America is not at war.

[boston bean]

Approximately 135,000 servicemen and their families are.

How sad is it that most Americans are enjoying a long weekend, with summer weather (atleast here in New England), cookouts, ballgames, family and beer and giving hardly a thought to those in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Count me in on being one of the people who really forgot what this weekend is all about.

On Friday, I couldn't wait to leave work for the long weekend. Anticipating the good weather, baseball, cookouts. Thanking God I wouldn't have to go into work on Monday. Not giving a thought to what this weekend is suppose to represent.

Right now, there is probably some poor soul on his/her third tour who is torn up by an IED and in the Baghdad ER fighting for his/her life, or losing a limb(s).

The Bushmaster has turned this war into a revolving door for men and women who volunteered for the service. He uses them by making them serve many tours so Americans won't have to realize the real cost of war.

Really and truly, the only people at war are those who are fighting it and their families. May God bless them all!

[w8liftinglady]

1. you are right..this is the motivation behind my thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1301974&mesg_id=1301974

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. FINALLY someone speaks the truth!

bravo

[musette_sf]

3. I'm not at war

So don't forget it
It's just this silly phase I'm going through:crazy:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I talked with the mother of a serviceman

who is going back to Iraq DESPITE having untreated PTSD. She is worried for his sanity. I don't blame her.

[boston bean]

5. It is despicable what this wretched man has done to this country.

And anyone who supports him or this war, sickening.

They are all delusional.

[NastyDiaper]

6. Americans were never asked to support the war..

..We were asked to look away.

With the limitless credit card that we call the national debt, and a volunteer/militia military, we are able to.

Make sure to ice up all the Cool Aid and have a great weekend my fellow Americans!

[The2ndWheel]

7. America is a state, and it is at war

It's been at war since day one. All it's done is expand, and that means conflict. This war is no different.

[shance]

8. Beautifully put MassDem.

Thank you for the wonderful post.

It was a much needed reminder for me today.

[Coyote_Bandit]

9. Your observation

is one of the reasons I think the draft should be reinstated - without any exemptions. Those who legitimately are not physically or mentally capable of military service can assume some other form of sacrificial national service.

Potential consequences of military action become more personally relevant when a family member is directly involved. I really think this policy would make more people pay attention to what is happening and hold our leaders responsible.

[AndyTiedye]

11. A Draft Would Make Bush**ler's Power Absolute

Bush**ler has usurped all of the power of the Federal government.
He can loot the Treasury, ignore laws passed by Congress, tap
our phones at will, and even start wars on a whim.

The only limit to his power is that he does not (yet) have the
ability to force us to fight his wars for him.

The day the draft is enacted, Bush**'s power becomes absolute.

People who propose the draft think that it will cause a protest
movement on the scale that we had in Vietnam. I think we already
have that. Bush** can't go *anywhere* without being met by throngs
of protestors. What we also have is a media blackout on protests,
which is something that could not have happened back in the 60s
when we still had a free press. In spite of this, polling shows
about the same level of disapproval of the war as we had near the
end of the Vietnam war, and that war went on for almost a decade.

What a draft would do, is give ** an unlimited source of
cannon fodder. Think of what he would do with that!

The Rethugs want the draft. PNAC's plans obviously depend on it.
What they don't want is the political reprecussions of a draft.
So the treat servicemen absolutely foully and hope that Dems will
suggest a draft out of "fairness". Then the Rethugs will rush it
through Congress while publicizing it as a Democratic bill. Then
our party gets run out of town in the next election, and the Rethugs
have their draft and no opposition.

[Coyote_Bandit]

13. It is easy for some folks

to turn their head and allow somebody else's kid to be sent to fight and die. It is much harder to ignore if it is your own kid.

A draft would cure some of our national apathy. It just might put a few of the rich folks on the same playing field as some of us common people. Both of those things have to happen before we can even contemplate the possibility of a war protest half the scale of Vietnam.

