Reply #14: I'm never comfortable with naming Naval ships

[haele]

after living persons - the custom is that a Navy ship named after someone is supposed to carry the "spirit" of the person being so honored - which is why only those who have shown exceptional leadership or courage are supposed to be picked.

I'm especially uncomfortable with naming Naval ships after supposed leaders whom I personally consider souless politicos who spent most of their lives playing dressup and raking in money when it came to practicing real leadership and courage when they were supposedly serving as President. I might give GHWB a bit of a reluctant nod for actually serving, but considering the military downsizing and casual sacrificing of troops he and Reagan caused with their policies, he's certainly not to the level of service of Kennedy or Eisenhower, if that's a criteria.
I survived through that era in the military. I, and many hundreds of thousands of others saw and experianced what shit they pulled. Unfortunatly, too many of us just allowed Cheney, Poindexter, Carlucci and company wrap the patriot's flag around our eyes as a hoodwink to blind us to the costs of what we were paying for the bottom-line for profit mentality of a bunch of greedy chickenhawks.
Winning a "war" because you outspent a paranoid opponent who's country was already crumbling economically is no great feat of diplomacy or tactics. Shifting the majority of a defense budget to a few contractors playing money games with inpractical, unsustainable projects instead of on actual research, operations and troop readiness is no sign of "military leadership".

Haele