Sure, but is that how they feel, or because they’re afraid of getting in trouble if they criticized the war?
And would be your glorious leader? Hussein? I won’t even take this stupid “I have my daddy” nonsense seriously. This isn’t 1963, you aren’t a hippie in a VW microbus with dandelions in your hair. Get a clue.
The Us sowed discontent? And those fuckers who are called “insurgents” were all peaceful people, right? How stupid is that? At what point is “fighting terrorists” become “I hate my daddy, I hate my president and I excuse terrorism and evil dictators?”. Is it unnaceptable for the USA to show strength… not have to take a step back ? Who are you to make that decision and act the apoligist at the cost of more american lives? 9/11 redux.
The high reenlistment bonuses might, and you seem to be ignoring the drawdown in the delayed enlistment buffer that I cited above as one of the reasons that the army made last years recruiting goals.
[Baghdad celebrated the beginning of the end Tuesday of a devastating 3-week-old power outage. But more than 80 percent of the city remained in darkness _ and doctors reported the first suspected cases of feared epidemics of cholera and typhoid, with no clean water yet running.
Fifty- to 60 percent of the children brought in for treatment at the city’s Al-Iskan children’s hospital were suffering from dehydration and diarrhea caused by bad sanitation and water, said Dr. Ahmed Abdul Fattah, the hospital’s assistant director.](http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Cholera_typhoid_042203.htm)
Yes, we fucked things up, your nauseating rhetoric not withstanding.
Listen you stupid piece of shit, you’re not worth the sweat off the brow of a single conservative on this board, they’re at least Dopers, you’re just a representative of that creeping ignorance we’re here to fight.
Your slur against patriots in this country who opposed and oppose this damn fool war is disgusting.
You, sir, are revolting.
Schmuck.
We didn’t ‘show strength’, we invaded a soverign nation for no valid reason.
Fuck you and fuck your ignorant rhetoric.
International law is the one to make that decision.
American citizens are the ones to make that decision.
And the fact that you cheerlead for this butchery and bloodshed, for this quagmire that is making America and Americans less safe…
Well, you’re just an ignorant schmuck.
Here’s something a little more current (12/25/04) on the power situation in Baghdad
Other stories talk of children freezing to death this winter.
Yeah… I shouldn’t even respond to our new ‘friend’ on the boards… I think it’s somewhat likely that he’s just attempting to get a rise out of folks, but goddamn, such ignorant and hateful rhetoric makes me see red.
Which is not to say that he’s a troll, merely that virtually every post of his I’ve seen is inflamatory.
You bet, just another braindead redux injecting noise into communication channels that have all but fallen apart since 9/11. It’s almost enough to make one despair for the future of humanity.
Stay The Course!
Stay The Course!
Stay The Course!
Love It Or Leave It!
Love It Or Leave It!
Love It Or Leave It!
My Country Right Or Wrong!
My Country Right Or Wrong!
My Country Right Or Wrong!
What was that, couldn’t hear you, there seems to be some sort of marching music playing…
Or, to quote Rev. Maynard
As long as I’m at it, I feel like pointing out that folks who support this war might also look into becoming ‘contractors’ for the DoD. You can never have enough mercen, er, I mean, contractors on your side.
So, the OP has ESP and knows for a stone cold fact the MOTIVES of people for not joining the guard?
It’s entirely possible that people aren’t aware that there is such a deficit, OR that they’ve relaxed their standards (have they?, when I was in, a person had to pass the same exact requirements as those in the regulars,and go through the same exact basic training).
I was in the guard. The company I work for? Only one of the other employees wasn’t a regular, everyone else did their 20 years, and formed the company when they retired.
The deficit could be because many of the elligible people are already IN the regulars. You don’t know that the deficit is caused by 40,000 americans sitting around saying “oh no, too much WORK for me”. They may have already tried and been turned down for being over the Guard’s weight limit, health requirements and so on.
If you support sending our men and women to kill and die in a foreign land, doesn’t it behove you to stay up to date on all the specifics you possibly can?
As I stated above, the DoD is, I believe, still hiring ‘contractors’
So somene who really and honestly wanted to aid the war effort would have other routes.
First off, I wasn’t defending or against, was simply stating that the reasons the OP states may not necessarily be the ones he thinks that they are. (laziness, hypocrisy). Lack of “how to keep up on the knowledge”? Perhaps. Still don’t see where that is hypocrisy. It’s not as if the guard is out there advertising “by the way, we NEED assistance with the war effort”. At least not that I’ve seen, but then I don’t watch much TV.
And if that’s where they’re advertising, then wouldn’t that kinda bely the OP’s tone that “lazy asses watching TV all day”?
