Star Trek

Quote (Yanks @ Mar. 24 2010, 1:11 pm)

Quote (IVHoltzman @ Mar. 24 2010, 9:50 am) Quote (Cruervo @ Mar. 24 2010, 1:14 am) Maybe the government has all the Nat'l Guards deployed so that they cant defend the states. Well, that was certainly near the top of my list of objections to Bush's idiocy. Our state level "armies", the National Guards, along with the federal Reserve forces, are part-timers who periodically train for the call to serve during emergencies... but who the rest of the time are, by and large, the main body of this country's civilian emergency services. At exactly the moment that we needed more firemen and policemen and paramedics on home soil, Bush called up our reserve battalions into active service and sent them to wasted tours of duty, mostly in Iraq. Be certain that's why no one but the Coast Guard showed up to help flooded New Orleans. Years on, I don't think we've yet restored our local population of first responders to pre-AxisOfEvil levels. In response to nineteen criminals killing a mere one one-hundred-thousandth of us, Bush committed all of our forces, to our very last strength, not just to where the criminals actually were holed up, but secondarily to a place where he had a personal family vendetta to wage. The acts of George Bush are among the most unAmerican and unPatriotic that have ever occurred in this country. And if we do eventually fracture again state from state, historians will point to Bush as one of the key causes of it. Words can't express how much this is wrong and I disagree. Bush did what was authorized by law. The National Guard is not just here to respond to an "emergency" they are contract bound to "fill the ranks", just as Bush and every other president @ war did. My son made the choice to become an officer in the Army National Guard, and the 1st part of my discussion with him about that was "you are aware that you WILL go to Iraq and Afghanistan at least once, right?" Every one of them signed a contract and were expressly told exactly what they were signing up for. My son included.

Please believe me, I value your son's willingness to serve and protect. I value your son's life a lot more than Bush did.

You're absolutely right, those who sign up for the National Guards and the Reserves are knowingly embracing the chance that they may someday march into a firefight. They are every bit the equal in courage of those who sign up for full-time military service. And when they are not on active military duty, those in the reserves are on active civilian duty in ways that most of our fellow Americans never notice. That was the central point of my complaint above... that their highest best use was ignored by a leader who had goals inconsistent with the defense of the nation.

It is the purpose of the reserves to be the well ordered militia which is ever ready to set aside its civilian implements, pick up military implements, and rise as one to defend the home front in time of invasion or other disaster occurring on home soil.

To empty the land of its home guard and send them halfway across the planet in the opening salvos of unnecessarily rushed wars was a despicable misuse of them, but that wasn't the worst of it. Bush did not ask what your son could do for the good of his country. Bush asked what your son could do for the good of Halliburton. And that's far beyond misuse.

Your son deserved to have Jim Kirk as his commander in chief. Instead, he got Kruge.