did John Kerry just call soldiers stupid?

[SacTown Chronic]

I do not think Kerry was talking about Bush. But I also do not think he called the soldiers dumb. What Kerry said is the exact same fvcking thing I've said to my children untold times. Mind your business or you might end up a soldier or some such. And I don't believe there is a parent on this board who hasn't used some variation of this theme on their children. The military IS a last chance for many people. The military is also a means to an end as scaeagles says, I admit. But the number of people using the military to achieve their goals is a hell of a lot smaller than the number of people being used by the military.


For the record, I think you must be some sort of dumb phuck to enlist while GWB controls the military. Sux to be the person MbC described, certainly. Sux to be someone who enlisted after 9/11 to go to Afghanistan only to have Bush pull the ol' bait-and-switch on yer sorry azz and send you to Iraq. But if you enlisted specifically to fight in Iraq, well, I think you stoopid.

Funny how this entire faux outrage produces not one iota of debate over the merits of being in Iraq to begin with. Even the neocons take it as a given that the war is fvcked and they can only split hairs over someone who is NOT EVEN UP FOR ELECTION next week. Telling stuff.

Where was all this defense of our soldiers when Bush first floated the idea to invade Iraq? Neocons will make hay all day long over a non-issue but won't lift a finger to, you know, actually save a soldier's life.

[Strangler Lewis]

Nice bit on The Daily Show last night recalling a tuxedoed Bush's jokey speech about how hard he was looking for WMDs. He played a series of pictures of himself crawling around nooks and crannies of the White House. Got a good laugh. As the Daily Show correspondent pointed out, the man knows how to deliver a joke.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by scaeagles, emphasis mine but typo is not

How many times have we heard him misspeak while pubically addressing a crowd?

derail
Um, also, if we want to talk about Freudian slips...
/derail

[Nephythys]

Gee Sac- guess there are alot of dumbfvcks since they keep meeting recruitment and retention quotas.

I begin to see why people don't have a problem with what he said- there is already a base disdain for the people who join the military- so why would it be a problem?

[Nephythys]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

derail
Um, also, if we want to talk about Freudian slips...
/derail

LOL- good catch.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

My only disdain is for the president, for sending troops to die for a cause that seems to be the oil business. I have compassion for the troops; I'm sorry they found themselves in the position to have to go to war. I'm sorry that many of them felt like they didn't have any other choice. I'm sorry that some of them were pulled unwittingly into Vietnam: Now! With more Iraq!

[Nephythys]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

My only disdain is for the president, for sending troops to die for a cause that seems to be the oil business. I have compassion for the troops; I'm sorry they found themselves in the position to have to go to war. I'm sorry that many of them felt like they didn't have any other choice. I'm sorry that some of them were pulled unwittingly into Vietnam: Now! With more Iraq!

Disclaimer- those who have disdain for the troops know I was referring to them.

(which did not- for the record- include you H )

I don't agree with your view- but I have never seen a disdain for the troops in anything you have posted.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

I have compassion for the troops; I'm sorry they found themselves in the position to have to go to war. I'm sorry that many of them felt like they didn't have any other choice. I'm sorry that some of them were pulled unwittingly into Vietnam: Now! With more Iraq!

As human beings, I have compassion for soldiers as well, and I don't want to see them blown to bits.

Still .... we haven't been on the "good" side of a war in 60 years and, hmmm coincidence? - we haven't won one since then either. Plenty of time, even for people born only 20 years ago, to figure out the U.S. military is a malevolent force that, btw, loses every war it gets into. It's a VOLUNTEER army ... these young men and women CHOSE to become warriors at the disposal of a questionably-intended military juggernaut.

That they may have seen little other option is also true of most criminals.





That is not merely "disdain" for the troops; it is loathing and hatred.

Oh, and I feel that for all "troops" everywhere and all people who commit violence for whatever purpose other than personal, immediate self-defense.

[Nephythys]

Case in point.

[Nephythys]

well- someone did some digging. Kerry's history of taking digs at servicemen and women....

Link

During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades ago, John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to "the perpetuation of war crimes."

In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army "a greater anathema."

"I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown," Kerry wrote. "We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply 'doing its job.

Gee- he seems to share the same disdain for a volunteer army as some people here.