“One Weekend A Month, My Ass!”
- graffitti allegedly spotted in Baghdad
Turning against the Commander and Chief? I guess they turned against Clinton, but they are fighting, so I would think they see Bush as “on their side”.
If some military dopers would check in…
Bush is the President who was going to cut combat pay and cut the dependent allowance. Go check out back issues of Army Times.
Of course, in these days of photoshop anything’s possible, but if you plug “one weekend a month my ass” into Google, you’ll get plenty of hits to evaluate.
I couldn’t find anything on Snopes about it.
As all of you have rightly pointed out, there is much to provoke antipathy between the soldiers currently stationed in Iraq and the current administration (I think Rummy actually takes the brunt of this anger, but perhaps not). What I will find interesting is whether the shroud of unamericanism that has been placed over the left by the military will be lifted just a bit by Clark.
Clark made an interesting statement:
And if you think about it, it is quite true. Once you enter the military, you have your housing, meals, health care and education subsidized by the Federal government. It’s almost downright socialist if you think about it ;). If one is used to such a life and believes that the military does things the right way, wouldn’t the soldiers feel more comfortable with a left-leaning candidate?
I’ve lived in military housing. I’ve been treated by military doctors. I’ve eaten military food, and I’ve been educated in military schools. “Adequate” is the most that can possibly be said about any of them, even on the best of days.
If that was what a “left-leaning candidate” has to offer, I’d be voting for the other guy.
minty,
Granted, they may not be the epitome of grandeur, but they certainly are better than nothing, and there are many who face the possiblity of nothing in all or some of these categories. What I believe Clark is proposing is that this type of service would be the base that any american citizen could count on during hard times. Of course money, connections and charity can improve your selection in any category. Certainly the left is not proposing that everyone get the lowest common demoninator in each category. The Soviet Union proved very effectively that is an untenable proposition. But for those who are facing nothing, “adequate” is just fine thank you.
I fail to see the distinction between the “lowest common denominator” and whatever kind of social safety net you’re talking about. But I don’t want to hijack this thread onto that particular discussion unless Clark actually runs on such a platform (which he has not, so far), so I’ll just let this one go.
He was on GMA or TODAY this morning (not minty, Clark) and the latest is that he was misconstrued about the war–he appears to have been against it from the beginning, because Iraq hadn’t attacked us, UN inspectors do their jobs, we should have gone in with our friends if we had to, yadda yadda yadda.
Which is all very well and good, but I would have liked to hear from a man with recent military service exactly what he WOULD have done. Bush may be screwing some things up, but people do know that he is committed fiercely to keeping America safe. Any Dem that appears to be not as committed or cares too much about what LE FIGARO or DER STERN thinks won’t win.
So what you’re saying is, what Clark really needs is a gigantic codpiece.
No, that Bush sucked up to the military by appearing in a flight suit.
Actually, my understanding is that the flight suit is mandatory for ANYBODY who’s flying in one of those planes. A lot of equipment, seatbelts and restraints, and your oxygen masks has to be hooked into it. If Stone Phillips did “So You Want to be a Fighter Pilot” on 20/20, he’d be in one of them. So enough with the flight suit :dubious:
The question of whether he needed to arrive by plane to begin with is the one you should be asking. 
And my brother’s on active duty in upstate New York and they love Bush, seeing him as one of them; but this may be just because they hated Clinton so very much and thought Gore was trying to steal the election by discounting overseas military votes. My bro doesn’t believe the more baroque theories, but he does support Dubya. Someone like Clark might get his vote, though. But there’s lots of military guys, he thinks, that would never ever vote for a Dem president, seeing them all as weak and concilatory.
Probably, but change clothes. Take a helicopter. It was grandstanding.
It should be noted that although Americans like voting governors into the Presidency, this is generally a pretty bad idea- no foreign policy experience, you see. Thus you get Reagans and Bushes and Carters, unused to the bright lights of the world stage and forgetting their lines. Give me a Congressman or a Secretary of State for a presidential candidate any day of the week.
Bush did change clothes – he was dressed in suit when he delivered his speech. The shots of him in the flight suit took place immediately after he exited the plane – he changed clothes pretty quickly thereafter.