 |
More Recent Posts | |
Albert Kaufman |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
Kari Chisholm |
Final pre-census estimate: Oregon's getting a sixth congressional seat |
Albert Kaufman |
Polluted by Money - How corporate cash corrupted one of the greenest states in America |
Guest Column |
|
Albert Kaufman |
Our Democrat Representatives in Action - What's on your wish list? |
Kari Chisholm |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
connect with blueoregon
Our Featured Action
To Republicans in Congress and in state capitals across the country: It's time to refuse the NRA's support and their money. And donations received in the past should be donated to organizations supporting the survivors of gun violence.
This petition sponsored by BlueOregon Action. (You may always unsubscribe, of course.) Learn more.
| Most Recent Posts | |
Albert Kaufman |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
Kari Chisholm |
Final pre-census estimate: Oregon's getting a sixth congressional seat |
Albert Kaufman |
Polluted by Money - How corporate cash corrupted one of the greenest states in America |
Guest Column |
|
Albert Kaufman |
Our Democrat Representatives in Action - What's on your wish list? |
Kari Chisholm |
|
Guest Column |
|
Kari Chisholm |
|
Guest Columns
Got something to say? We want a diversity of voices 'round the water cooler. Submit your guest column here.
Dec 9, '07
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
I am going to piss a lot of people off now, so I thought to warn you.
WE MUST HAVE A MILITARY DRAFT A.S.A.P.!!!!
If you count yourself as an American in my view you must understand the depths of which we have fallen as a nation when we decided to take the path of Preemptive War as a foreign policy while having an ALL VOLUNTEER MILITARY.
We made this decision whether you stood against the war, or not. We made this problem as a national electorate whether you voted for Gore and Kerry or not. We supported an all volunteer military, National Guard, and reserve before, and after the 2004 election, and nobody said or did anything to support the ranks from dissolving into a far more inferior force today depleted by the corruption, and criminality of the policy.
If we are indeed a nation fighting this canard we call "The War On Terror," then we can hardly rely on just those who volunteered for the military before 9/11 to hold our ranks until they are either dead, injured, or stressed beyond their further usefulness in battle.
That may be a hard thing to hear, but it is truth never the less. Unless our armed forces are a true reflection of Americans as a whole, then when implementing a policy that would presume to topple governments by means of military invasion; for oil, or not, we will eventually end up with a military that will be for all due purposes a MERCENARY FORCE.
When a nation becomes so diluted as to believe we may be the conscience of the world, and the tool of that conscience expressed through the use of our military forces with a Mercenary Military eventually we must ask ourselves what will happen when the fighting stops?
Will we want the motivation of our young men, and women whom serve in the military to be thinking only about how much money they will make, and little about their desire to protect their country?
I served in these volunteer forces for my 6 years under Carter, then Reagan and watched the immediate change of attitude about privatizing our forces. Without a draft that brings a cross-section of all Americans, thus a direct investment of all Americans in blood, not just tax dollars, we encourage the ever more privatization of the military which would eventually evolve into the privatization of our government.
I believe that Democracy may not thrive or survive with the privatization of its services, and military. That a military is motivated by money to begin with is to make them subject to being coerced into serving the richest among us before an ideal of democracy that is the prime motivation that has brought America to be the final super power in the world.
We have been warned with the events of the past 6 years since 9/11 and the crimes of this administration, so let's hope the nation will be concerned enough to do what has to be done!
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
1:48 p.m.
Dec 9, '07
Sorry Dan Grady but your premise is flawed. Bush with a unlimited troop level because he could get as many troops as he wanted with a draft would mean we would be in a war with Iran right now if we had a draft.
1:49 p.m.
Dec 9, '07
Oh, and about the actual topic of this thread, the Band of Five Brothers is awesome. Very well done bit of satire and hoisting them on their own petards.
1:57 p.m.
Dec 9, '07
If and when the Federal government gets serious about a draft, we will be out of Iraq in a matter of months. Our military adventurism will begin to end the minute more than a tiny percentage of families, primarily drawn from the working poor, are actually asked to make a sacrifice.
Similarly, if Bush were forced to institute a national sales tax to pay for war funding, as FDR did in WWII (which passed by nearly 80%), there would be virulent opposition to the war.
So long as the Chinese are loaning us the money, and our grandkids will be footing the bill, most Americans will be content to sit on the lazy boy and do nothing.
2:02 p.m.
Dec 9, '07
Oh, and about the actual topic of this thread...
Bless you, Mitch.
3:46 p.m.
Dec 9, '07
I struggle with this.
While clearly there's a disconnect between the rich sending the poor to fight their wars, I also want to recognize that being involved in politics IS patriotic, and IS part of what makes America a great place. I'm thrilled that Mitt's sons believe in him, and are working hard to get him elected. That they're weird and are golfing and aren't really living a hard life, well, that's class reality.
Of course, I'd also be thrilled if Mitt said that once elected, he'd send his sons to fight the war he believes in.
5:38 p.m.
