I'm not going to stick up for Pres. Bush over the National Guard except to remind you the military takes a very dim view of having sons of US Congressmen among their ranks. They don't mind having rich kids there, but children of high ranking/important government officials, now way. Can't blame Bush for that. Look around, you won't find children of government officals among the commoners. Too risky. Were they to get captured, the enemy would have a field day. Don't try to hang Pres. Bush for that. Remember you can't choose your family, just your friends. Kerry and the Navy. Since he ask the draft board for permission to study in Paris for a year and the request was denied, he obviously had to do something. JFK was a family friend and he wanted to emulate him so what better way than join the Navy and skipper a boat. Can't fault him for that, John Kennedy was our generations hero for the most part, as was Robert. So I don't fault either man for their military service. Its what has happened since that I look at. Ever been to a Democratic Convention? They have rules you know. Kerry is going to be the nominee. Only way to avoid it is for Kerry himself to withdraw and he'll never do that. He's to convinced of his electability and supporters are too convinced he's the man. Contacts in the South are telling me a lot of Democrats there have decided to vote for Bush. They don't like the liberal leaning of the Party and would rather have Bush for another 4 years. This will be interesting.
Cdbern, you sound like you are around my age. You should know that the three years between Kerry's age and Dubya's age was HUGE. In 1965, virtually ANYONE could have gone into the reserves and stayed out of Vietnam. But Kerry went. By 1968, there were huge waiting lists to get into the reserves. I tried VERY HARD to get into a reserve unit. I was on "the list" when I got called. But somehow, Dubya just waltzed right into OCS as a reservist. Now certainly it may have been easier to get into the reserves in Texas than it was on Long Island. But nonetheless, I NEVER KNEW OF ONE SINGLE GUY who was able to go to OCS and then get assigned to a reserve guard unit. NOT ONE!!!! I guess I should have registered in Texas when I turned 18! Peace, RS Very true.
I have a very strong suspicion that by the time that the Presidential Election rolls around, this "whiff" of DEFLATION that the Bond Market is currently smelling will be in full force and even the man on the street will be voting based on his pocketbook and his sense of how he feels about the Economy. Since Greenspan has Fed Funds at around 1%, there really isn't much ammo to use from here on out. My guess is that it will be THE ECONOMY STUPID, and not NATIONAL SECURITY or one's MILITARY SERVICE that takes center stage come November. You heard it here first.
Waggie, I hate to be the bearer of bad news for you but the economy is not that bad. Home ownership is the highest it has ever been in history. Unemployment rate is lower now then it was in the 90's, 80's or 70's. The stock market has made a very nice recovery. Productivity is at record levels. And consumer confidence is very strong. If this election is going to be about the economy, this will be a cakewalk for Bush. Like I told ART earlier, sure 5% to 10% of the American people are not better off then they were 4 years ago, but 90% of the people are!!!!!!!! And now Kerry pledged today, here in Chicago, IL that he was going to raise taxes by 900 billion dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me? What is this guy smoking? That will never fly during the debates, good luck Kerry. Oh and Waggie, did you read my post to you about Jerry Brown. I would love to hear you respond to it. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29391&perpage=6&pagenumber=15
Al Gore was a reporter, not in infantry, big, big difference. Hell, I would have gone to Vietnam to be a reporter.
You'd think so, but you would be very wrong. Read the book and look at the stats. The WW II soldier was very reluctant to shoot at the enemy. Most soldiers either didn't fire at all or fired without any attempt to have an effect. It's about programming...kind of like NLP I suppose. It's about turning human beings into nothing more than 'targets'. m
They really have improved it. And that is the point of this book. It's about how really good we have gotten at teaching people to kill. You want your soldiers to be good killers, but that has other implications that are not so wonderful. m
It's a tricky issue for the Bushies. They really want to discredit Kerry on his military service because they know that by comparison Dubya looks bad, really bad. But the right has learned how to smear. Keep repeating the same lies and distortions long enough and the uncritical mass in the middle will believe anything or at least be swayed to some extent. But just consider Bush and his priveleged way out of the war. What a turd. m