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Randy, first I see your point about your restricted speech, though I doubt that thought control would reach all the way from the top to your rank. I am sure you are free to speak or write at length about the war, as long as you espouse the company line.
I don't like the idea that you, or any soldier who is making some sacrifice and taking some risk should lose all your rights to free speech. There has to be some way, some middle ground, so you retain this basic right, and that the public benefits from what expertise you can give. Everyone seems to agree McCrhystal stepped over the line or his aides did. Pretty dumb to do it in front of a sharp reporter.
As to the point about who or why people sign up, look; I wrote 30 lines in my first post on this topic, only one line had to do with this part, but that is mostly what you or Tom have seized on.
B-29, as to "left wing liberals" being angry at our country, first of all none of these Pres or Gens are our country. Our country is much bigger than any one person. I can despise what LBJ or Nixon or W has done, without hating our country, just as I can despise OJ without hating all football players or all Black men. If you disagree with some action of Obama such as loans to Wall Street banks, does it mean you hate our country?
It is low tactics and all too common for whoever is in power to try to portray anyone who disagrees with them as unpatriotic. It's left over at least from the McCarthy era and it was Bull then and still is. One example: In WW II , Geo McGovern despite being a preacher's son, joined and flew a full load of combat missions in B-24, winning some medals. LBJ and Nixon never came closer to combat than a poker game. Yet during Nam and the Pres elections the tried to label the decorated combat vet as unpatriotic, when as we know now it was the other guy who really was a crook.
Your history also reverses a few facts. I think the Germans started WWI, and certainly along with the Japanese WWII, no U S pres made the first strike. And the Iraq war goes on, we are still there, still spending money and taking some losses, even though Obama has scaled it back. Finally, Nixon did not end the Vietnam War, it ended when the NVA and VC overran Saigon. I am sure you have seen the photos of the helicopters over the embassy roof. Had Nixon been really shrewd, he could have withdrawn all U S forces when he first took office, declared the war over, and blamed it on the Democrats with some justification. Instead he tried to talk tough and got thousands more Americans killed or captured over the next few years before he gave up.
There are Presidents that are called liberal, but I am not sure if many or any really are. Perhaps JFK to some extent. Many would have called Obama that, but when it comes to war he continues a lot of what went before. I guess we will see some measure when next July comes. Will they really bring the boys home or just find some excuse to start our 2nd decade in that war? No defense contractor is going to want to get off the gravy train unless they can create some crisis elsewhere.
Finally, rather than coming up with an over-broad and inaccurate label, like liberals hating our country, why not see if you have any answers to the questions I wrote about?
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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK
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