iraq, raise taxes and reinstate the draft.
2. Get out of Iraq.
3. Do nothing and bankrupt the country.
Any man or woman who cannot stand up and face those facts does not belong in the oval office. Anyone shouting “I’m going to fight a war for 100 years and keep taxes down” while doubling up their fist and hitting the podium is telling fairy tales.
Charles Marin
Emporia
create (anonymous) says...
I agree except it sounds less like fairy tales and more like horror stories. Wars and rumors of wars? Hmmmm....
February 16, 2008 at 9:01 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
truelovecharlie (anonymous) says...
The perfect answer to an alternative to a draft----send all the convicted felons over there. If they come back alive, commute their sentence to time served. That would save innocent children and give them a real chance to redeem themselves. It would also wipe out the overcrowding issues in the prisons of this nation.
February 16, 2008 at 9:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
rollingdavidspade (anonymous) says...
sending the felons to fight might be a good idea, but it will never happen. who is to say as soon as they got overseas, that they wouldnt just take off and start a new life in a foreign country. we would basically unload our convicts into other countries, putting them in a lot worse of a place than some of them are in now.
February 16, 2008 at 10:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
alfalfa (anonymous) says...
Charles is right on in this one, and sums it up in a very concise manner. You can't fight a war costing 12 billion a month and cut taxes, it just won't work. As far as the draft goes,now that I am safely past draft age, we need some type of mandatory national service, be it military or otherwise, to give our young people some sense of doing things for people other than themselves. It is no secret the greatest generation was the greatest generation because they thought beyond "what will it do for me". 2 years of national service would do all people some good, especially the Paris Hiltons and their wannabees of this nation.
February 17, 2008 at 7:54 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wanderer (anonymous) says...
I don't know. Personally, I think mandatory national service would just make our young people come to hate national service. Remember how much everyone loved the draft?
I'm not saying that many of our citizens don't need to look beyond themselves. But I don't think forced volunteerism is the way to do it. We need to make the greater good attractive. Hey, if our nation can sell Coca-Cola, it should have no trouble selling this.
February 17, 2008 at 11:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
How about illegal aliens get the fast track to citizenship if they serve 2 years in the military first..... :)
February 17, 2008 at 5:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CAFEmporia (anonymous) says...
Charles Marin is correct that McCain is promising the moon. This is going to be a very weird election.
A citizen's army is not a very good army. It takes three years to train an infantryman and a draft would not address that need. On the other hand, the combat soldier could be part of a volunteer force while a conscripted force could serve in positions requiring less training thus freeing our volunteers from much of the support work now being done by them.
That seems a little tacky even if it would be efficient.
Using non-citizens is to use mercenaries and that doesn't usually work, either.
I'm thinking maybe we should fight wars that are possible, recruit allies to fight alongside us when we can't handle it alone, and then cut the commitment we are willing to make to a reasonable amount of time.
CAF
February 17, 2008 at 6:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
roger (anonymous) says...
How about no more wars that we can avoid. How about if we have to fight a war we shock and awe them and say mission acomplished and go home. I was around for the last draft and I enlisted. I think the draft is a dirty deal for a supposed free country. There is no honor in forcing a young man to fight and die for a cause you can't convince him is a just enough cause to volunteer for. How about next time we send the old guys who think it is such a good idea to have a war. You know the ones I mean, the ones who were rich enough they didn't have to go to viet nam. Chaney can shoot an old lawyer in the face with a shotgun, Send him after the terrorists. If we took the money out of war we wouldn't have war. Are we willing to let them send our children to die so the rich can get richer? Vote against the war and tell the people you vote for that . The administration we have leading us in this war can't come up with any other reason for this war than money. Sure they have tried lots of lies but someone keeps catching them. They say we will fight them there so we don't have to fight them here. At the same time they don't make a real effort to protect our borders or secure our ports. We can protect borders all around the world but women and kids can sneak across our borders any time they want.
February 17, 2008 at 11:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eldiablo (anonymous) says...
4. Vote for Obama
February 19, 2008 at 4:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
peanuts40 (anonymous) says...
I agree w alfalfa...Mandatory National Service!!!
There should be a draft, for both females & males. We are raising a bunch of softies w little knowlege of history and few survival skills. Half of the freshmen in college don't know what they want to do when/if they grow up...a big waste of tax dollars there...let's have a 2 yr program: boot camp to learn some discipline & how to get along, safely use weapons. Then some training in practical matters. They could work in the federal & state parks, on the highways, in the libraries, in cities teaching & helping poor students, lots to do in this great country of ours. They would all develop that self esteem
everyone is so worried about!!
February 20, 2008 at 5:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporia_soldier (anonymous) says...
Just wandering if any of you that want the draft or mandatory Service have ever served yourselves?? I don't think I would want to be standing next to the person that never wanted to be sent to War when all the bullets start flying at us!! You can't make a human into a Soldier or anything else for that matter!! The only way we accomplish anything in this world is by wanting it!! A drug addict will stay a DRUG ADDICT UNTIL THEY ARE TIRED OF LIVING THE LIFE!! I do believe doing a mandatory service would show some of our young people respect and responsibility, but that doesn't mean sending them straight to war!!
February 25, 2008 at 6:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
With all due respect, soldier, while I can't give you a percentage, I would say that a great number of "The Greatest Generation" were drafted. Many volunteered after Pearl Harbor, yes, but many were conscripted too. As I said, all due respect. I appreciate what you are doing for our country -- thank you.
February 26, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CAFEmporia (anonymous) says...
Earlier in this thread, I semi-supported a draft which would put conscripted people in support roles rather than combat roles. I recognize that forced service means less enthusiasm in hard jobs, particularly. I spent four years in the Marines (69-73) where we had a very small number of draftees, most of whom begrudged their situation.
I appreciate what you're saying e_soldier and respect your perspective of credibility. My personal concern is, we are asking too much of a relatively small force and, from out here, it appears we are less militarily capable now than we were five years ago simply because we have less equipment and our troops are worn down. Getting volunteers now is harder than before and the Army has lowered the bar on criteria of acceptability. This is not a good thing. A draft might allow us to have good support units so that larger numbers of volunteer troops could prosecute the war.
It should be considered.
February 26, 2008 at 10:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
Actually, my idea was/is that people (including illegal aliens) would be granted immediate citizenship upon enlistment in the services, (so they would NOT be mercenaries) - but the citizenship would also be contingent upon successful completion and discharge of their term of service. If they go AWOL/drop out/for some reason get a DIShonorable discharge, the citizenship is immediately revoked. In addition, I would imagine they would be forced to learn English in the military as part of their training....
Just an idle thought.
February 26, 2008 at 11:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporia_soldier (anonymous) says...
I thank each and everyone of you that have also served our country. I have very high respect for all Veteran's past and present. We have all fought in wars at different times with different differences to overcome. It just bothers me to hear from people that don't know what they are talking about because they never had the courage to stand up and say I!! Like I said before I also agree that young ALL young people should have to serve to show them respect for the country but that doesn't mean shipping them off to war. I believe we have lost enough Soldiers without putting someone beside them that doesn't care because they never asked to be there in the first place.
February 26, 2008 at 6:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )