The New Veterans Movement

" ... admit to being hopelessly cynical," .. well, you nailed that one Kengelhart.

But, point taken. Maybe next time the House will do a better job representing us little people the next time a president gets the expeditionary itch. Then again, maybe I was just serving to prevent THEIR elite from beating our elite .. which is bad for us non-elites in the US.

Another note, the comment that today's veterans are tomorrow's civil and political leaders .. I don't think today's Congressmen and Senators are so experienced. Nice thought though.

Dear Kengelhart.
I am a veteran. I served in Desert Storm and just returned this past April from a tour of duty in Iraq. I chose to serve this country and ALL of its people, not merely the elite. I and my fellow servicemembers see serving this country as an honor. It is unfortunate that you do not understand. We understand the value of our service to this country even if you do not.

A proud veteran of over 24 years of service

I suppose it would be too much--just pie-in-the-sky dreaming--to ask whether Eboo Patel and all the other Muslim apologists in this forum are going to get around to writing a commentary on the wave of Muslim killings of Christians in Iraq and India. Just because the Pope has raised an alarm about the massacres, I suppose, is no reason to believe the matter is any big deal. After all, writing about the killings of Christians at the hands of Muslims would detract from Mr. Patel's, et.al., mission in life to remind us over and over that American Christians do not understand Islam and, therefore, fail to understand its benign nature. I mean, what’s the death of a few hundred Christians at the hands of Muslim mobs, or the fact that millions of Muslims are able to freely practice their religion in the United States, measured against the fact that some unspecified number of Americans equate Islam with terrorism?

I suppose it would be too much--just pie-in-the-sky dreaming--to ask whether Eboo Patel and all the other Muslim apologists in this forum are going to get around to writing a commentary on the wave of Muslim killings of Christians in Iraq and India. Just because the Pope has raised an alarm about the massacres, I suppose, is no reason to believe the matter is any big deal. After all, writing about the killings of Christians at the hands of Muslims would detract from Mr. Patel's, et.al., single mission in life to remind us over and over that American Christians do not understand Islam and, therefore, fail to understand its benign nature.

Let's face it; we have not suffered another Islamic terror attack only due to the reason that the American forces took the fight to the terrorists' homes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Porkistan... (europenews.dk)

When the current members of the aging VFWs returned, they had the G.I. Bill and the resources of this government to educate themselves, buy a house, find work and be productive members of society.

Now, these young men and women return to an uncertain future, limited benefits, and a sagging economy that results in many of these young people (or not-so-young) "out there" to try and deal with all of this on their own.

I would hope that if he can find a way to link in the infrastructure of the VFW with the internet and perhaps use those facilities to provide other services, some good things are going to happen for those young people returning from the Middle East.

The California Veterans Board: WHAT IS A VETERAN? A Veteran –whether Active Duty, Retired, National Guard or Reserve is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America”, for an amount of “up to and including my life.” Author Unknown.

I admit to being hopelessly cynical, but I believe this definition of a veteran is a solicitation for US citizens to kill themselves for the protection of a privileged elite. I understand that the elite need protection. What I don't understand is the willingness of US citizens to die to protect them. Of course the elite give them few other choices when it is almost impossible to get a job or have a significant voice in the society unless you submit to their control over your life. Is it too late to change all this? Only time will tell.

Our War on Terror and Aggression cont.

Other elements of our War on Terror:

1. Saddam, his sons and major henchmen have been deleted. Saddam's bravado about WMD was one of his major mistakes.

2. Iran is being been contained. (beside containing the Sunni-Shiite civil war in Baghdad, that is the main reason we are in Iraq. And yes, essential oil continues to flow from the region.)

3. Libya has become almost civil. Apparently this new reality from an Islamic country has upset OBL and his “crazies” as they recently threatened Libya. OBL sure is a disgrace to the world especially the Moslem world!!!

4. North Korea is still uncivil but is contained. With the opening up of rail traffic between North and South Korea after 50 years and with the assistance of the US Navy in retrieving NK ships and personnel hopefully a fresh sense of civility is afoot.
5. North Korea was taken of the terrorist country list last week..
6. Northern Ireland is finally at peace.

7. The Jews and Palestinians are being separated by walls. Hopefully the walls will follow the 1948 UN accords and the Annapolis Peace Conference is at least somewhat successful.

8. Bin Laden has been cornered under a rock in Western Pakistan since 9/11.

9. Fanatical Islam has basically been contained to the Middle East but a wall between India and Pakistan would be a plus for world peace. Ditto for a wall between Afghahistan and Pakistan.

10. 9.Timothy McVeigh was executed. Terry Nichols will follow soon.

11. Eric Rudolph is spending three life terms in prison with no parole.

12. Jim Jones, David Koresh, Kaczynski, the "nuns" from Rwanda, and the KKK were all dealt with and either eliminated themselves or are being punished.

13. Islamic Sudan, Darfur and Somalia are still terror hot spots.

14. The terror and torture of Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo and Kuwait were ended by the proper application of the military forces of the USA and her freedom-loving friends. Radovan Karadzic was finally captured on 7/23/08 and is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the law of war -- charges related to the 1992-1995 civil war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia.

15. And of course the bloody terror brought about the Japanese, Nazis and Communists was with great difficulty eliminated by the good guys.

Our War on Terror and Aggression:

An update (or how we are spending or how we have spent the USA taxpayers’ money to eliminate global terror and aggression)

The terror and aggression via a Partial and Recent Body Count

1) Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

2) 9/11, 3000 mostly US citizens killed, 1000’s injured

3) The 24/7 Sunni-Shiite centuries-old blood feud currently being carried out in Iraq, US Troops (3,385 combat 800 non-combat) and 88,373 – 96,466
Iraqi civilians, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ and
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf

4) Kenya- In Nairobi, about 212 people were killed and an estimated 4000 injured; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85.[2]

5) Bali-in 2002-killing 202 people, 164 of whom were foreign nationals, and 38 Indonesian citizens. A further 209 people were injured.

6) Bali in 2005- Twenty people were killed, and 129 people were injured by three bombers who killed themselves in the attacks.

7) Spain in 2004- killing 191 people and wounding 2,050.

8) UK in 2005- The bombings killed 52 commuters and the four radical Islamic suicide bombers, injured 700.