One More Time

1/16/06
I'm going to try one more time. I only bother with explanations because there are such disingenuous people out there that try to argue that anything the military does is bad. Mr. Albanese, you argue as if all of our troops are draftees. The draft ended many years ago. You cannot but patronize the public and the troops with the often heard, "I support the troops, but I don’t support the war." If a person is a baker, if you denigrate his bread, constantly talk about how bad it tastes and how it is never fresh, you cannot honestly turn around and in the same breath say how wonderful the baker is. It is insulting and it is not true. A person may feel like he doesn't want to hurt the baker's feelings and so say what a wonderful baker he is. That does not change the evidence of your dislike of his products. I admit I am an armchair warrior. I am a veteran and I volunteered during the Vietnamese War. I did not, however see any combat. I do remember the military of that day and it consisted of people of several ilks. Some of them were drafted. They rightly hated where they were and what they were doing. There were those that enlisted and never expected to be involved with fighting. As far as the fighting was concerned, a lot of it was done by the volunteers that knew exactly what they were doing and why. Those are the ones that make up our entire military at this time. Repeat. There are no draftees in the military at this time. They almost unanimously support the leaders of this country. Never has one country invaded another for the purpose of improving the style of government in the occupied land, while simultaneously respecting the lives and resources of the people. This is a new endeavor and the success of it is evident in the 3 elections the people of Iraq have had within a year with very large turnouts dispite threats to the safety of the voters. You cannot ignore the purple fingers of fate. This time, there will be no sighning of the surrender to the cameras of the clamoring press. This time we use another standard. We will leave a country that is better off than it was. Remember, sir, we were attacked first. Ask the 3000 dead from Sept 11 about that. To say Saddam was not involved or there were no WMD's begs the question. You have to answer the primary question "are we at war or should we treat all these terrorists as criminals with complete protection of the very US Constitution they wish to subvert. If we are fighting criminals, I guess the proper response is to send an army of lawyers to fight them. Bill Clinton tried that approach before Sept 11. If that date is not important to you, ask the above mentioned 3000. If we are at war, help our army to be victorious in their battles. The war is not against Osama. It is not against Iraq. It is against the people that want to destroy this country and the way of life we have created in the most successful nation in history. You do not have to like the President. You do not have to like the Congress. You do not even have to like me. To like our troops, you have to support what they are so successfully doing.