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juliaoceania -> RE: Guns, the border, Iraq, and Starship Troopers (4/30/2007 5:01:39 PM)
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Julia, Bush's nephew has joined the service willingly. So Bush does know the cost his decisions have, to a degree.
You are obfuscating my point, that Bush did not volunteer his kids to go into combat like he did the military. BTW... I do not know if you have kids of your own, but as the parent of an almost draft age youngster and an aunt, there is a difference between sacrificing the fruit of your loins and having a nephew that signed on to a noncombat post.
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Why should anyone be allowed power in this country when they have not shown themselves worthy, by being willing to shed neither their blood in defense of it, nor their sweat in the building and maintenence of it and its people.
I wonder that too, why are any of the CEOs in this country seen as worthy? Why do they have more power than any of the rest of us? Good question!
I am sure we both have fundamentally different ideas of "worth". You quantify it (seemingly) as the ability to blow people up that have never done anything to us, and I just do not see it your way.
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And as for these corporations that you hate so much-they are, along with smaller businesses what keeps you, I and others from starving to death. They make the medicines, grow the food, provide employment, and bring the technological advancements to the populace of the world. Capitalism works better than any other economic system humanity has tried. Yes it's flawed, it consists of flawed people just like any system. Duh!
Laughing here, "medicines" kill more people each year than all the illegal substances combined, and you are better off letting yourself heal, eating nutritious food that is natural than relying on corporations that put profit over our health. I have done too much reading on this topic to even think of debating it with you. Much of what you eat is probably poison. Big Pharma makes no profit if you remain healthy. I take responsibility for my health, and since I began to do so I am pretty damn healthy.
There are a lot of good small businesses out there, I used to own one myself that I had to close to take care of an elderly family member (oh yeah... I forgot, that is not worthwhile service , is it?). Please do not confuse good companies and small businesses with the mega corporations that started the war in Iraq (kellog, root, and brown, halliburton) and Big Pharma that is ripping us off big time. We can live just fine without such corporations that have zero loyalty to us.
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Oh, so I'm elitist? Thanks for noticing. I DO believe that those who serve should also lead. I'm a proud American who is glad to serve under a Commander in Chief like President Bush, as flawed as he is. Kerry or Gore would been a much worse leader.
This statement tells me a lot about you... so instead of using my words, I thought I would throw these your way....
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Smedley Butler on Interventionism-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
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BTW, I'm shipping out tommorrow to reclassify/retrain for my new job with the National Guard-I guess that makes me a war criminal too, huh? Just, like my adoptive father who served in the Air Force as a commissioned officer in Vietnam, and my blood father who graduated from Annapolis.
My family has been here since 1805 or so on my father's side, and a long long time on my mother's. I have had a relative fight in every war since the war of 1812 until the Gulf War, and if I had not been pregnant I would have served during that one. You mistake a war of aggression and standing for that to be some sort of honorable thing. I would fight for this country, but only on our soil... just like ol Smedley. As far as our troops over there fighting it, no, they are not war criminals, but many of their commanders are, and I know the pretender in the White House is.
Here is the deal, typical of NeoCons, you believe in disempowering the regular folk so only Star Belly Sneetches can have the franchise because it suits your political agenda. You and yours would be the ones to decide who "merited" the vote. All I have to say is after this last post I read from you, I would be willing to shed blood to keep people from taking my vote away with such pretentious bullshit...
BTW, Namaste, come home safe, hopefully my granola eating peacenik hippie ass can put enough pressure on the "bad guys" that you will not be over there long enough to become a statistic....
My uncle was gunho during Vietnam, after it was over he questioned what he had to do... he actually fought in combat... he was not some elite annapolis graduate that had some sort of posh assignment out of harms way. He actually was in harm's way and received a purple heart. So please save the pretentious I am more of an American than you are garbage.
I cannot seem to get this quote properly
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