However, one thing you’re missing–the girls are adults.

Uh-huh. Here’s something I didn’t miss, something they used to say on the Home Front in the 1940s: “Don’t you know there’s a war going on?” I have a problem when a president is all gung-ho saying “Bring ‘em on,” when it’s other people’s kids who have to pay the price for his bravado. Yes, the PC can be dangerous, but most of the time you’re not getting shot at, or you wouldn’t be there. People go to Iraq generally expecting to be shot at.

If we’re going to talk about “political capital,” I think we need to learn from our history before we engage the enemy. The support our troops get here at home (including from HA readers) is admirable, but it doesn’t hold a candle to what our parents and grandparents saw during WWII.

What if that were the price of victory? Could we afford it? Would our President let his own kids off the hook?

manwithblackhat on May 9, 2008 at 1:22 PM

Oh, and the constant comparison of the conflicts we are currently engaged in with WWII are really not apropos. If we were going to do things like we did back then, we would need to institute a draft, start rationing, engage in civil defense drills, etc.

I don’t want that any more than you do. But I keep hearing a lot of talk about the nation’s resolve to win this conflict and end terrorism, as long as the job falls to someone else. The comparison is indeed apropos, if you’re going to ask yourselves as a nation what you are willing to sacrifice for security in the nation and peace in the world.

Are you content to just sit back and take pot-shots at how the President behaves, or are you willing to set an example and run for President yourself so you can lead by example and actually show us all how a President should behave?

Yeah, but I can’t even be a write-in candidate while I’m still working for the Feds.

manwithblackhat on May 9, 2008 at 2:34 PM

Nahanni on May 9, 2008 at 2:53 PM

I last visited Texas more than thirty years ago. Nice to know some things are still sacred there.

God bless Texas!

manwithblackhat on May 9, 2008 at 2:56 PM

Its difficult to understand what you are even saying here, but if your position is that nobody can oppose terrorism unless they themselves are willing to take up arms and put their lives on the line, you are just being silly.

I know it’s difficult. While there are some very sharp and well-read people in this forum, you don’t usually hear departures from the usual neo-con party line here. It takes getting used to. And no, that’s not what I mean at all. What I mean, is exactly what I’m saying, not what you think I might be inferring.

I had parents who grew up during World War II. As a child, they told me what it was like to be on “the home front,” and the sacrifices that were made. We truly were “the sleeping giant” that was awakened at Pearl Harbor. My maternal grandfather, and some of my uncles, got farm deferments because their production was needed at home. My late ex-father-in-law got an industry deferment, as a foreman at a steel mill. Everybody gave their all, even stateside.

Do I mean to put only our President in the dock? That would be too easy. I’m putting all of us as a nation in the dock. The most I would call upon him to do, is to set an example. We need that from a leader. Are we prepared to do what our parents and grandparents did back then? I look around at our standard of living, at what we are loathe to give up, and I don’t think we are. I submit that as long as we cannot answer “yes” to that question, our troops will not get the support they so richly deserve. (And for the record, yes, I think they richly deserve it.)

And if we are not prepared to keep the peace in the world (not worth a plug nickel, you say), why are we around the world fighting terrorism, the victory over which would achieve precisely that?

Now, I have no control over what you want to read into that. But at least start with what I actually say. Maybe you’re right. Maybe we shouldn’t have to ration gasoline, butter, and rubber tires. Maybe we should continue to have a new model year for our cars. In fact, maybe we should continue the prosperity of peacetime while waging war elsewhere.

But just tell me this: how did that work out for the Romans?

manwithblackhat on May 9, 2008 at 4:05 PM

Oh, and I lay Vietnam at the feet of the media and the Dems in Congress who cut off funding…

So do I. I remember that. I also remember the country buying the bill of goods. But we elected a Democratic majority in 2006, didn’t we? And we let the media tell us not to pay attention to certain candidates, don’t we? (No, not you personally.)

And yes, let’s concede that you’re right about the world peace thing for the moment. The fact is, we are not the only nation threatened by the terrorism of Islamic extremists. But don’t you believe we shoulder a disproportionate burden of trying to defeat it? Isn’t it time we started getting tough with “allied” nations who don’t support us?

And that whole ass on a platter thing, we agree on that too, okay?

manwithblackhat on May 9, 2008 at 6:17 PM