I'll never forget the day in 1973 when I received my honorable discharge from the United States Air Force. I had served a total of twenty months. American involvement in the Vietnam War was officially over, Richard Nixon was on the verge of being run out of the White House and I was finally a free man again after applying for and receiving a conscientious objector discharge. My application could have been denied at any level of my entire chain of command yet the Secretary of the Air Force had ultimately approved it.
The whole process took over fourteen months to complete. During this time, much to the dismay and disdain of most of my fellow soldiers, I served as a janitor. I certainly don't blame them for their feelings.
Probably the most coveted award of all soldiers who aren't making a career of the military is DD Form 214. This is the official discharge document issued to all who survive service and most are thrilled to receive one. Each is marked in code to indicate the reason for discharge and all are clearly marked as Honorable or otherwise. I received mine at the end of a long day of processing out. A burly Staff Sergeant started to hand me my discharge and then pulled it back at the last second as he said, "I've been working this desk for eight years and I have never given one of these out. How did you do it?"
I didn't realize the staggering odds I had overcome to receive this. Countless thousands of soldiers during the Vietnam War had applied for and been denied this same discharge. A little over three thousand got one. Another 170,000 civilians were granted conscientious objector status through local draft boards. It was much easier to attain this status as a civilian than as a soldier. Estimates of up to 100,000 fled the United States to avoid the draft.
Most of the guys who served in the Air Force and the Navy chose voluntary duty in those two branches to avoid being drafted into the Army. Everyone knew the draftees wound up as sniper and booby trap targets in Vietnam. Air Force and Navy guys served longer tours of duty than those drafted, but were generally assured of no serious combat obligations.
Thirty-three years later I am a Christian minister realizing we have a president more deserving of exile than Nixon, a war that is no more just or winnable than Vietnam and now I hear of Congressman Charlie Rangel's proposal to reinstate the draft. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Rangel believes the draft will curb the enthusiasm of trigger-happy and over zealous lawmakers if their own children are subject to the draft. I appreciate the congressman's desire to deter the national appetite for war. However, instituting a draft is not the answer. Congress should simply exercise its already constitutionally given power to rein in the executive branch and prevent the launching of future unwarranted wars.
Lobby reform could help prevent the military industrial complex from holding such sway over foreign policy. We obviously need to re-evaluate our foreign policy and implement real safeguards to prevent another hurried march into a foolish preemptive war. Rather than designing a new draft, our current Congress should collectively apologize to the nation and the world for giving this president such a broad range of unchecked powers for making war. The new Democratically controlled Congress upon swearing in should immediately inform President Bush that funding for the war is over and to wrap it up and bring our troops home within an accelerated time frame.
The draft has never been an equitable way to fill the ranks of our military during wartime. Local draft boards are easily influenced by money and power. The rich can almost always find a deferment for their children. America's first use of forced conscription was during the Civil War and those reluctant to serve could dodge service by finding a replacement or paying several hundred dollars to buy their way out of service. Our president dodged the draft and bypassed normal channels to get into the Texas Air National Guard and was able to get out early after going AWOL. His preferential treatment came through family connections. The whole system of the draft has always been defiled and easily compromised.
A disproportionate number of minorities and the poor were taken in the draft during the Vietnam era. It was never fair and never can be yet it remains as a last ditch option to be used in only the worst imaginable scenario. Meanwhile, our boys register with the Selective Service on their eighteenth birthdays and I hope and pray we never have a war that would require their conscription.
Our current foreign policy makers have a strong penchant for war and their greed, which knows no bounds, will not be deterred by a draft. You don't slow down addicted gamblers by putting unlimited chips on the table. The very premise is absurd. The draft serves only one purpose and that is to fill soldier quotas for a war that doesn't have enough volunteers. To believe anything other than that is to foolishly disregard history. Informed citizens must insist upon Congress and the President to exercise military restraint while tirelessly pursuing diplomatic solutions to international disputes.
Congress should forget the dangerous notion of gambling with the lives of our youth by implementing an unnecessary draft. They should simply demonstrate faithful integrity by exercising reasonable constitutional over-sight in matters of war.
Someone once said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." I like his idea better than Rangel's.
Gary Vance is an evangelical pastor/writer living in rural Tennessee. He is the author of "Wasn't Jesus a Liberal?" and other published essays.
and one in which you express your beliefs quite well. I do however,disagree with them, and for the same reason as would Mr. Rangel, the author of the proposed Draft Bill.
