I'm going to be controversial here and ask, your opinion.

[GoldenDelicious]

WTF do you know about America? and if you know something about America, do you have a life in Australia?

At least you are now telling the truth about the risks for our soldiers in Iraq and that cheap comparison to Vietnam. Everything goes down by it's own weight.

i see that time has not improved you mind, djufo. Many would have thought it impossible, but you seem to be getting stupider...

 

[AristotleBC]

its all bullshit. its a tactic used by politicians to tug at public heartstrings and bestow worthless, intangeable "meaning" to thankless jobs, and thereby giving more job satisfaction to people working in those shitty jobs.

politicians talk about "the fallen" reverently, as if they were doing their job for noble reasons, and not their paychecks. its a scam.

be a soldier! be a patriot! protect america! protect freedom! protect democracy! quick heres 30 grand in bonuses, did you know that you stand more chance of being killed in traffic than being blown up by a bomb in iraq? its really not THAT dangerous, and the moneys great! theres a great future in the army! women love the uniform too!

what a load of bullshit.

You're a fucking moron who's idiocy seems to be growing in proportion to your post count

Don't you realize that a great many soldiers do what they do (in the USA at least) out of a LOVE for their country ? Or if they don't join for that reason they often stay in because of it?

 

[redguru]

nah, it's about money. power words sell the fairytail to the poor lower class schmoes that gotta do the fighting and dying.
Vietnam
Clinton: goes to school in the UK.
Bush: air reserves champaign squadron

George H.W. Bush
Lt George Bush, then a 20-year-old pilot, was among nine airmen who escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on Chichi Jima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, in September 1944 - and was the only one to evade capture by the Japanese.

The horrific fate of the other eight "flyboys" was established in subsequent war crimes trials on the island of Guam, but details were sealed in top secret files in Washington to spare their families distress.


Robert Dole
By April of 1945, he was fighting the Nazis in the hills of Italy where the action was fast paced. One of the platoon's radio men was hit. Bob Dole crawled out of his foxhole to help him, but it was too late.

Suddenly, while trying to assist the downed radio man, Dole was hit by Nazi machine gun fire in the upper right back and his right arm was so damaged that it was unrecognizable. Dole was immediately given morphine by an Army field medic to alleviate the pain, and his forehead was marked with an "M" in his own blood to alert medics. He was not expected to live.

Dole waited nine long hours on the Italian battlefield before he was finally taken to the Fifteenth Evacuation Hospital. After a brief stay in a field Army hospital in Italy, he was transported back to the United States and to Topeka's Winter General Army Hospital, where he continued his painful recovery and endured a kidney operation. Then, he was transferred to Percy Jones Army Medical Center in Michigan, where he survived his second brush with death -- blood clotting. He was a patient in that hospital along with Phillip A. Hart, whose name graces one of the U.S. Senate office buildings, where Bob Dole occupied an office.

 

[saint808]

it's a tragedy when anyone dies... it's a good media story when someone dies in the line of duty. blame themedia.

 

[redguru]

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Cousin to FDR and son of Teddy Roosevelt
The military cemetery at Colleville Sur Mer is situated at the top of the ridge overlooking Omaha Beach. Interred at the cemetery are Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen who gave their lives working to free Europe from the Third Reich. Perfectly aligned, like Soldiers in formation, 9,387 gravesites populate this place of honor, almost all of them were "spoken for" within a week of June 6th, 1944.

Among the Soldiers buried here is Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. As a son of a President, Army leadership was hesitant to allow BGEN Roosevelt to actively participate in the landings. He insisted that he lead his men from the front, and took his units to Utah Beach. BGEN Roosevelt was the oldest member of the D-Day invasion forces, and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts. He died of a heart attack on July 12, 1944. His brother, Quentin, a World War 1 veteran is buried at his side.

Your argument, Ulcaster, does not wash.

 

[cwc73]

I'll just quote two things and leave it at that.

"Duty, Honor, Courage"

"Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in ALL We Do"

I think these things are what makes the fighting force "worthy"

 

[manny78]

Why is it considered a tragedy of extra proportions when a Law Enforcement Officer, or especially a member of our armed forces, gets hurt or dies?

It is their job, after all, to put themselves in danger to protect the rest of us. For that reason, I give the brave people who protect my way of life, whether it be from my fellow citizens (cops) or from foreign aggressors (soldiers, etc), the utmost respect and gratitude.

However, if they get hurt or die, well they were just doing their job. Sure the person responsible is reprehensible, and should be prosecuted and persecuted. But, presumably, since this is a free country, the victim was an adult of sound mind and body, who made a decision to take on the role of protector (again, a decision to be lauded). They presumably knew what they were getting into (if not they are still a hero, but just stupid).

9/11, that's a tragedy. A mom killed by her ex-husband, that's a tragedy.

A police office killed in a shootout with a kidnapper? Eh, unpleasant, but not anywhere near the level of the above two. A soldier killed when his helicopter is shot down by the enemy? Uh, that's what happens in a war. It's not senseless. The victims are not "innocent." So why the major outpouring of attention when a person whose job it is to endanger themselves so that the rest of us are safe, dies? And why when presumably there are also several other violent deaths of people by equally horrific means who are NOT intentionally placing their lives on the line?

This has puzzled me for some time now.

To all current and past members of the armed forces: the statements above are precisely why I am respectful and grateful. I recognize you for your choice of job; not the fact that you do it. I do my job. I expect you to do yours.

Dunno but it's part of their job. That's unfortunately something I'll never understand. We make choices, we accept the consequences and life goes on.

 

[deltreefitness]

Hey, columbia58. If you're going to copy and paste directly from other websites at least have the decency to reference or credit. It was obvious when comparing punctuation and spelling.

Posts #48 and #50 are directly from this site:
http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/statesrights.html
http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/protectivetariffs.html

 

[Ulcasterdropout]

All you copy and pasted, columbia58, is vaild, but it was slavery, not geography that was making the division in congress, even in the territories.
My post was a very very general summary, but it boiled down to slavey, something the poor guys fighting and dying, didn't own.

Your argument, Ulcaster, does not wash.

Oh, it washes just fine...
If we were to compare examples of people getting out of fighting in wars. buy using family influence or money, as comapared to common men who had to fight as conscripts, I'd out number your examples 17693726592 to 1. Those are good exceptions, but exceptions don't set a standard to disassemble a argument.

I redded all you homos back.

 

[KillahBee]

These brave men and women answer to a higher calling, college or not, it's not about the money it's about following in the foot steps of all who went before them. It's about freedom. There deaths are so tragic because they died for us. Freedom is not free.

not for nothing, but you have no idea why people (every person) decide to be cops or soldiers. not all are answering to a higher calling. many just need money and have no other means, or want to attend college but have no other financial means to get there, or are plain old lost and need direction.