Fact 1: During the Vietnam War the United States had National Guard and Reserve Units.
Fact 2: These units had to be manned as well as our active duty units during the Vietnam War.
Fact 3: A lot of young men were joining our USAR and ARNG units to avoid service in Vietnam.
Fact 4: George W. Bush chose to join the Texas National Guard and received a honorable discharge.
Fact 5: John F. Kerry chose to join the active forces and completed two tours of duty in Vietnam, earning Bronze and Silver Stars.
Fact 6: John F. Kerry came home and joined the Jane Fonda group and protested against the war. Kerry also stated that our forces in Vietnam were baby killer.
Fact 7: A great many Vietnam Veterans agree that Fact 6 will influence their vote more than Fact 5.
The democrats are now demeaning the service of our National Guard and Reserve personnel. At least Bush did not use the system to get out of military service like Clinton did.
Just heard Congressman Rangel state that he hasn't forgotten the Florida election in 2000. He stated Gore won the popular vote. As a Congressman, he should know that the popular vote does not elect a President. It is the electoral college votes. All Al Gore had to do in 2000 was to carry his own home state of Tennessee. The most important item the people of Florida had to know how to do was to read the instructions on the ballots. The majority of the ballots used were the responsibility of democrat officials. Of all the states the democrats could have chosen to battle a close vote count, they chose Florida because Bush's brother was governor there.
In the 1960 election Kennedy beat Nixon by just about 100,000 votes. You didn't see all the uproar then as now.
Yes I dislike Jane Fonda very much and all of her war protesting associates. I believe their actions prolonged the Vietnam War causing many more thousands of Americans died than necessary.
If we are not careful our actions there will be extended more than necessary. Bush had to get rid of Saddam. During WWII we built a "paper army" in England around Patton. Saddam did the same when he was making everyone believe he had WMD. All of his actions pointed that he did have WMD. All he had to do was to let the inspectors prove he did not have WMD. He wouldn't and the war was the results.
If Kerry is elected, our military readiness will suffer just as much or more than when Clinton was President.
I know many of you disagree with these views, but sorry folks, that the way I see it. What's your view?
Not knowing much about the military, I appreciate you bringing out things like this, Sarge. I agree with you 100%. I fear that if Kerry is elected our country and the world will be in serious danger. I partially blame the Democrats - President Clinton in general - for 9/11/01. We could have had UBL in custody but Clinton turned him away. I know that might not have stopped 9/11 from happening altogether but I certainly believe it would have hindered it.
All you need is an ounce of hope…a measure of faith…a touch of glory…and a taste of grace
Clinton did more harm to our military than most people know. I stayed in contact with some of my friends who were still on active duty when Clinton was President. They all told me they did not go on as many field exercises as they used to because funds were cut back so much. This caused problems in unit readiness. They told me a great many housing units on several Posts had to be shut down because of funds shortages for repairs. Clinton cutting out so many combat divisions is now causing problems in deployment problems. That is the main reason Charles Singleton is having to stay on active duty longer than he should have. We don't have the troops to replace his units. Bush is having to spend so much money now just to bring the military back to where it should be in addition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. You have to remember we have an all volunteer military.
I just received the 2005 pay charts and the proposed base pay for a Private E1 with four months service will be $1,384.52 a month. This is $346.13 a week. This amount is taxable and of course there are benefits. A Specialist E-4 with two years service will be $1695.64 an month. As you can see the pay is not the greatest. This must improve. Question is, would you be willing to serve a year in Iraq, working seven days a week for these wages? Of course they receive combat pay but it is not that much. All pay accross the board has to be increased. These are dedicated soldiers who are serving for these pay levels.
I worked in a battalion S-2 and S-3 sections at Fort Polk, Louisiana with the 5th Infantry Division. S-2 is the Intel part of a battalion and S-3 is planning and training. We had to think like the bad guys and lay out attack plans on our own units which we thought they may not be expecting. We were not bound by the Geneva Convention because our enemies do not follow them at all. Somewhere up at the Pentagon the idea of hijacked planes being flown into buildings or other places had to have been played out. Someone must have figured out that if a person was willing to blow themself up in a car loaded with explosives like at our barracks in Lebanon a few years back, then an airplane was the next step. Security at our airports just got too lax because people were complaining about the security delays before they boarded their flights.
