http://www.awolbush.com/whoserved.html

Very informative site!

Catherine

A societywide draft would also make it more difficult for politicians to commit troops to battle without popular approval. "The folks making the decisions are committing other people's lives to a war effort that they're not making any sacrifices for," says Charles Sheehan-Miles, who fought in the first Gulf War and now serves as director of Veterans for Common Sense.

Under the current all-volunteer system, fewer than a dozen members of Congress have children in the military.

Charlie Moskos, a professor of military sociology at Northwestern University, says the volunteer system also limits the political fallout of unpopular wars. "Without a draft, there's really no antiwar movement," Moskos says. Nearly sixty percent of Americans believe the war in Iraq was a mistake, he notes, but they have no immediate self-interest in taking to the streets because "we're willing to pay people to die for us. It doesn't reflect very well on the character of our society."

Even military recruiters agree that the only way to persuade average Americans to make long-term sacrifices in war is for the children of the elite to put their lives on the line.

In a recent meeting with military recruiters, Moskos discussed the crisis in enlistment. "I asked them would they prefer to have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush join the Army," he says. "They unanimously chose the Jenna option."

One of the few politicians willing to openly advocate a return to the draft is Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat from New York, who argues that the current system places an immoral burden on America's underprivileged. "It shouldn't be just the poor and the working poor who find their way into harm's way," he says. In the days leading up to the Iraq war, Rangel introduced a bill to reinstate the draft -- with absolutely no deferments. "If the kids and grandkids of the president and the Cabinet and the Pentagon were vulnerable to going to Iraq, we never would have gone -- no question in my mind," he says. "The closer this thing comes home to Americans, the quicker we'll be out of Iraq."

Link: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/st ... the_draft/

Catherine

Just wait until it really comes home. There is no way we can escape blowback from what is happening.

What are the American people thinking of?

They are thinking of how terrible those terrible nasty "towel heads" are. They are thinking of how it is their fault that is americas in this mess at all.
In short, they are thinking of anything but the truth.

I'm wondering if someone can help me out with a link. I remember one time seeing a link about all of the wars, military action, and "interventions" (tampering with forieng goverments) that the US was involved in. I was wondering if there happens to be a link like this that expands the globe.

Say in the past 50 years, I would like to know how many countrys Iran, Syria, Lebanon, etc. etc. govenment has screwed with. How many countrys have they activly and aggressivly invaded? I'm not talking defending themselves. Take Iran for instance. Iran defended itself against Iraq (Iraq attacked with US involvment of course). Has Iran invaded any country? Not that I know of.

The list of the USA's agressions is about as long as I am tall. I wonder just how long the list is for other countrys. Is there a list at all? Even with this list, would the US people see that we have become a violent rouge nation who will have to be dealt with by a global coallition?

Man thier stupidity knows no bounds. Simply amazing.

I hope someone can come up with one or more links to provide that information, too, CrimsonEagle.



The American people are hopelessly spoiled. We have had the quilt of ignorance wrapped around us for years, maybe forever. How do you shine a light for someone who has consistantly been told darkness is excellent and true and outstanding? How do you penetrate the thick fog?

Heaven knows we are all working for that breakthrough.

Oh my very repukelican family did send one son to the military. The navy. Nothing against the navy but he wants to be chef on a sub. Yes thats noble from a huge war supporting family. They are so proud. "Our son signed up."

John Seery: 'Bush family AWOLism'

John Seery, The Huffington Post

"If this war is so God damn important, why aren't the Bush twins over there in Iraq helping to fight it?"

I hear this complaint all the time in off-the-record discussions about the Iraq War. It personalizes the war. It cuts to the quick about why this war has lost all credibility.

You can argue all day with a die-hard (no pun intended) Republican about the shifting justifications for the war--the 9/11 connection; Saddam's "gathering" threat; the elusive WMD's; liberating the Iraqi people; the preemption of greater conflict; foreign policy confrontation instead of containment; fighting terrorists "over there" instead of "over here"; promoting democracy and freedom; oil; permanent military bases in the Mideast; finishing the mission whatever the hell it is--but you probably won't make any headway: Blah, blah, blah.

But if someone brings up the 24-year-old twins, Jenna and Barbara Bush, watch people squirm.