While you dismiss such as too easily subverted by the rich and it is true that some very few (Cheney being most prominant among them) get deferments and some others (the abysmal draft dodger Georgie Bush is one) get placed in safe positions, in general it is a draft that most brings home to our citizenry the facts of war.
We see quite plainly that this Iraqi invasion has taken three futile years and 3000 American and who really knows how many Iraqi lives to seep into the conscious of the American public. A draft would have brought the realities of war to every home in America with draft age children ( a statistically irrelevent few being exceptions) and it might have only taken months not years to build resistence to this awful war.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Sunday, December 3, 2006 at 9:26:05 AM
The thought of sending one of my sons to war is utterly inconceivable--ditto any one of the students I ever taught over the course of twenty years. Go look up David Swanson's article on the innocent victims of war--kids with legs blown off and such--if you don't have a clear idea of what the hell war is all about.
I am all in favor of a draft--for anyone over 60 who wants to play war games. Republicans would be allowed to draft themselves at any age. I've already offered Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake for such a purpose. Mr. Rangel would be free to join Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, the entire Bush clan, Orrin Hatch, and all the other assholes who clamor for war.
These sick bastards need to be weeded out of the human race, and the sooner the better.
Anyone with half a brain who wants to do something constructive with his or her life should be free to do so, without worrying about some pathetic old farts trying to bilk the military-industrial complex of a few billion more tax dollars, in exchange for human lives.
Am I the only one in the world who's ever read Dale Carnegie? Or who actually believes, Thou shalt not kill?
by
Daniel Geery (26 articles, 73 quicklinks, 123 diaries, 741 comments)
on Sunday, December 3, 2006 at 12:55:33 PM
My objection to draft proposals, Rangel's and others, is they don't go far enough.
Consider the extreme: Every civil service (public employment) position filled by draft.
Like jury duty now.
You could receive a letter in the mail notifying you to show up to serve two years as governor of your state. Or senator. Or representative. Judge. Teacher. Cop. Fireman. Street-sweeper. Parking ticket patrol. All the, all the, ALL the publicly employed positions: filled by conscription.
Of course, we could probably think to work out a 'profile matching' algorithm, so not EVERYone is FULLY eligible to be in the jury selection pool, I mean, governor selection pool. But I'd say that'd leave about half of everybody, who all ARE eligible, and could do much as good a job as is done now by self-selected power drunks.
Oh yeah, and some could maybe serve in the military. Even CIA, or NSA. By being drafted ...
by
meremark (1 articles, 3 quicklinks, 26 diaries, 506 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 2:05:14 AM
Rangel is a great American. He has guts, and for any jerk to attack his character instead of his argument is grossly stupid and nauseating.
I, too, am for the draft. If every citizen from the richest to the poorest is brought into the picture then politicians would think twice before starting a senseless war like Iraq. The prevalent attitude is that those in the military volunteered so they should not belly ache about being sent to kill and be killed themselves, and as long as it is not me or mine I really do not care; after all that is why the military exists is to kill and be killed. The way things stand right nothing affects the average person, but the average person still reaps all the benefits from someone else defending freedom. At all times during Vietnam, even the rich kids were afraid that their number would come up or their status would be changed. The draft was grossly unfair, but when the numbers got up to a half a million soldiers in Vietnam, we begin to hear from the soccer moms about this senseless war and how it must be ended.
I would love to see a universal draft because every one of us owes this country. Some of you claim to be "Conscientious Objectors?" That is just fine, but from what? Are you, also, a conscientious objector from service to your country as an American citizen? Is there some perverted some thing in your thinking that you believe you do not owe this country, and owe it big time?
I would like to see every one and I mean every one drafted at eighteen years old for two full years into governmental service and not just into the military: serving as interns in retirement centers, aids in hospitals and local health clinics, clerks in court houses, workers creating parks in local communities, working in local schools helping children catch up to their levels of learning, building shelters for the homeless, working with "fatherless" children since we have so many, creating jobs for battered mothers, working the streets in the most poverty stricken areas of our cities, and hundreds of other jobs that we should be doing in this country and in other countries. A friend's son just graduated from high school, made the highest scores on testing for our state highway department. The state hired him to read and draw blue prints for bridges. Why could he not have done the first two years as a volunteer and then hired him at a regular wage level while paying for his college education?