We have lost over 500 Americans in Iraq and over 100 in Afghanistan. Was it worth it? Should we still be there? Was Saddam really a threat to the U.S.? You answer those questions for yourself.
One thing is certain, Saddam is no longer a threat. I hope we soon turn Iraq back over to it's own people. Remember this, after WWI we left a defeated Germany to rebuild itself and Hitler was the end result. After WWII we helped rebuild a defeated Germany and the government has been stablized ever since. That is why we are still in Iraq. Go back and read your history books on this for the details.
Sarge, I'm with you all the way!! Thank you for posting the information you did - There's no way we can afford to have Kerry leading our nation!! Bush is the way to go this time around, and maybe next time there will be some good candidates from both parties.
Wow, Wayleehan, thanks for the article. How in good conscience can we elect someone who hung the American flag upside down to be the President of our country?? After reading this I can not believe that he has even made it this far. Basically we will just have another Kennedy (or Kennedy wannabe) in office.
All you need is an ounce of hope…a measure of faith…a touch of glory…and a taste of grace
That was a Very Informative Artical Wayleehan. There is no way in H*** I am going to vote for Kerry. I cant believe he got this far in politics. This just goes to show you how our society is becoming more and more tolorant of things or they just don't care. UGGGGHHHH.
I had to stop and ask self,"Do I really need to be here", and self says,"Only in the cover of darkness."
That website and article are put up by Ted Sampley, which makes all the "facts" contained within very suspect at best. Click here to read about him.
Just reading briefly through it, though, I did see one inaccuracy--John Kerry didn't shoot any babies or woman while in Vietnam--It's well documented that another soldier on his boat did these things. It's probably one of the reasons he came out of the war so set against it. His "quotes" used on that were about what he had seen his fellow soldier do--not himself.
What is very teeling, is John Kerry's testimony to the Senate regarding Vietnam and why he felt the war needed to end.
If references to Kerry being "another Kennedy" are referring to John Kennedy, then we could do alot worse.
BTW-- going back to the website mentioned previously-- It was created in January of 2004--not exactly a long-standing campaing against John Kerry. Judging by the size of the website, it probably costs roughly a hundred dollars a year or so--give or take- to "keep it going" as the author puts it throughout the site, yet insists you need to spend money for anti-Kerry merchandise to keep the cause alive. (That's assuming it's getting high-volumns of traffic). Since most webmasters pay for servers yearly, this guy is mostly looking to make a buck with this site.
Thanks for clearing that up, Dave. That whole other site, seemed to "skip" over facts and put "offensive" pictures (not even of Kerry) along side text that was about Kerry. Thus, making you think some of those pics were of him. Very misleading, I must say.
Most things in politics are slanted and we have to do our best to "read between the lines" and try to get to some form of the truth.
"Labor is the source of all wealth" Harry's Bar T-shirt
It would be a refreshing change if a politician would step up to the plate and just talk about what they would do to make this a better country to live in instead of pointing the finger at what someone else is NOT doing. I'm sick of all the mud slinging and the avoidance of real issues. I 've come to the conclusion thay you have to have the mind set of a "crook" to even desire to be a politician. My grandfather said " Ask a politician what color is that blue car?" and they will tell you everything about that car except what color it is. Another famous trait of a politician is, ask them "what color ia that blue car?" and they might say "What color do you want it to be?"
You are right richard. Most Politicians avoid the questions.
Dave thanks for "The Rest of The Story". I guess everyone has their own opinions. If you have 50 people at a meeting then you are going to get 50 differnt statement about the meeting, you just have to put them all together and make your own decision.
I had to stop and ask self,"Do I really need to be here", and self says,"Only in the cover of darkness."
