[thesistine]

This is my first post here, though I've been reading since the 2008 elections. I came across this article and wanted to hear some opinions about the content.

[Grizzled Bear]

I don’t think this argument will be very popular here...

[Fiddlstix]

Welcome to FR
Ya done good for a first post.
I haven't read the whole article.
I'll do that now. It looks like it might be interesting.

[YellowRoseofTx]

This appears to be either the article or a similar one to what Mark Levin talked about on his show tonight.

[Huntress]

Predictably, Kristof doesn’t ask a critical question: would the miltary model work so well if nearly everyone it were a conscript? Also, Kristof also ignores the fact that the military cannot (and is not intended to) support itself financially. We need a vibrant private sector so we can afford an effective military.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

The military is not analogous to society as a whole.

[darkwing104]

The military isn't a social program. What the schmuck doesn't tell you is that you have little choice on where to go. No Labor unions, little choice on medical care. Long Hours fixed pay and a good old boy system second to none. An lower pay than you civilian counterparts. Don't get me started about the VA.

You still have to pay for educational benefits and what little the armed forces chip in is taxed and everything will be controlled by a government official.

A military community without accountability is called a welfare state. An uncontrolled Military system is called a dictatorship...Take your choice schmucky.

[GatorGirl]

Here’s the difference.

You EARN those benefits, they aren’t just given to you!

[Huskrrrr]

Sorry, but there is a lot of wasteful spending in the military. Private businesses would go bankrupt from similar waste. I'm obviously not suggesting privatization of our military, but it might work with other agencies.

[ansel12]

Odd way to start, posting a thread.

[blueunicorn6]

Yep, the military is truly socialist. I remember Wes Clark taking out his wallet every payday and giving his money to the Enlisted Soldiers just to make things fair.

[rangerwife]

He mentions the transition to VA care. He needs to do a quick google search on issues with the VA. Hell, even the VA is more concerned with pc:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110610/ap_on_he_me/us_transgender_veterans_3

[panthermom]

I always find that people that think the VA is so wonderful do not nor would not use the VA.

I experienced the VA with a wounded warrior about 2 yrs. ago. I wanted to cry when I left it was horrible!

[Noob1999]

Yeah, and the military will be happy to enlist everyone from the dregs of society, ‘cause all they want is a few meals a day.

The military works because its ranks include those who are willing to fight and die for their country, or those who are willing to support that effort.

You just can’t take that model of training the willing, to recruiting the unwilling to try to fend for themselves.

I’m glad that this asshat realizes that our military is exlemplary, but certainly not for the reasons that he postulates!

[Allegra]

“It’s the purest application of socialism there is,” Wesley Clark, the retired four-star general and former supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe, told me.

Ugh....the Weasel would say something like that.

And the article crows about how the military "knits together" all of these differences races and social backgrounds, but believe me, there is every bit as much clannishness in the military as there is in civilian life.

Attend any holiday gathering downrange and you'll see the blacks all off at one table, Asians at another and other clicques forming along racial lines.

I admire and support our armed forces and am very, very grateful for them and for what they do, but the utopia described in this article is no closer to reality than the utopia the liberals envision in other aspects of our society.

[VeniVidiVici]

I bet I can find an article two that has Kristof bitching about the cost of the DoD socialism.

[CharacterCounts]

The business sector is dazzlingly productive, but it also periodically blows up our financial system.

Not True!

Every single time our financial sector blew up it was the government and banks behind it.

When a writer thinks the most stunning achievement of the American military is its day care program, we can expect BS like this.

Finally, the author lists all kinds of reasons people stay in the military when they could be making more in the private sector, all of them coming from a socialist viewpoint, but neglects the most important reason - a sense of duty to ones country.