As everyone that hasn't been living in a cave for the last year knows, the Democratic National Convention is in Boston this week. I'm on 12-hour shifts with days-off cancelled, so I won't be around here much until the end of the week. If anyone needs to reach me, the best option would be e-mail. I'm going to try to check it at least once a day, but won't have time to read the board. [email protected]
I think you're essentially correct. I believe that now it's been reduced to two clubs on the edge of Boston's Chinatown. This was part of the reason for the eyeroll. Jack
That's for sure. The main people in combat zones under Bush are the poor, disenfranchised, and desparate ones who are forced into a choice of military servitude as a result of the devastating economic policies of his soon-to-be-finished regime.
Carl, I am a deployed Sailor. I have served my country for over twenty years, under four presidents. To insinuate that the men and women who volunteer to serve in the United States Armed Forces have no other choice of employment is both ignorant and ridiculous.
Notice that I did not say ALL military people are in this situation. However, my suggestion is hardly ignorant or ridiculous, nor is it a lone viewpoint (except apparently on this board, populated by "conservative" academics - an oxymoron if I ever heard one). In fact, here is a news article that agrees with my viewpoint. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0405-01.htm
Carl, A couple of observations, the article cites several generations of poor turning to military service. Thus, it is not (as you imply) only under the Bush Administration that the poor have turned to the military to escape poverty. It must also have been true under the Democrat administrations of Roosevelt and Johnson. Any reason to believe that the Kerry Administration would "save" the poor from military service? Also, the article refers to military service as an opportunity for the poor. You seem to think military service is curse, or a cross that the poor must bear. You can't read one article and consider yourself well-informed. Ask service members, poor or not, whether they think the military has afforded them a valuable opportunity that no one else has, or if they think that the military is for them nothing more than a necessary evil. I suspect most will say that it is a great opportunity. The article you say agrees with your viewpoint offers little evidence of a link between poverty and military service. It offers one example from one war. If you can accept this as evidence of a link between poverty and military service, why can't you accept the droves of information given to the Bush Administration as evidence of a link between Iraq and WMD?
Carl, You have every right to your viewpoint. Never mind that you support it by citing the Globe & Mail of Canada and Common Dreams NewsCenter "A non-profit news service providing breaking news & views for the progressive community." I know the men and women who have volunteered to serve their country. There are none brighter or better anywhere. Your insinuation was indeed ignorant and ridiculous.
Well, it went a lot easier than everyone expected, but it was still something that I don't care to repeat in the near future.