There a thousand of things that we could do with a universal draft such as teach the handicapped to be able to do what they want to do more then anything and that is be self proficient. Those who want to go in the military have at it, but it would be just one aspect of a universal draft. After the universal draft is adopted, then it should be followed up with a free education in all public universities. Do we not believe high school drop outs hurt all of us and college graduates helps all of us as a nation? Universal education with universal health care is the only case I know where the rising water raises all ships. It surely is not the tinkle down policies of the rich right wingers. After the universal draft is in place, we must make the college education free, and pass universal health care for all.
Will it happen? Not until we grab the politicians by the throat and demand for it to happen. I say let's start grabbing. Rangel is not one we should grab. Try grabbing Orin Hatch or John McCain.
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 968 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 4:02:24 PM
it is not a proper language to call people jerks. Also, as a practicing politician Rangel can be and should be a subject to any opinion from the public: it comes with his job. As for your statements, let me repeat also what I stated many times in comments and articles.
1. Draft is Anti- American
2. Introducing this idea now, when Bush is in power is either a gross stupidity or a crime.
3. Rangel does not look stupid. Therefore he is a criminal.
4. No one prevents you personally from joining all the services you listed. Just please, leave other people alone. That happens to be an American way.
Have a nice day.
by
Mark Sashine (53 articles, 19 quicklinks, 249 diaries, 3571 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 5:40:13 PM
You and danielgerry in comments are the ones calling Charlie Rangel "stupid". I guess "jerk" is improper, but "stupid" is proper. I have never tried to be "Proper." How do you gage proper for a minister? Is there a course or class I missed in seminary on ministers being proper? Maybe there is a book I have not read. If you would send me a copy or tell me where to purchase it, I will see if I cannot obtain and read it. If there is not book, since you seem to be an authority on what is and is not proper for a minister, in all your wisdom you might write one for us.
"Jerk"-good word, descriptive, easy to spell, easy to understand meaning of, to the point. Yes, Jerk, good word.
"Jerk"-- jerk [jurk]
v (past jerked, past participle jerked, present participle jerk•ing, 3rd person present singular jerks)
1. vt pull suddenly: to pull somebody or something with a sudden strong movement
He jerked her back from in front of the speeding car.
2. vti move joltingly: to proceed, or cause something or somebody to proceed, with bumps and jolts
The car jerked forward.
3. vi physiology move in spasm: to move in response to muscular spasms (refers to parts of the body)
4. vt say something abruptly: to utter words or sounds suddenly and forcefully, for example, from excitement
5. vt cooking commerce make ice cream refreshments: to prepare and serve ice cream sodas, sundaes, and other refreshments at a soda fountain
n (plural jerks)
1. sudden pull: a sudden and forceful pulling movement
giving the door a jerk
2. jolting motion: an abrupt jolting or jarring motion
moving in jerks
3. physiology twitch: a spasmodic movement in a muscle
4. offensive term: an offensive term for somebody who is regarded as behaving foolishly (slang insult)
5. gym overhead lift in weightlifting: a lift in weightlifting in which a barbell is thrust from shoulder height to above the head
Of course my favorite one is under "noun" and is number 4. in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. I will let you decide if it is proper. I bet Dick Cheney can be very proper. Jesus of Nazareth was not proper. He dined with traitors and sinners.
Rangel is a good man and there is nothing more American than a Universal Draft from which no one could escape, not your kids nor my kids. If you live in this country, you owe this country whether you wish to face up to it or not. There are no free rides. Even such groups as the Mennonites, the Amish, the Swiss Brethren and the Hutterites should have to do two years service to this country in some capacity. There was a time in Europe when they died by the hundreds of thousands just because of their simple faith in this Jesus of Nazareth. In spite imprisoning them during WW I, this is the "Mecca" of earth for them.