Mainstream news sources will occasionally provide updates on the Bush twins. Jenna, who was graduated from the University of Texas in May 2004, has been teaching third-graders English and Spanish at the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in the D.C. area. Barbara, a 2004 Yale graduate, works in education programming at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. We sometimes read gossip about parties they've recently attended, along with the color of the cocktail dresses worn on that particular night. You don't, however, hear reporters and national commentators ask the above question (at least not aloud). Why?

I don't think it is an unfair or "cheap shot" question. Or impolite. We've got a war going on. President Bush has billed this war as a noble and supremely necessary cause, rather than a war of choice. Valiant young men and women have trusted the President about the importance of the war. They have responded to his call. They have put their very lives on the line. This war has impacted a lot of families. Jenna and Barbara are able-bodied citizens well within the age of enlistment. Yet they have conspicuously not followed their father's leadership on this urgent life-and-death matter. Why the silence about the twins' not volunteering for military service?

Journalistic protocol deems it out-of-bounds to peer and press into the lives of presidential children while they are minors. But Jenna and Barbara are no longer children. They enjoyed relative privacy throughout their college days, except for some well-publicized drinking incidents. Upon graduation from college, the Washington Post announced that the "kidgloves" treatment was coming off. Yet no one asks Tony Snow the above question (the White House conveniently maintains a strict "no comment" policy on the twins). More important, no one asks Jenna and Barbara the above question.

What would be the excuses? Not their skill-sets? Not their priority at this time? Laura Bush forbids it? I'd like to hear the answers. Yes, teaching public school and programming museum education are worthy pursuits and not to be denigrated. But we're at war, and Jenna and Barbara's father happens to be the Commander-in-Chief. Like it or not, they are public figures in a very public war (compare their tongue-tied detachment with, for instance, the outspoken protests of Dana Olmert, the daughter of Israel's Prime Minister.) Don't Jenna and Barbara owe other young Americans an explanation of some kind? This isn't a "private" matter, to be shoved under the rug. As their father reminds all of us, good American soldiers are dying so that others can live free.

It's beyond spin control and stonewalling. It's a whispered and angry question that just won't go away as this war drags on and on (unless Jenna and Barbara actually enlist):

"If this war is so God damn important, why aren't the Bush twins over there in Iraq helping to fight it?"

A related note: Mary Cheney says (and writes in her book) that 9/11 changed everything, so that she had to support the Republican ticket in 2004, despite its gay-bashing platforms and proclivities. By my calculations, she was, in 2004, still age-eligible for enlistment in the active components of the military (35 years old) and well under the maximum age of enlistment for volunteering in the reserves (39 years old). Talk the talk, walk the walk. Or, was it the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that held her back from serving her country, an ironic twist that resulted in forcing her hand to vote Republican? What goes around, comes around...

Copyright 2006 © HuffingtonPost.com

Source: The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seer ... 26019.html

Catherine

I DID just read that John McCain's son has joined the Marines, due to report to Camp Pendleton in September.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com

This was a very interesting response from POPULISTA at the smirking chimp:



http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=27084&mode=&order=0

Then you would have a bunch of Cheneys running around saying they have a bad knee or foot to get out of it. I feel you shouldnt be allowed to make military decisions if you've done no time in the service. But then again the service would just become a puppet in brainwashing people just like they did in Vietnam.

There are many countries that have mandatory service from 18-20 years of age. Israel has this policy so everyone including women are ready to fight. It would abe a great way to avoid the draft issue as it would bring trauma back from the Vietnam era. Check out Israels policy. They're ready to defend themselves from children to old men.

I mean everyone when I say everyone... only those that are totally incapable of taking care of themselves would be exempt... and a bad knee or bad foot doesn't qualify... whereas they may not be front line warriors, there are plenty of non-combative jobs in the war...

Actually, their MMS policy is one of the few things I actually like about Israel...

Then Im all for it also. I get sick of these NO service members who want to send kids to die, but in the same breath tell their kids not to go. And then these veterans turn around and support these same NO service men. I want to see these republishits kids go to war. I mean the frontlines. Not in Kuwait tending to papercuts. I want to see them in the streets of Baghdad. I really shouldnt wish this on these kids lives, because I dont wish bad things for "their" lives. If you support the war THEN GO SUPPORT. I tell this to everyone I hear defend the war. They dont want to hear THAT though. SELFISH people. I couldnt join when I wanted to. I have metal in my hands. They said no. I tried 3 times and lied the 2nd and 3rd time. Cant get by that damn x-ray. I really do think though you should not be allowed to make military decisions if you havent served. They should have no say. But that wont happen because no repukes would be allowed to make decisions.