Dec 9, '07
Sal, where can we find a big billboard along the freeway in downtown EVERYWHERE USA to post the gist of your statements. You are right on the money (pun intended) about that and I wish every citizen would figure it out as well. And God Bless those Romney boys, imagine all those folks having to share just two toilets as you will find in those million-dollar motor coaches. To say nothing of all the cole slaw and potato salad they must gut down while campaingning in Podunk towns across America. When does the bus come to Portland, I would like to treat them all to a nice homey dinner at Sonic. BTW, FDR's four sons were officers in World War II and were decorated, on merit, for bravery.
Glen (PS, have any of the Youtube debate questions asked "How would you pay off the hundreds of billions owed to the Chinese that has payed for the invasion and occupation of Iraq?")
1:44 a.m.
Dec 10, '07
Lestat is right. Having a draft did not prevent the Vietnam war. It did enable raising troop levels to 565,000 & a proposal that could have been met to take it well over 600,000 in 1968 that Johnson declined when he decided not to run again.
Nor did it cause the war to end sooner. The fact that so many families and neighborhoods had service people fighting did not lead to more rapid decline in suppport for the war. A bare majority did not oppose the war until after 1970. Personally I think having someone at risk might make it harder for many people to be against a war because people don't want to think the risk is for nothing, much less in a bad cause, and will be concerned by the argument that criticism is bad for morale, not supporting the troops etc. I think that's why support for the Vietnam war stayed above 40% until the U.S. was out.
What the draft did do was make the anti-war movement more confrontational and eventually radical, in two ways. First, it galvanized students against the war (and the draft), & students are structurally a volatile grouping who are willing to engage in the risks of confrontation because they have relatively little to lose, as well as being attracted to ideologies, perhaps. Secondly, because the draft was structured in a manifestly unfair way in terms of racial and class burdens, it contributed to radicalization in racial minority communities & to a section of working class youth (though often not until they'd got back from the war).
Now maybe if the anti-war movement were more radical and confrontational today it would end the wars sooner. But maybe not. In 1968, the combination of radical disillusionment = electoral abstention and conservative mobilization of fear of radicalism (not only on the war but perception of civil rights as radical plus riots plus black nationalism) = successful "law and order" campaign led to Nixon's victory and five more years of war (would have been longer if he hadn't been so paranoid and his administration so corrupt).
Dec 10, '07
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
My posting made no references to Vietnam for a reason. We began the draft in response of a greater escalation of Communism in the region based on a now debunked "Domino Theory" that had the pronounced shadow of the then Soviet Union, a nuclear super power.
Conflating our military with that of the military of the Vietnam Era is a convient thing to do, yet does nothing to address our circumstances today.
We invade Iraq to change the regime and occupy a nation for the purpose of creating a new democracy and did it unilaterally, and short handed.
Vietnam was a colonial government to begin with that had a populist communist movement whom had tossed the French out, and was posed to take power from an illegitimate colonial government. We didn't break the military before we instituted the draft as we have in Iraq. We went from military advisers training a fledgeling military in the south, to the "Gulf Of Tonkin" fiasco that declared war and lead to a draft.
My suggestion for a draft was not solely based on the idea of the whole nation making the sacrife instead of a privatized all volunteer force that has been stretched to the breaking point; but to offer an alarm that a democracy may not exist for our children if we make such a great separation between the electorate and the military. If our military becomes all volunteer under these two front war circumstances, and motivated by signing bonuses, a college education, or promises of a job in a mercenary force in the corporate world, we simply end up with a military loyal to the highest bidder, not to the defense of our democracy.
I believe the idea of comparing a draft during Vietnam at the height of the Cold War with the nuclear capacity of the Soviet Union, with the navy, air force, army and KGB actively working for the world dominance of a Soviet brand of communism could hardly be comflated with the disjointed terrorist network of a Saudi financed Al Qaeda operating mainly in the mountains of Afghanistan/Pakistan.
The question is whether we want to rely on money to motivate our military primarily, and do we want to privatize the very organization that protects and defends our civil liberties, our freedoms?
Who should own our military, the citizens of America through our government, or corporate CEO's?
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
Dec 10, '07
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
Sorry Dan Grady but your premise is flawed. Bush with a unlimited troop level because he could get as many troops as he wanted with a draft would mean we would be in a war with Iran right now if we had a draft.///
I have no faith in the competance, or sincerity of the Criminals that occupy the White House; yet had a draft been announced in say 2002, a Saddam Hussien would have escaped Iraq to a neutral country like Egypt, or Sudan instead of trying to convince the Republican Guard from overthowing him, they certainly remembered the fear of Desert Storm.
They also saw that Bush failed to get a UN resolution, and they had allowed the inspectors back into Iraq. I would suppose that he thought he was dodging the bullet, as did the Iraqi's as a whole
Saddam was betting right up to the last minute that the Americans would not invade because the cost of blood would colapse American support. He was wrong of cource, he completely underestimated the extent the Neo-Cons controlled the message, and desired the oil.
A draft would have dragged a large number of voting dissenters to the idea of invading Iran, and would have made the use of such a force much more difficult for Congress, or the President to send them to Iran. Either way, we would be stronger today for having done so, and the idea of privatization would be on the shelf.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
<hr/>