"At least I don't have a kid in Iraq"

[Vudak]

Ya know, any time that some of you think you're any better than a bunch of prissy little teenage girls overanalyzing every little thing Charlene said, you need only look at this thread.

[midnight Target]

RPM shacked this one. In fact, this could possibly be the dumbest neocon twisty thread ever..

And that is saying a lot.

[JB88]

Originally posted by midnight Target
RPM shacked this one. In fact, this could possibly be the dumbest neocon twisty thread ever..

And that is saying a lot.

maybe we should have a BEST OF NEOCON TWISTY THREADS thread to sort it all out.

[midnight Target]

I'm just the idea guy.... I leave the legwork to you sir.

[JB88]

i'm just the idea guy who gets inspired by your ideas and hands them off to chairboy.

(if youve seen his halloween costume, you know he's the right man for the job)

[GRUNHERZ]

Nothing wrong with what se said.

[lazs2]

There is nothing wrong with what she said.  If she is involved with the USO she might even have said it simply because that is what she was thinking about so far as being in a dangerous situation.   What was on her mind.    

The only way to know is to ask her.   Let her explain it.   I think it is odd tho considering that of all the horrible things that can happen to a person.... having your non existent son in iraq seems like an odd choice to use... having your house burned down would probly be worse risk wise.

It just seemed like an odd thing to say unless, like I said... she had just finished up with a USO tour or something and iraq was on her mind.

either way...  I would believe whatever explanation she gave and it really is not that important to me what she thinks in any case.

lazs

[Airscrew]

Originally posted by lazs2
and it really is not that important to me what she thinks in any case.

lazs

hit the hammer right on the nail of the head

[Debonair]

lol a thread about todays celebratie top headlines goes to page 2 - fast.
whare r teh soap oprea threads

[Yeager]

per usual, lazs breaks it down to its core component.

[Charon]

What's interesting is that many of the strongest, most vocal supporters of the war (and of course, as they will loudly bray "the troops...") "Don't have a child in Iraq" either. Like the vast majority of Congress and the Senate, and our own President with two military-aged daughters. And, virtually anyone who would be considered "upper middle class."

Here in North Shore suburban Chicago, the military service path has to be on the order of a whopping 1 percent or so among high school graduates (as well as I can estimate from when I was in High School here). However, they do have a lot of yellow ribbons on their SUVs though to show how much they support the troops (it says so right there!) and what patriotic Americans they are (they bought the ribbon!).

Golf Clap.

Charon

[john9001]

Charon, you are right , if only the evil rich white neocons would stop invading peaceful countries, there would be "peace in our time" and our childern/solders would not have to fight.

cume by ya Charon cume by ya.

[Torque]

Originally posted by Charon
What's interesting is that many of the strongest, most vocal supporters of the war (and of course, as they will loudly bray "the troops...") "Don't have a child in Iraq" either. Like the vast majority of Congress and the Senate, and our own President with two military-aged daughters. And, virtually anyone who would be considered "upper middle class."

Here in North Shore suburban Chicago, the military service path has to be on the order of a whopping 1 percent or so among high school graduates (as well as I can estimate from when I was in High School here). However, they do have a lot of yellow ribbons on their SUVs though to show how much they support the troops (it says so right there!) and what patriotic Americans they are (they bought the ribbon!).

Golf Clap.

Charon

that's par for the course...so little to lose and much to be admired for.

[Vudak]

Originally posted by Charon
What's interesting is that many of the strongest, most vocal supporters of the war (and of course, as they will loudly bray "the troops...") "Don't have a child in Iraq" either. Like the vast majority of Congress and the Senate, and our own President with two military-aged daughters. And, virtually anyone who would be considered "upper middle class."

Here in North Shore suburban Chicago, the military service path has to be on the order of a whopping 1 percent or so among high school graduates (as well as I can estimate from when I was in High School here). However, they do have a lot of yellow ribbons on their SUVs though to show how much they support the troops (it says so right there!) and what patriotic Americans they are (they bought the ribbon!).

Golf Clap.

Charon

Charon, just because they don't have a kid there, or aren't there themselves, what makes you think they don't have someone there?

I'd imagine it'd be hard to find a single person who doesn't have at least one relative, at least one friend, or at least one coworker or friendly acquaitance who is serving.  We all want to see all of them come back safe, and we're all proud of what they're doing.

Practically everyone in America is connected to this war in some way.  I'm from an upper-middle class town, and have a score of buddies and family over there, back from there, or on their way there.

Golf clap?

[Charon]

Charon, just because they don't have a kid there, or aren't there themselves, what makes you think they don't have someone there?

Well, we have about 2,284,000 troops in uniform from a population of 300 million for starters. Less than 1 percent of the population, so the basic odds of knowing someone closely are diminished. Also, a study of the all volunteer force conducted in 1997 found that: These results have been confirmed in recent editions of this report, which portray a socioeconomic composition of enlisted accessions similar to the population as a whole, but with the top quartile of the population underrepresented.(6)

I'm from an upper-middle class town, and have a score of buddies and family over there, back from there, or on their way there.

Where I grew up, people had swimming pools in their houses and lived across the street from Chicago Bears and Chicago Bulls pro athletes. Certainly the top quartile of the population, perhaps the top 2-3 percent for that matter. We lived on "the other side of the tracks" but I can assure you that the concept of military service was alien, and something "other people did." I can count on less than two hands worth of fingers the number of people from my graduating class of 600+ who served -- officers types included. While that is close to the total percentage of military service in general, I can say that most of those who served were hardly from the more well off families in the community. College rates were 98 percent.

The idea that most Americans have a personal connection to the conflict beyond the national debt just doesn't work for me. Statistically or in the reality that: "The guy I work with -- Bob -- well, his nephew is in Iraq..." has any true significance.

Anecdotally, I can name a dozen people off the top of my head now who not only don't have a relative in Iraq, but don't know anybody who does. Aside from people on this board I have to go to the realative in-law of a friend myself (who is actually a newly minted Navy Seal). And, unless it's your family, or your closest firends having a "connection" to the war is hardly all that personal a deal.

That's why I have favored the draft. Needed for manpower, better soldiers than the critics would claim if properly trained and led (WW2 and Vietnam for that matter) and real skin in the game or at least the chance that you will have real skin in the game for the FULL population if there are no loopholes. With that in mind, supporting the troops takes on new meaning before the first deployment is even considered. Otherwise, its just a great big show on TV and someting to ***** about during the regularly scheduled water cooler debate between the "Dems" and "Repubs."

Charon