Just a quick couple of posts.
I'm 43, served with the 82nd Airborne and guess what, I want
to get back in to serve my country during this pivitol period.
Problem is, I can't. They say I'm a little too vintage
for them now. Bummer. So I understand your desire to
help our nation through military service.
As for joining the military now, while the desire
is admirable, I would strongly suggest that you
wait until AFTER THE ELECTION in November. If Kerry
sneaks in on the backs of misled and misinformed voters
then I would strongly advise AGAINST joining.
I served during the tail end of Jimmy Carter's
administration. That moron and his idiotic policies
nearly destroyed the military. At one point the
82nd was the ONLY combat-ready division-size
unit in the entire US Army. I can remember during
our M-60 training that we had only a limited supply
of ammunition to train with. And when we were
undergoing initial LAW training, guess what, we
got to fire just 1 round! Thank God Ronald
Reagan was elected after him! The difference
was notable and dramatic. We came from being a forgotten
'waste of money' (in the dems view) to an integral
part of our nation's defense.
The democrats haven't understood the military since
World War II (but that Democrat party died a long time
ago). Today's democrats think the military should be
used to hand out H'ours Dourves at White House dinner
parties or to dispense food to the third world. To them the
armed forces are a waste of money that could be better
spent on social programs that haven't worked and that,
in fact, have weakend the very fabric of America.
Moreover, they don't
trust the military, hence their propensity to micro-manage
it. They think the armed forces should be used to perform
social engineering (women in combat, gays in the military),
not fighting our enemies. To them, we should use the military
to 'buy' the love and respect of the world by passing out
food and acting as 'peacekeepers.'
This attitude is merely
a reflection of their approach to social problems here in the
US. They spend your money on programs to curry favor
with select voters in the hope that they will like the dems
and vote for them in upcoming elections. This nonsense
is bad enough for America but such an approach in international
affairs is a recipe for disaster.
Basically, they don't like the military because the armed forces
represent America's strength (folks, the dems think America is
the problem), and they don't want to fund the military because
they would rather pay people to sit home, get pregnant, and buy
a few votes by creating government-sponsored program dependencies.
In summary, the dems are big time bad news for the military.
At best they will marginalize the military and will fail to
appreciate their mission. Our brave and gallant US warriors
will be placed at the beck and call of the corrupt United Nations,
the new world government the dems delight in subordinating
themselves to. At worst they will micro-manage military
operations to the point of paralysis and get people killed.
The military's mission is simple. They are sent out to 'kill people
and break things'. We ask them to risk death, dismemberment,
injury and to leave they're families for long periods of time.
We ask them to sacrifice everything they have and everything
they will ever have on our behalf.
We send them to confront and destroy those who would destroy
us. Norman Schwarzkopf said it better than I ever could
when he remarked "once the decision to use force is made,
you don't get points for showing restraint."
The new-era liberal democrats and the self-annointed
elite media just don't get that. Their ignorance is unfathomable
and dangerous. They are bad for America.
So please do yourselves a favor. Wait for the election
to be decided. Then you can make a better and more
informed decision on whether joining is the way to go.
Hope this helps...
David
