Arkansas Blog

What a McBush family values plan.. Insure group cohesion by removing possibility of a home, job, or marriage.. and about the only thing left is the mission. If these guys didn't keep the faith in the mission, they would have to face what they are really doing and probably go insane... which is what's happening far more often than the military or fellow citizens readily admit.

How Sad! A lot of Guard units have done more than their "Fair share" and a lot who might want to get out get invited to stay whether they want to or not...but hey...Bush has no choice, even "shit for brains" knows better than try and reinstitute the DRAFT!

On my daily commute I drive by a recruiting office in Riverdale in LR...

Sometimes I see the bus picking up those fine young folks heading off to their destiny...whatever and wherever that is...and I am extremely thankful for their desire and willingness to serve...

I would guess that most of those young folks might not yet be married or own a home...

But those Guardsmen that were in before 2003 and have endured multiple deployments in the last several years...sheesh...hardships aplenty...

I hope you have been following John McBush's failure to co-sponsor Sen. Jim Webb's GI Bill...McBush has offered some watered down version that comes straight from Bizarro World...

I can just hear W now.

"Oh the romance of being out on deployment, wish I could be out here with you but since I have a job and a wife and a house I can't really afford to be out here with you but I promise I will be out here with you next time."

. . . . and yet, almost to a man, they'll vote for John McCain when the time comes.

and I am extremely thankful for their desire and willingness to serve<<
Rosso

Not so fast my fine friend. Many of them from very depressed areas across the country only have a choice of enlisting or making pizzas. At least they get some health insurance if they enlist and a limited possibility of additional education which they would not otherwise have. If they are a bit bright they can get some marketable job training too.

LIkely when the Cheney/Bush depression hits ( see Warren Buffet) we will see enacted a two year National Service requirement for all able-bodied youth. It should help prevent or limit the number of riots that are bound to occur.

dogtownius says, ". . . . and yet, almost to a man, they'll vote for John McCain when the time comes."

Maybe he's right, but the only person I know well enough to talk politics with who's deployed--a co-worker spending a little over a year in Afghanistan--is a Democrat, and I don't think he's voting McCain.

When I first read SSgt Kimmey's quote, I wondered which of the administration's fairweather patriots was indulging in a Blackwater guarded Baghdad market photo-op that day? However, as a veteran of the last four years of the Vietnam domino-bracing, I can understand SSgt. Kimmey's feelings.

I hope when all is said and done he does get a feeling of closure. All of my fellow veterans left a piece of themselves behind when they returned to the world and will forever suffer from that loss in varying degrees.

But, dogtownius, you are wrong to apply the "peanut butter" characterization to our serving future veterans. Their beliefs, opinions, motivations and ideologies are as varied and disparate as servicepeoples' have always been. The one universal desire they all share to to come home soon, alive and intact and that the tribulations suffered meant something.

And unless you've been there and upheld an oath and responsibility despite the venality, perfidity and stupidity of the leaders, civillian and military, who put you and your fellows unnecessarily in harm's way; you'll never understand the perceived aching emptiness of feeling betrayed by your democracy/republic and the citizens you swore to protect. Whether the perception is valid or not.

One of the best day's I ever had was when I received an unexpected simple thank you on November 11, 28 years after I came back to the world from my sister. Don't let any veteran you know or meet come home without receiving a simple tnank you. It takes two seconds, but means more than many will ever understand.

"...dogtownius says, ". . . . and yet, almost to a man, they'll vote for John McCain when the time comes."

One of the conundrums of our time...and as ironic as hell. The very Bubbas/Bubbettes who think Dubya/McBush are God's gifts to the military/country are the ones hurt worst by their policies, lack of policies and incompetencies. Yeah...military guys/gals keep on supporting the very people who brought you the Walter Reed crap and private contractors who treat you like their personal servants...one of my brother's (who served in Iraq and was from the 39th) many complaints. He especially liked how the military used every bureaucratic trick in the book to try and cheat him out of a dollar or two once he got home; and how he was treated as a second-class citizen compared to the regular military. I don't think he'll be voting for McBush...but I wouldn't count on it...'cause he still treats liberal as a dirty word. Even after I smack him around a bit!