Would you Encourage or Discourage your Child to Enlist?

[cdiver2]

So whats the problem if they seize a boat load of coke and take the boat and sell it?

I say too bad...

yea, Mike, you and I need to look for some fans they can put in those vehicles.

A solar powered one would be really great. Those poor guys in the gun turets get baked....JB says the AC take the temp from 120 to about 100. The Hum V's don't have cigarette lighters or any plug ins. Summer is stretching out ahead, we should try and find cooling neck packs and that sort of thing.

a fan like the truckers have and going straight to the battery

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

The only answer I can find that holds any promise of sanity:

Going home to hug my daughter, maybe get down on the floor and play dolls with her, and later, pour all of this heartsick grief into the keys of my piano, maybe have a small glass of scotch, and then call it an early night. *sigh* Sorry.....

Been sitting here for the past ten minutes with tears in my eyes... Dammit...

 

[mdb]

I agree. The "facts" will be coming out for the next 100 years and we won't know for certain until Hollywood gives it all to us. LOL

Mike: The facts will keep coming out, it may take, as you state, 50 or 100 years.

The Kennedy brothers killed, the whole Vietnam debacle. This latest "War on terror". Corporate bull**** paid with the lives of our sons and daughters. I witnessed it, saw the CIA drug running, heard the hard laughter of the CIA black ops types. Saw friends killed and maimed. Went home to a country that rediculed those who served.

The one, and only, redeeming grace now is that we honor your son, and all our sons and daughters who serve in our name. May God protect them: may them come home safe to those who love them.

 

[Azza]

I don't believe I've seen any serious objections, by Americans, to US actions in Afganistan. That was clearly an action to protect the US against terrorism. I believe the invasion of Iraq was initially justified in the name of neutralizing it's WMD capability and was not related to US counterterrorism actions.

Thats pretty much what most of the world is thinking...and saying.
FWIW my country takes flak for not sending troops to Iraq but we made the right decision. We do have troops, including mates of mine, in Afghanistan...they would prefer to be under local command but at the end of the day they serve and serve well...including recieving a unit citation from Dubya. The boys enjoy a bit of biffo and mates I served with that havnt been yet are looking forward to it...

 

[Rick Murchison]

I suppose it's possible that I could be wrong but, I use lots of sources. If you have a recommendation to offer, I'd be glad to check it out.

Now, my most recent info on what's really going on in Iraq was this morning from my son who is actually in Iraq. I guess he could have lied but he has no affiliation with any news netwerk so he wouldn't qualify as a "newspuke".

What you said was that there is "no evidence that it has done anything ..."
Do I really need to list the extraordinary accomplishments of our lads out there on the pointy end? I do hope your son realizes the great good in his mission. I do.
"... except make the wrong people wealthy."
Who, exactly?
I'm sure there are some profiteers somewhere - in war there always are, and they are dispicable... but let's not denigrate the troops' accomplishments by cherry-picking the few bad characters in a sea of good ones, or lose sight of the fact that there really is indeed a dedicated enemy who has declared war on us and must be stopped - or lose sight of the fact that so far, they have been thwarted in their repeated attempts to set up a second (and likely third and fourth and fifth etc) 9/11.
---
None of this changes the basic premise that this thread's poll results are sad; a people not willing to serve doesn't deserve the protection of those who do.
Rick

 

[Azza]

You're not paying attention, Mike. Or you're not digging deeper than the relentless skewed, often outright false and always incomplete pap handed out daily by the newspukes.
Rick

Now, my most recent info on what's really going on in Iraq was this morning from my son who is actually in Iraq. I guess he could have lied but he has no affiliation with any news netwerk so he wouldn't qualify as a "newspuke".

Rick maybe you are not paying attention...or maybe you are blinded by the fact that you are a vet, from a very unpopular time period, who thinks that anyone who opposes the business in Iraq is the same as those beatniks from the 60-70's?

I think the public in this day and age is enlightened to the fact that the men on the ground dont make the policy...they just do the dirty work...its the policy makers that are to blame.

I have NO hesistation in having a go/criticizing at my government...after all they work for me and I demand they do so in my and my country's best interests, not the corporations that have many wares to sell and money to count.

 

[fairybasslet]

I have no clue what tangent this thread has gone onto since the original title, but to answer, my kid filled out an inquiry card for the Navy. He is graduating high school, isn't going to college, is so undisciplined and unfocused, I am kind of hoping he joins. I hope he learns how to be a man without getting killed as cannon fodder in a senseless war.

 

[mdb]

I am kind of hoping he joins. C.

How about the job corps, the peace corps, etc. Maybe that is not an option. Otherwise the Coast Guard, Navy, or Air Force might help.

If as you stated: "I am kind of hoping he joins. I hope he learns how to be a man without getting killed as cannon fodder in a senseless war." I hope the same for your son.

 

[H2Andy]

I'm sure there are some profiteers somewhere

somewhere?

does the name Haliburton ring any bells?

i don't want my children dead so Cheney's old pals can get the oil contracts in Iraq

don't get me wrong ... Afghanistan was necessary. the Taliban were harboring someone who had attacked America.

not so Iraq. Iraq was a total miscarriage of American foreign policy, and it has weakened and hurt us around the world, inflamed sentiments against us, and is in the process of training a cadre of terrorists in training camps far better than anything in Afghanistan

we also removed Iran's greatest check in the region, and thus strengthened Iran at a time when we ourselves are over-stretched militarily. and with Iran set to get a nuclear weapon, the will of the American people to get involved in the region again is at an all-time low.

Iraq was a huge mistake, and no amount of flag waving can change that. the Bush administration made a huge mistake, and our young men and women are paying with it with blood and their lives.

 

[cdiver2]

somewhere?

does the name Haliburton ring any bells?

i don't want my children dead so Cheney's old pals can get the oil contracts in Iraq

don't get me wrong ... Afghanistan was necessary. the Taliban were harboring someone who had attacked America.

not so Iraq. Iraq was a total miscarriage of American foreign policy, and it has weakened and hurt us around the world, inflamed sentiments against us, and is in the process of training a cadre of terrorists in training camps far better than anything in Afghanistan

we also removed Iran's greatest check in the region, and thus strengthened Iran at a time when we ourselves are over-stretched militarily. and with Iran set to get a nuclear weapon, the will of the American people to get involved in the region again is at an all-time low.

Iraq was a huge mistake, and no amount of flag waving can change that. the Bush administration made a huge mistake, and our young men and women are paying with it with blood and their lives.

oil contracts in Iraq

Yes they profit and so do the public. No other country (public) moans as loud as the US about gas prices...and they are lower than other country's