Just because a draft is not currently in force does not mean that your government (and Bush*) lacks the power or authority to enact one on very short notice. Republican President with two Republican controlled houses in Congress. As long as those circumstances exist Bushie can start a draft anytime he wants. He has no reason to enact a draft. He gains nothing and jeopardizes support among those who would never let little their Susie or Johnny go off to fight.

[otherlander]

14. If they tried to draft me

I would absolutley refuse and they would have to imprison me. Sign up and KILL just to make a point to the American public? No. Let them put me in jail. Let everyone refuse, and let them put everyone in jail, until they don't even have the space or money to contain us all. Of course, massive draft resistance wouldn't be likely, so it would just be me, rotting in a cell for a refusal to kill.

[AndyTiedye]

15. But Who Will They Blame?

It is easy for some folks to turn their head and allow somebody else's kid to be sent to fight and die. It is much harder to ignore if it is your own kid.

A draft would cure some of our national apathy.

I think that all this "national apathy" is a bit overrated.
Who told you that we care more about "American Idol" than we do about the war? Faux News, of course. It's their show!
And you believe them?

We HAD the draft during the Vietnam war, and despite that, it took years for the protest movement to get started.
We have been protesting this war since before it started.
Public support for this war was low to begin with and has declined much faster than it did for Vietnam.
It is now in the Nixonian sub-freezing category, along with Bush**'s personal approval rating.

It just might put a few of the rich folks on the same playing field as some of us common people.

You think that the draft will be fair? :rofl:
No draft has EVER been fair.
No draft WILL EVER be fair.
Even if everyone is required to serve, the powerful will keep their offspring out of harms way.
The "military service" of our Dear Leader is a fine example of this.
Hard to keep a dynasty going if the next generation gets killed off.

Both of those things have to happen before we can even contemplate the possibility of a war protest half the scale of Vietnam.

I think the current protest movement may be just as big or bigger. What it does not have is the kind of media attention we used to get.

Just because a draft is not currently in force does not mean that your government (and Bush*) lacks the power or authority to enact one on very short notice. Republican President with two Republican controlled houses in Congress. As long as those circumstances exist Bushie can start a draft anytime he wants. He has no reason to enact a draft. He gains nothing and jeopardizes support among those who would never let little their Susie or Johnny go off to fight.

But if he can trick the Democrats into proposing the draft, then the Democrats pay the full price for it at the polls..
It would be the death of our party.

[Little Star]

10. k&r

[Clarkie1]

12. You are right, America is not at war. There is no shared sacrifice. n/t

[Phrogman]

16. Its treated like a big football game

Our team vs their country. Its sick, isn't it?
And to do this horror to a bunch of simple, poor, backwards folks that never, ever harmed America.

[TexasLawyer]

17. kick

This is so true. I was just on another board reading about a couple who was losing a $1 thousand deposit because they couldn't move into the place they had arranged to move into since the husband got deployed.

The rich people who wanted this war are getting their taxes cut, and dicks like this landlord can't at least give this young couple serving their country a break.

[Skittles]

19. notify the media in that landlord's town

he needs some coverage

[eridani]

18. We have never been at war since WW II

You're right--it's just the soldiers directly in harm's way who are at war. If we were at war, we'd have much higher taxes and rationing to boot.

[donbrunton]

20. Approximately

Approximately 135,000 servicemen and their families are .

How sad it is for those...

When I say those, I mean those who live there.

Not the occupying Anglo-Saxon oil hungry forces.

This weekend is a patriotic bullshit.

Fuck honouring war - and the hot lead that America`s military industrial complex rips apart brown ``foreigners`` with.

Today is a day that you should feel shame - not pride.

Those people signed up for the ride. Period. Stupidity, poverty, alienation, bribery, psyops or whatever...

They are there because they put their sig on the dotted line.

I don`t feel sorry for any of them.