1) any attempt to call Gautam and me equal in the personal attack department is positively insane. I was goaded into the ONE AND ONLY personal remark that I made toward him and I immediately retracted it.
As for service, while the US Navy ultimately canceled my induction into Rickover's nuclear officer program because of suddelny declining manpower needs in 1973, I had signed up for the submarine service and was one week away from facing the man himself, when the cut came. As far as willingness to step forward, that puts me ahead of most, and certainly way ahead of Prexy. (And if you can actually delude yourself into imagining that "influence" did NOT play a role in his Texas Guard position, BOY are there some bridges you are gonna be sold.) Despite my willingness to serve, I despised the Vietnam War as an inconceivable blunder and moral travesty. Right wingers say "we coulda won if we bombed the dams and really unleashed air power." Totally missing the point that WE WERE THERE TO HELP THOSE PEOPLE by persuading them not to make a political blunder. KILLING people is not helping them. Typically, John admires the one democratic president who was a certifiable psychopath (though extremely admirable in other ways.) JFK stuck out this country's jugular and ran straight into the trap the KGB set for a man with more testosterone than brains, charging into a land war in asia. Weak on defense? The numbers don't help you John. Readiness and preparedness levels PLUMMETTED under Nixon-Ford. It's a historic fact and it tempted Breszhnev into the huge gamble of the arms buildup... that led JIMY CARTER to demand that his party adopt the "3% per year" increase in defense spending. While that outraged the lefties in his own party, it was typical for moderate democrats and in keeping with the strategy that won the Cold War WHICH WAS DEVISED BY TRUMAN AND MARSHALL. Yes, Ronald Reagan then took Carter's buildup, which was aimed at stymying Brezhnev's ploy, and expanded it into a counter aggressive buildup, with the aim of either breaking the brittle Soviet Economy or driving them into war. Because the former came true, we all owe Reagan an attaboy... though it was utterly irresponsible a gamble and the brittleness would have broken eventually anyway. I'll still give him the victory that Marshall planned. But the rest of john's statement is utter ignorant bullshit. Fact: Readiness and Preparedness reached a PEAK under Bill Clinton. They are now at the lowest ebb SINCE PEARL HARBOR! And not one of your fantasies and stereotypes can alter that fact, which every neutral strategic institute now attests. Fact: Clinton/Clarke's Balkans War was so vastly superior to the Iraq fiasco in every way that you must divert attention from discussing it. Fact: The war plan that Bush implemented in 2001 when he said "Go get em" was BILL CLINTON's WAR PLAN. Al Qaeda knew all about it which is why they assassinated Massoud before 9/11 Nothing you can find will alter these facts, so by all means laps back into nostrums and stereotypes. But get this: Containing Communism Spreading democracy stopping fascism these are not the stands of wimps and they do NOT come from the GOP. ==== > The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has been > the center of the > opposition to almost all strong defense policies > since the time of Richard > Nixon - opposition to Vietnam, weakness on the > Iranians in the 1970's, > opposition to Reagan's defense buildup, opposition > to the smaller > engagements of the Cold War, and most critically - > opposition to the First > Gulf War. (And Kerry never voted for that one > before he voted against it. > ;-) A lot of Americans still believe the Kosovo > engagement (fought with > a depleting supply of cruise missiles, a fiasco > deployment of helicopters, > and an open acknowledgement that we would never use > ground troops) as at > best a blip on the continuous Democratic weakness on > defense. Opposition > to the Iraq War seemed to confirm that for many > Americans - that quite > simply the Democrats are weaker on defense. > > Gautam also pointed out the vast litany of social > issues on which Democrats > are perceived as having moved left - abortion, gay > marriage, religion in > the public square, defense of pornography and > obscenity on television, etc. > > JDG > > > _______________________________________________________ > John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] > "The liberty we prize is not > America's gift to the world, > it is God's gift to humanity." - > George W. Bush 1/29/03 > > _______________________________________________ > http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l > _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
