I hope he knows he can no longer run for office.

[mnischalke 0]

Interesting choice of analogy.

The analogy I left off my last post was eerily similar.

Here: While a man can hear hours of first-person stories about a woman's experience of pregnancy, he will never really understand what it is like to carry a baby.

mike

Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills--You know, like nunchuk skills, bow-hunting skills, computer-hacking skills.

[quade 4]

It's not -all- that's required, but it is a very large help.

Isn't that the basis of the court system and arbitration? A person or persons not directly involved?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[DrunkMonkey 0]

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...I did do some JROTC type stuff...

Bwhahahahaha!!! JROTC... Uh huh... Has less than nothing to do with college-level ROTC, and even less than that to do with the real Armed Forces... JROTC won't teach you anything marching band or too much History Channel won't also...

[quade 4]

Ya had to be there.

May I suggest to you that it was a bit different at the time than it might have been when you formed your opinions.

For instance, I spent four weeks in San Diego side-by-side with other recruits going through basic. Not really sure if they do that now, but our group did. We did everything they did; weapons training, NBC training, fire fighting, PT . . .

Not the same as actually going to Vietnam to be sure, but certainly enough to give impressionable youth a taste of what they were going to be getting into from the military discipline stand point.

There were other "experiences" as well. Spent a couple of weeks on a ship taking off on a WestPac tour. We got dropped off in Hawaii, but for the couple of weeks we were aboard the ship, again, we worked side-by-side with the regular crew.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[DrunkMonkey 0]

I guess that's true. The JROTC's I trained as a ROTC C1C (The yr before I put on 2Lt) redefined "odd." Let's just say I never knew Timmy and Cartman were JROTC cadets until that year...

[Shark 0]

Soldiers enforce policy, not make it.
Being a member of the armed forces may even involve war and what some may believe unjust killing. That being the case, why become a soldier?

Being a soldier is not for everyone, just as skydiving is not for everyone. In either case, some get involved for all the wrong reasons.

[rushmc 23]

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"All you need to know is who financed these commercials".

Because that's the bottom line. Defending himself from these allegations only distracts from other campaign matters and aren't going to convince anyone that would believe what these guys are saying anyway. It's a paper tiger.

The truth is these same guys used the same tactics against Cleland and McCain. They have zero credibility unless you're somoene who wants to believe them. And if you are, then Kerry defending himself isn't going to convince you anyway.

Then everything Soros is funding you have to look at the same! Right??

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rhino 0]

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It is important that our soldiers buy into the war. Without them feeling as if they are doing the right thing, they simply won't do what has to be done.

This is incorrect. Our soldiers are professionals. "With the exception of a few jackasses at Abu Garab..

Rhino

[PhillyKev 0]

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Then everything Soros is funding you have to look at the same! Right??

Of course. If he were the only source for that information, I wouldn't give it much weight. And I don't agree with most of the stuff that MoveOn says. I went out with a list of voters provided to me by MoveOn in a get out the vote effort. They also gave me material to hand out to people that were still undecided. The material was exhagerations and mistruths. I threw it out.

[quade 4]

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This is incorrect. Our soldiers are professionals. "With the exception of a few jackasses at Abu Garab..

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/militarylaw1/a/obeyingorders.htm

My point is that the soldier must have total confidence that his leaders are giving him legal orders. This is the entire argument that Kerry was talking about when he testified in front of Congress. He followed the orders which he believed had been legal and later came to the conclusion that they were not legal.

Personally I think it took a lot of courage to say the things he did, but I also understand why people feel differently.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[wmw999 2,588]

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My point is that the soldier must have total confidence that his leaders are giving him legal orders

I had an offline conversation with someone on dz.com (no longer much here, darn it) which really brought that home to me. It had never occurred to me how important it was.

He'd chosen not to question what had happened in the past, and I can understand and honor that.

But we're asking well-raised (as a rule) young men and women to break many of the rules their parents raised them with. If they're any good at all (most are), they have to believe in what they're doing, to go against what they were raised with.

And if you don't choose to look in the rear view mirror when it's past, well, it's past.

To me, there's a difference between using those same glasses throughout your life, but, well, people are different.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)