Free Republic

Also,

Philadelphia is a socialist utopia.

People who work are taxed an ADDITIONAL 2.7%.
Business are spanked with a “business privilege tax” all but ensuring no one can do business here.

But people who are on welfare get DirecTV. Yes, you heard me correctly, DirecTV. Comes standard on project housing.

And we wonder why this city is burning.

It’s just that this city is on track to hit 400 murders, and the guy has been accused of sitting on his ass and not doing a thing about it.

So it’s infuriating to find out he’s wasting taxpayer dollars sitting in line to buy a phone. He should be running the city. Couldn’t he have an intern do that for him?

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton was endorsed by none other then the most popular man in all of Philadelphia, Mayor John Street. Apparently Marion Barry wasn't available.

I agree, it's not quite Iwo Jima, but urban warfare is a relatively new type of warfare, particularly on the scale we're doing it on now.

Our military, up until very recently, has been structured to fight Vietnam-- in the jungle with large open terrains, cover, etc. Now we're fighting insurgents in urban or desert warfare. Check out the flak jackets-- most of them are still green colored. It's a new type of evolving warfare, and our military is meeting the challenge and exceeding any and all expectations. It's pretty awesome.

The Marines are especially doing a nice job, I think it's due to the way their forces are set up. The MEU really is the most effective way to fight these kids of wars, I'm guessing the Army is going to have to restructure a little to meet the challenge... though the 82nd is EXTREMELY impressive and effective for this type of combat. (And yes, the Army has been doing a great job... they're just not devil dogs :) ).

Marines = awesome. The Corps is really making leaps and bounds in terms of urban warfare.

weldgophardline -

I'm glad to hear your son is so excited about boot camp! I LOVED boot camp-- I had 88 guys I call "brother".

Tell him to stay motivted and do everything as loud, as intense, and as quickly as he can. Give everything 100%. Boot camp ends and he'll look back on it as a great experience someday.

You never ever forget the name of your DIs. They will treat him well.

Its not the people joining the military doing the protesting-- its the people who are already in college and have it paid for.

What's messed up is that these kids are infringing on other kids right to join the service. There are PLENTY of opportunities to get college paid for in other ways. People in the service want to be there for some reason or another-- its not like one day you just wake up and you're on Parris Island.

Once you get to boot, you have to want to finish or you won't make it. We had people quit during the 5th, 6th, 7th weeks of training, they just said "Sir, this recruit doesn't want to be here anymore." The Senior DI counsels them, but if they're shitbirds they ride a bus home-- just where I want them.

The bottom 15% of my class that graduated shouldn't have.

And i'm sorry, even though it's irrelevant...

But my platoon had a lot of random rich white kids. We had an accountant serving as an E2, a graphic designer... there were more than enough kids who were bored of finished with college that just wanted to serve. It wasn't about what they were offering us, it was about serving your country and not being stuck in a little backwater town.

The most racist, discriminitory institutions I know of are colleges. When you join the service, you leave your past behind you. You can go as far as you want based on how well you perform-- your PFT scores, aptitude, etc. The service is even a model institution for racial integration-- unlike universities!

To do well in a college, you can go to an expensive private high school, get private SAT tutoring, have a class size of 15 kids and a teacher who cares... no wonder you'll get in somewhere nice-- and that's okay! But at at least in the service, you have to drop your past and everyone starts on equal footing.

The headline should read: University of Wisconsin students protest a U.S. Army Military Recruitment Station, because they "“focus on people who have little access to opportunities.”

I'm sure they all then gave up their slots at college to underprivlidged kids. I don't think I've read anything this month that made me as mad as this...

Mark my words, Hagel is going to be one of the front-runners for the 2008 election. Guliani, Hagel, I'm sure Arnold would love to...

It'd also be interesting to see them do something like Santorum/Brownback-- a more conservative platform, which would be an intersting contrast against (shudder) Hilary...

I pick Arnold because he's tough.

Seriously, if I were the RNC, I would run Guliani and Schwarzzenegger. Then the Democrats would have to fight just to win California and New York-- states they traditionally win. It would be almost impossible for the Democrats to get elected with that ticket running against them. Of course, they'd also have to amend the Constitution to get Arnold in...

My pick for 2008 is Chuck Hagel.

being against the war is one thing. fine. but those "nothing accomplished" stickers are the most disgusting, disrespectful, troop hating things I have ever seen...

my buddy just got home from Iraq and had no IDEA the sentiment was like this. he said the insurgents are a minute part of the population and that they're not even usually iraqi to begin with...

Who gives a shit if he has/had them or not? Does it matter?

We wanted a strategic foothold in the middle east. DONE. We wanted a madman out of power. DONE. We wanted to bring democracy to a backwater place. DONE.

'nuff said.

what... the...

When did the army become start giving touchy feely "therapy sessions"?

Personally, I don't even give a shit if Iraq had them or not. I think we needed a strategic foothold in the middle east TO HELP FIGHT TERRORISM, we figured Iraq would be easy enough to take over (be that as Saddam wasn't very well liked), and on top of that profitable.

I think America is missing the point.