Agree with everything you wrote here. Bush put both wars on the national credit card because taxing the rich to pay for the war would have been too unbearable for the conservative mind back then. He wouldn't even sell war bonds to pay for the fighting, and instead followed the model Nixon set forth. So much of what we have today started …
Agree with everything you wrote here. Bush put both wars on the national credit card because taxing the rich to pay for the war would have been too unbearable for the conservative mind back then. He wouldn't even sell war bonds to pay for the fighting, and instead followed the model Nixon set forth. So much of what we have today started with Nixon. He got us off of the gold standard to pay for Vietnam and got rid of the draft to stamp out public opposition to the Vietnam war by military-aged college kids. So now we put our wars on the credit card and recycle the contract-service volunteers to combat over and over because there aren't enough new volunteers to replace them with.
I can only imagine what the contract service will be like when we get into a shooting war with China some day. "Hey Mr. 19-year-old contract-volunteer, I know you just survived your first tour in Taiwan where your unit took 40% casualties, but there aren't enough fresh bodies at our manpower disposal right now, so you're going to get about 5 months stateside and then you're coming back out here again for another 8 months with a fresh crop of boots. Good luck, and may the odds forever be in your favor!"
Literally on the credit card. I got a f'ing check from the government during that blighted, neo-con- birthed war with a go-spend encouragement. I immediately emailed the constantly begging for $ D party that until that war ended they wouldn't get another cent from me. ( The Iraq War is a particularly sore point with me. ) Have you seen the movie Shock and Awe? I recently watched it on A Prime. A slight clunker as a movie, but told the real story. The movie implied that the search for Bin Laden in Afghanistan was put on the back burner so the Iraq War might be seen as somehow getting Bin Laden. Viet Nam was a very, very bad mistake. But it might have, could have, had the upside of providing a lesson learned. Nope. There is a class of arrogant, denialist, humility-less (usually) men who will not learn lessons that are contrary to their hardwired mindset. They don't pay the price, but SO MANY others do.
And BTW Travis, are you now a happily married man enjoying your family and looking forward to all that your family's future holds? I hope so.
GWB diverted resources and attention from the war that we HAD to win, the one in Afghanistan, to wage a war of choice in Iraq, and he lied to get us into it. I'll never forgive him for that. And I don't think that we've finished paying the full cost yet for his blunder putting Afghanistan on the back burner; the Afghans certainly haven't.
I am a happily-engaged man with a step-daughter, so I'm getting there. I'm a worrier by nature, so looking forward to the future is a heavy lift for me, even with the blessings of loved ones and a good job that can support them. I fear for this country and its future. I fear for what the country has already become. We're a nation of individuals in economic and cultural competition with each other, which isn't exactly what I'd call a "country" exactly in the real sense of the thing. I fear for the world my step-daughter will inherit after I'm long gone. I don't think our national values are ever getting back to where they used to be. I think we'll just keep worshipping and supporting the rich at the expense of normal folks.
Agree with everything you wrote here. Bush put both wars on the national credit card because taxing the rich to pay for the war would have been too unbearable for the conservative mind back then. He wouldn't even sell war bonds to pay for the fighting, and instead followed the model Nixon set forth. So much of what we have today started with Nixon. He got us off of the gold standard to pay for Vietnam and got rid of the draft to stamp out public opposition to the Vietnam war by military-aged college kids. So now we put our wars on the credit card and recycle the contract-service volunteers to combat over and over because there aren't enough new volunteers to replace them with.
I can only imagine what the contract service will be like when we get into a shooting war with China some day. "Hey Mr. 19-year-old contract-volunteer, I know you just survived your first tour in Taiwan where your unit took 40% casualties, but there aren't enough fresh bodies at our manpower disposal right now, so you're going to get about 5 months stateside and then you're coming back out here again for another 8 months with a fresh crop of boots. Good luck, and may the odds forever be in your favor!"
Literally on the credit card. I got a f'ing check from the government during that blighted, neo-con- birthed war with a go-spend encouragement. I immediately emailed the constantly begging for $ D party that until that war ended they wouldn't get another cent from me. ( The Iraq War is a particularly sore point with me. ) Have you seen the movie Shock and Awe? I recently watched it on A Prime. A slight clunker as a movie, but told the real story. The movie implied that the search for Bin Laden in Afghanistan was put on the back burner so the Iraq War might be seen as somehow getting Bin Laden. Viet Nam was a very, very bad mistake. But it might have, could have, had the upside of providing a lesson learned. Nope. There is a class of arrogant, denialist, humility-less (usually) men who will not learn lessons that are contrary to their hardwired mindset. They don't pay the price, but SO MANY others do.
And BTW Travis, are you now a happily married man enjoying your family and looking forward to all that your family's future holds? I hope so.
GWB diverted resources and attention from the war that we HAD to win, the one in Afghanistan, to wage a war of choice in Iraq, and he lied to get us into it. I'll never forgive him for that. And I don't think that we've finished paying the full cost yet for his blunder putting Afghanistan on the back burner; the Afghans certainly haven't.
I am a happily-engaged man with a step-daughter, so I'm getting there. I'm a worrier by nature, so looking forward to the future is a heavy lift for me, even with the blessings of loved ones and a good job that can support them. I fear for this country and its future. I fear for what the country has already become. We're a nation of individuals in economic and cultural competition with each other, which isn't exactly what I'd call a "country" exactly in the real sense of the thing. I fear for the world my step-daughter will inherit after I'm long gone. I don't think our national values are ever getting back to where they used to be. I think we'll just keep worshipping and supporting the rich at the expense of normal folks.
Amen!