Just an observation, I was in Germany for a few weeks in October and was suprised to find no one that was happy about the Wall coming down. Economic reasons mostly.

 

It may be indeed be absurd, at least a little more so than the possibility of re-instating the draft. However, Itruly thought of saying,"the first 500,000 should come from those who werefor preemptively striking Iraq," but since I have no way of knowing who that was, and since most of my republican friends ( and I have many.... some of whom I spent Christmas with. ) backed Dubya and his truly absurd PNAC visions.... I have little doubt that the vast majority of that first500,000 draftees would have been Republicans....
True. Although I was for going into Afghanistan... which in hindsight was also a mistake, I was adamantly opposed to attacking Iraq.... Yet when we did, even though I was against it, I was there cheering the troops on, and swearting to anyone who would listening that !^$*&^ Bush et al were GD fools for going in wiht so GD few Troops!

At the time the US invaded Iraq, not one of my many life long Republican friends were against it or against Bush. In fact they were all rather rabidly for Bush and PNAC. And when the the GD clown landed on that Aircraft Carrier with the phony crouch buildup . They were practically foaming at the mouth and dancing in the streets.
But about 2 years ago, some of them began to have second thoughts... Now many are pissed off because they feel foolish for having backed him and the gangsters in both houses....

I was never a Kerry fan... but I voted for him... rather, I voted against Bush. Even though I'm no fan of the Bush family, I backed Papa Bush for the Republican nomination.. and didn't vote when Reagon won. Clinton was the first Democrat I ever voted for.... and then not until his second term, when all of those so-called conserviatives in the house wanted to impeach him because he got a bj....
As a moderate conservative who feels government should keep its damned nose out of everyones bedroom, try never to run a deficit, and lend a hand to our fellow citizens who need it,much to the chagrin of my friends who thought they were Repubcians, Iwas compelled to vote for Clinton... But compared to Lincloln, Eisenhower and Goldwater, Clinton is anover the topUltra Right Winger.... Still, he's much better than anyone else from either party.....

 

Thre troops, yeah the troops. I am a soldier, and I have a job to do, regardless of how I personally feel about the job I must do or how I feel or think it benefits, but by no means does it mean I can't speak my mind and by no means do it mean I do not support the people I know, people that I will know, and the people that I never known that is dying down range for the cause. Some of them beleive it is good, and some think it's all BS, but when you are down there bullets flying, things getting blown up, that doesn't matter. What matter then is the mission and going home as safe as possible and hoping that the clock doesn't stop on you or the guy/gal next to you. There is no politics down there. You are absolutely correct about that.

And being in my position has its benefits of seeing more of the politics and the workings and things coming down the pipeline a lot better and clearer than the average person gets. Not to mention access to news around the world, different point of views, and regardless of what the news say, about how other people feel around the world about our prescence and such all you have to do is be there and you will know. Ask anyone down there, and that's closer to the truth than any news station is willing to go. Lately, though, they have been getting pretty bold.

As far as the Bush/Kerry thing. Man, I didn't even vote. They both was idiots to me, and I was wishing for Clinton then, but that was not reality. And I wasn't in the military before 9/11 and didn't join because of it. It was already in the workings before it happened, just wasn't old enough. Now when it did happen, I knew we was going to war, that was a given. And I beleive the polls was higher to go to war, due to emotions and etc etc, but when dealing with war and big decisions like that, I hope we learned that we can let our emotions cloud our judgement no matter what happens. I think if we would've took a moment, breathe, sorted the facts out, then went down the proper avenues, the war probably would've been at least a lot more organized and methodical in the process.
And history have proven the hardest wars to fight are wars fought on two fronts. Even when the whole world was basically at war, it was hard and you're talking about one nation.
We keep on, and the troops will be spread so thin that...I don't even want to go there but we need to be careful. Even the most biggest greatest empires in history have fallen as soon as they gotten too comfortable, relaxed, sloppy, and started to some crazy stuff that just wasn't smart. Like the greatest strategist with the greatest army of the time marching across Russia in the middle of dead winter unprepared for the cold.

 

It was a huge hardship. A costly thing they had to do... Bring in their poor relatives from out of the cold. Most East German factories were so outdated, no one wanted their goods...West Germany had to tear many down and start over..It seems manyEast Germanshad also lost the incentive to work... Like the Russians, they were paid so little... the motto became, "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work."
West Germany not only needed tobuild New Factories in the East... but in the meantime had to absorb millions into their very humane social net... including the best medical system in Europe.... and find ways to payEast Germansa living wage while they learned the techniques of modern manufacturing.Germany isstilling feeling the pain.. but it's now in the distance, more of an achingecho....
I wonder if we here in the USA can even begin to imagine how hard that transition was.... Yet, I'd wager that, even though they now know the full price,the majority of West Germans would do it again... Family is family....

 

I hate this occupation of Iraq... Yet even though I've long ago retired from the AF... In some ways I feel guilty sitting here while our soldiers, day in day out, try to maintain some sort of peace in a country of which valid polls show that 85% of it's peoplle would rather us go home.
Yet I know I should be there, doing something, other than just pissing and moaning and crying "ain't it awful".. I owe to all of the guys I knew who lost their lives and souls not only in Vietnam but in all wars, and somehow, on all sides....Just the grunts doing their jobs... notanyone of usall that different.
Maybe that's why I brought up this draft issue...If this keeps up...We certainly need to drastically increase troop strength....
But the Draft? Will fat richUS students and their parents sit still for the draft? I'm hopingthey wont. I'm hopingit's tried and fails...and we return to some sort of sanity.In the meantime, here we sit in our comfortable homes while others are doing their duty, dying and killing, and quietly going mad....

Thank you,
Charlie Munn

 

Happened Twice.

Also like i have said before "Rome will fall again"

 

I guess it's not required of politicians and "war experts" to study history. or maybe they slept through that portion. It has happened twice, lets not make it a third.

 

Most political Science Majors do require a large beackground in history thats y some end up with a major in both because it take few more credits to gain the other and only requires minimal work.

 

All these "quotes" in "quotes" are making me dizzy.

 

Me too... It seems I overdid it!