Is there no good news in the world? There's precious little in this thread.

[SacTown Chronic]

Who's Katie Couric?

[sleepyjeff]

^Soon to be the only News Anchor who can show video proof that she's not full of it?

[wendybeth]

I have something totally evil to respond to that, Jeff- so evil that even I cannot do so.

She's a tv personality, not an anchor, btw. She is merely the penance that CBS must perform to make up for their abysmally idiotic failure to check out Rove's bait before airing it.

I'm sure their ratings will soar.

[lizziebith]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Ya know, by and large, I do not support our troops. I don't want any of them killed, but - though many did so as the only way to dig out of poverty - they volunteered for their duties. If they have the illusion that America is a beneficent military force, which it has rarely been since WWII, then I fault their judgment. If they recognize the U.S. military for what it is, then I fault their motives.

I wish them safety and a speedy return home to their families. I wish them free from trauma and guilt. I wish them free from committing barbaric horrors and from having such inflicted upon them.

But they went into this willingly, and I do not support their chosen avocation of war.

I agree. Except for the willingly part. Most of those folks are kids who signed on, as you pointed out, for economic reasons. Others joined up in a kind of "we won't actually go to war" hopeful mindset...(I know a couple of those). I think that the military doesn't provide full EMPHATIC disclosure to these kids it signs on as, um, militia-fodder these days. So I support the poor mis-guided folks hoping to get a college eddication who got Iraq instead. (or who thought it was going to be like a video game: have you SEEN the latest recruitment spots???) But I don't support what they got sent to. I think that's how most of us libs feel.

The current administration is playing fast-and-loose with the idea of "hero" to get more young folk to sign up. I don't like it.

ETA: but then again, I don't like much. Except you. You, I like.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

But they went into this willingly, and I do not support their chosen avocation of war.

Many of them simply signed up for the national guard out of a sense of patriotism after 9/11. I'm sure they never in a million years envisioned that they would be sitting in an Iraqi desert being shot at and bombed.

[wendybeth]

I'm reading "What every American should know about who's really running the world" right now.


I ****ing hate Dick Cheney. I hate few people on this earth, but he is one of them. Evil, evil man. And, if you're not very careful................he'll shoot you in the face!

[wendybeth]

Originally Posted by Motorboat Cruiser

Many of them simply signed up for the national guard out of a sense of patriotism after 9/11. I'm sure they never in a million years envisioned that they would be sitting in an Iraqi desert being shot at and bombed.

Or, as in Pat Tilman's case, being killed by your own and then having it get covered up and then used for propoganda by the military and far right.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Ponine

Look for some Happy News for a change

Well, there you are!

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Motorboat Cruiser

Many of them simply signed up for the national guard out of a sense of patriotism after 9/11. I'm sure they never in a million years envisioned that they would be sitting in an Iraqi desert being shot at and bombed.

Yes, I know a few who did just that and are now in Iraq and scared ***less on an extended tour of duty.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by lizziebith

I agree. Except for the willingly part.

So, do you know longer support them when they reenlist? (The military is having trouble with recruitment but continues to have stronger than predicted reenlistment from soldiers who have actually been to Iraq.)

While I support the war (though not for the reasons that the Administration has flailed about trying to win the PR battle with) I do not think it is possible to be opposed to the war and support our troops. Opposition to the war means thinking we are wrong to be engaged in it. The appropriate result for a nation wrongfully engaged in war is defeat. The method of defeat in most wars is to have an awful lot of your soldiers killed.

It is fine to say that you don't want any soldier to die, but by opposing the war you are saying, in my opinion, that our soldier's death is preferable to their victory (which is a reasonable point of view, just not one I share in this case).