At any rate:
Thought I was clear on this. It’s possible that they don’t know that the requirements have been lowered. And that that’s why they’re not applying. I don’t know that either, that’s why I was ASKING. If they haven’t, then it’s entirely possible that they’re running into unfit candidates and being turned down.
I applied and left messages with several of these so-called contractors hiring for Iraq, and specifically VOLUNTEERED to go there. Never got a single call or email back.
Most of my career over the past 8 years has been as a military contractor on local bases, so it’s not like I didn’t have the experience. And I even have a security clearance thanks to some assistance to DEA and state law enforcement on drug busts (we did the packaging and disposal on the hazmat). One of our teaming partners bid on a contract for Iraq as well, they ended up withdrawing the bid and never sent anyone on that one.
I’m an environmental contractor, but when I applied, I made it clear that I had other skills. And despite the information on the website that I’d gone to stating how much the environmental workers were needed, I never got a single nibble.
And if our gov’t in its infinite wisdom, can’t even see fit to give our regular troops with decent eqpt, I don’t blame especially people who had ALREADY been over there for not re-joining, or joining the guard.
I haven’t been in the guard (I was ANG), for quite some time, but there were, among other things, weight limits, physical fitness requirements, tests for intelligence and abilities and so on, just to name a few. With our country at 35% obese, I’m not surprised that they’re having trouble finding recruits.
And people who can complete the runs, and other physical tests. I know with my specialty a person had to be able to lift 75 pounds straight over their head. If the guard is still insisting up on these requirements (as well they should if they’re sending people into physically demanding situations), then why is it so surprising that they’re short on their goals?
It’s also entirely possible that their vote for Bush had nothing to DO with whether or not they supported the war. I voted for Bush merely because I believed Kerry less than I did the Bush admin, and mostly because I refused to vote for someone who promised to close ANWR forever if it “was within his power”.
The OP doesn’t know that all supporting Bush also supported the war. Didn’t the polls show that it was “family values”? (read: no gay marriage)? And on that note, didn’t another poster cite during the November Pittings, that Kerry was no more for Gay Marriage than was Bush?
I’ve never voted party, since I’ve been old enough TO vote, I’ve always voted issues. Since I didn’t trust Kerry OR Bush on the war issue, I voted issues which mattered to me. Period. Not because I’m a rightwing war monger.
My point was, how does the OP know that all those who voted for bush fit his profile?
I know, sometimes english is a sloppy language.
I was using the plural ‘you’.
Possibly… although I’m pretty sure I would’ve seen a news story about record numbers of people attempting to enlist.
Still, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
It’s just a strong hunch I have.
Certainly admirable of you, but how many hawks have done the same?
Totally agree.
But, by the same token, if hawks are willing to send our boys and girls out to kill and die without decent equipment, surely they should be willing to place their own lives in the same conditions?
Good point.
Doesn’t matter what their vote for Bush had to do with.
Such votes still enable this wrong-headed strategy to continue, give it legitimacy, etc…
In an election that was this important, I think it’s moral evasion to attempt to ‘vote on other things.’
Our sons and daughters, and Iraqis, are being killed, and killing.
In my mind, there were few issues as immediate and vital to consider as the war. If you support Bush, you have, via your vote, supported his policies.
But doesn’t it bother you that Bush started a war, at best based on faulty intel, and at worst based on cherrypicked intel? Doesn’t it bother you that his regime deliberately conflated Iraq and Al Queda? Doesn’t it bother you that he has mis-managed this war at every single turn?
Doesn’t it bother you that your vote for him guarantees more of the same?
That is a good point, and I certainly can’t speak for the OP.
But I do believe that those who voted for Bush have given tacit approval for the quagmire to continue as is.
Did you try straight through the Iraq Project and Contracting Office?
$60-94K for a security specialist sounds pretty good.
And there you are humping my leg on every thread. I guess it’s all about the company you keep, eh, nidus?
You are nothing more than a coward and a crybaby hypocrite. Your rhetoric is lame, overdone and completely shallow.
If you’re so fucking right, what gives your insults and ad hominems any more credence and anyone elses? Why do you even use them when you cry if anyone else does? Oh I know, POT.KETTLE.BLACK.
Because that is all you have, coward.
Yes, yes yea…you have a reason !!! :rolleyes:
Maybe when you’re all done sucking Saddams dick you won’t practicing what you preach and start talking some sense. I know you lefties are peaceful, tolerant folk and all. :wally
Maybe you should be a contractor, go there and make blankets and start campfires for the cold and hungry you’re so concerned? Naahhhh…just sit at your screen and spew opinionated hateful rants of lefty screed, it’s real comfy sitting in that chair championing the anti american cause isn’t it? Makes you feel like you’re contributing something, right? :dubious: