MINORITY WAR DEATHS: AN UGLY MYTH

I guess she prefers to ignore Colin Powell's Viet Nam service. Gee, Mamma, is it because he's BLACK?

Oh, and the statement about military members being Republicans is true. We know, all to well, how Democrats feel about us, and it's quite mutual.

I hope that TRUTH hurts. Your party is made up of traitors.

Was Charlie Rangel in Congress when Democrat President Lyndon Johnson started Project 100,000, a Great Society program which through conscription, funnelled almost 300,000 of the "subterranean poor," mostly black, many of whom could not read or write, into the military?

According to a Pentagon study, their "attrition by death" rate was nearly double that of other Vietnam era troops.

The body bags may not be labeled Republican or Democrat, but the political party that nearly destroyed our ability to defend ourselves, that cynically manipulated the draft so that the burden of fighting was largely on the backs of
the working-class poor, that betrayed and abandoned our fighting force in SE Asia which, despite media lies and government stupidity, never lost a military engagement in Vietnam, that political party is the Democrats.

After re-building the junior officer corps (without which no nation can field an army) and men, morale, and materiel, during the Reagan/Bush41, years, the politicians (Republicans not excluded) ignored the gutting of our military, ignored the use of defense department funds to pay for presidential trips, destroyed our intelligence gathering capabilities which placed our troops at risk, and on, and on,all during the Clinton administration.

Party loyalty should not blind us to the differences between the Parties regarding the military. Facts are facts and the facts demonstrate that the Democrat Party in power leads to the dimunition of the country's ability to defend itself, or to wage war effectively.

The highest rate of black deaths in Vietnam was 16.3 percent (in 1966) - and almost all of those killed that year were volunteers for elite units, not reluctant draftees.

'66 and '67 were my years there. As clerk I filed and kept the records.
1) Most of us draftees VOLUNTEERED FOR THE DRAFT. WE VOLUNTEERED FOR VIETNAM. WE WANTED TO GO.
2) Us clerks followed orders and recorded the deaths as combat. We sent letters home to family "You're loved one died a hero, fighting for his country." Baloney. He died in a drunken traffic accident; or in a drunken fight with his best friend in the pool room.

They were Black, White, Hispanic, all types. The statistic of how they died and the cover up is more significant than their race.

Yeah, I actually meant post Viet Nam, I should've put that in my post- an oversight on my part.

I don't like the tired old line that people drag out every tiime a war comes up "are you ready to send your sons and daughters off to die". We're sending them off to kick the enemy's ass- not to die. My mom was always worried and I basically told her in a polite way to stuff it- it's my life, this is what I want to do. If I die, oh well. I don't see massive protests to prevent policemen from facing the criminal's bullets- I've never understood what was different about the situation now that the military is 100% volunteer. When I joined the Infantry, I knew I was taking a calculated risk- but then I'm taking a risk every time I drive or SCUBA dive. It's my life and I would hate to think my mother could get on television and cry a little bit in order to affect whether or not I got to do my job.

"Chicken Hawks like Dumbya and Cheney have made enormous stock market profits, so they can afford to pay others to do their fighting for them."

Dear God, woman;are you truly this stupidly venal? If so,was it naturally inflicted upon you, or was it simply your lack of intellectual honesty and character? The world awaits your reasoned response with breathless anticipation.

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