Perfectly said.
Is there any point at which the CINC's character, or lack thereof, becomes an issue? Would you willingly serve under a Hitler, Stalin or Mao?
Posted on 10/30/2004 3:46:30 PM PDT by doug from upland
My son in law is in the Navy. After 5 years, he re-upped last year for 3 more. He has thought of making it a career and proudly serves his country.
But like many, many of his comrades, he wonders what he will do if John Kerry becomes the commander in chief.
He knows all about Kerry --- testifying to lies in the Senate, the Winter Soldier lies, the questionable medals, the visits to Paris, the vote whether to assassinate senators, etc. He knows that Kerry's words were used to torture men in custody.
Soldiers and sailors everywhere are worried. Those who have made it a career know that the commander in chief will change and it might not be someone with whom they agree. But he is the commander in chief, and they do their job to serve the country. That is what comes first.
But our warriors have never faced anything like this. Clinton loathed the military and hurt the military, but they survived. With Kerry, they know that they are facing the prospect of being commanded by someone who can truly be called a traitor.
Many of our finest will wonder what to do. Would commander in chief Kerry force them to wear the blue helmets of the U.N.? Would he turn them over to a world court for justice? Would he veto funding bills like the $87 billion?
I had written previously that under Kerry, we might need a draft because of the number of soldiers who would not serve under him.
Right now, our military is the best in the world. Among the reasons are that the men and women respect their commander in chief. And their commander in chief respects them. We will have a nightmare on our hands if the commander changes right now.
My brother left active for reserves during Clinton. He said he was not encouraged to stay by his anybody in his chain of command. He was in for 8 years, and they couldn't care less. This is what Clinton did to our military.
I agree. How the hell would Kerry increase the size of the military if he were elected without reinstating the draft?
He would have a hard time just dealing with attrition.
IFfKerry is elected there will be a draft because a lot of people will quit the military. Bush should pull out all stops and tell people this.
Perfectly said.
redrock
He can always re-institute the draft.
John Kerry also said the following less than three weeks ago,
"We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance," Kerry told a New York Times Magazine writer when asked what it would take for Americans to feel safe again. "As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life," Kerry said in the interview, conducted in August and published Sunday.
And Kerry's top foreign policy advisor, Dick Holbrooke, someone who until recently was figured as Kerry's pick for Secretary of State said this to the New York Times on October 10:
"We're not in a war on terror, in the literal sense," says Richard Holbrooke, the Clinton-era diplomat who could well become Kerry's secretary of state. "The war on terror is like saying 'the war on poverty.' It's just a metaphor. What we're really talking about is winning the ideological struggle so that people stop turning themselves into suicide bombers."
How do you serve under someone who denies the justness of the fight in which you are engaged? If you walked into your CO's office to file an after action report during which your buddy got killed and the CO said, "Son, we shouldn't be here. It's the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time." How would it effect your morale?
Actually these have been the sentiments of young warriors and grizzled old vets since the time of Alexander the Great. It doesn't much have to do with the nation, but rather the warrior. Just why would you equate our fine professional soldiers with the Fatherland of nazi Germany?
Backtrack the thread and you will see that the conversation centered on John Kerry as CINC. If after reading what I posted on #146 you still don't understand my point then let me know.
He'll have to.
Excellent sentiment but given that this is a volunteer military I'm inclined to believe fewer people would be willing to volunteer or re-up if they don't have confidence in their cinc. There are other ways to serve the nation as the libs once liked to remind us.
Perfectly said.
Is there any point at which the CINC's character, or lack thereof, becomes an issue? Would you willingly serve under a Hitler, Stalin or Mao?
I simply believe that a soldier's dedication to Country could survive a Kerry.
The ultimate irony could be the scenario of liberal parents who voted for Kerry watching their sons and daughters go to Canada to avoid being drafted because of a Kerry presidency. It would serve them all right.
The current crop of recruits weren't even born when Kerry testified before the Senate in 1971, but many of their senior commanders are Vietnam veterans and they remember. They remember all too well.
It would be simultaneously hilarious and terrible. Of course, the liberals would blame Bush.
Under Kerry the U.S. military will be put under U.N. command. And as we have seen the U.N. just loves to get our soldiers killed with their rules of engagement.
I understand your comment. I just think you wrongly deny the American fighting men and women the right to feel pride in a job well done and in their pride at serving their country. Sure it hurts morale. Right now, Kerry is NOT the President. But I was in the reserves during the Clinton era. Many of my friends went to Somalia and other places and gave their lives in what we now consider useless causes. Does that lessen the significance of their sacrifice? The essence of the professional, is in still doing the job to the best of their ability despite a poor CINC. How about the first Delta strike at Desert 1 in Iran? That was a Carter catastrophe and he was perhaps the weakest President in our history. Are the lives lost in the Iranian desert on that mission in vain?
Hopefully, Kerry will be defeated. Tell your son vets are his rear guard. And Doug, send Kerry a little "chin music" from California.
I have greater faith!
I will not rehash all that we both know of John Kerry's war record. But here we have a man who not only disgraced the sacrifice of his fellow veterans, but continues to do so unashamedly today. He committed undeniable acts of treason and by his own admission he committed war crimes. If he were running for a Senate seat in Massachusetts, I'd say, that's the business of the folks from Massachusetts, but he wants to be the CINC of the United States of America.
The fact that my brother and your friends were led by CINCs who lacked the character to lead men in battle is terrible, but does not detract one whit from their personal sacrifice. My brother is a national hero, and not because I say so, but because everyone he served with says so. Even the SSG who found my brother's dismembered body and who did not even know him wrote to me last year to express his profound respect for my brother's sacrifice.
I would strongly discourage any young man from serving under a John Kerry presidency, not because their sacrifice would be lessened by his leadership, but because he has proven himself repeatedly over the last 35 years to be an enemy of the American military establishment.
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