To think you would attack Charles Rangel shows something about you. I have disagreed with Charlie Rangel many times; however, I would never want to attack this wonderful black man who has paid his dues for so long. Charles Rangel has fought for the United States as a "grunt" in Korea and was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. H served in the "All Black" 503rd Field Artillery. In 1950, Sgt. Charley Rangel was surrounded at Yalu River and in the battle of Kuni-Ri, he led over forty men through freezing cold from out of the middle of the Chinese Army to safety. Charley Rangel started working as a child when he was six years old in Harlem when his father deserted his mother and his siblings. He had to drop out of high school and yet he is one of the most astute black men in Congress. After he was out of the Army, Charley Rangel received a B.S. from NYU in Commerce. He received a Law Degree from St. Johns U. Charlie Rangel is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate black fraternity in the world. Charley Rangel worked in the US Attorney's office under Robert Kennedy. Charley Rangel co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus. He has been arrested for protesting for human rights not only here in the States, but in South Africa (1980?), and in 2004 for protesting the atrocities of Muslims on Christians in Darfur.
Charley Rangel is as Liberal as any one in Congress, but he is very practical and can be very sully when he sees something out of whack. He called President Clinton a "redneck," he reprimanded Chavez for his silly comment about President Bush in the UN while telling Rush Limbaugh he thought President Bush was a "Bull" Connor. I like Charley Rengel. He is not stupid and I repeat that anyone who says he is a jerk big time. It may not be proper, but it is not proper to be a Christian in Tehran. I would not be proper there, either. Thank my God, I do not live in an evil place like Teheran.
Panurg, I think you told me you were Jewish when I accused you of being a Muslim Cleric because of your mindless attacks on Israel. I have read comment after comment that you have made on article after article. You are no progressive liberal. I am not sure what you are. Every comment you make is pointed like a missile of hatred at everything American. Is there anything about the United States that you like? Seriously, is there? Can you list a couple for me?
Why do you attack Israel so harshly? I am a Heinz 57 human being, mostly Irish, but human. I am not Jewish, but I was a student of the Holocaust long before I became a Christian. Do you no understand what the world will be doing to all Jews again once the Jews lose the safe haven of Israel? You are an intelligent person and this is what causes me doubt you are a Jew; however, you might be one of those Jews I run across every once in a while who feels so guilty that you missed out on the Holocaust that you feel you must spend your life attacking those Jews who now live in a nation where there are no pogroms or "devastations." I wonder where your heart lies.
I hope you have a good rest of the year and a good New Year.
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 968 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 8:00:59 PM
That is whatever I talk about, you Reverend still just read what you want to read. i guess you do the same with Quran otherwise you would not be so strange to call me a Moslem Cleric. As for my hatred of all American I am buffled. My article after the Nov.7 'Pride and Joy and me' reveals all my love of the US. Now, you might be a student of Holocaust (a very bad definition of what happened; the word is actually the name of the US movie, for God's sake) but I had to live all my childhood and youth practically at the Baby Yar Pit and I saw firsthand the consequences of that down to the real bones and skulls; so if between us there is a person who has a right to judge and make conclusions that's me, not you. But funny as it sounds in my comments I do not criticise Israel at all. I do criticise hypocricy, stupidity and malice of its government as well as I always emphacise that whatever Israeli govt is doing it is no different from what all the others did before. That's the truth. It does not make them innocent, though.
Eat your checkers, Reverend. I don't care if Rangel has all the awards in the world from Purple Heart to Iron Cross.
He is still a criminal when he proposes what he proposes. And his 'wonderful blackness' has nothing to do with it. He might be green ( or orange) if he wanted. He would still remain a criminal.
As for being Jewish or not. The only thing which comes with being a Jew by origin is ..being one. It does not mean anything at all like being Irish or Swedish by origin means nothing. A person makes himself. And while making himself he/she embraces the best of other people and also the worst too. I am a Jew. I know the history of my people and other people and I look with the open eyes at what is done. Jews are the same as everyone else. They are not better or worse. They deserve to be treated accordingly.
I treat my people as equals. Same as everyone else. Same as you. Maybe that is why you cannot put a label on me. I do not need your label.
Reverend, you and people like you are trying to 'catch a black cat in the dark room when there is no cat'. You better look at yourself. Look at the criterias you are using to define people. Look at you own vices before tackling bigger things. I am not sure which God you preach but all Gods praised humility and self-analysis. In fact maybe I should quote one old Buddhist statement,' All people worship Buddha but not all of them know about it.'
I guess I said it all. Please, read.
Mark Sashine, aka Panurg
by
Mark Sashine (53 articles, 19 quicklinks, 249 diaries, 3571 comments)
on Tuesday, December 5, 2006 at 8:06:43 AM
Just like I know nothing about you, so you know nothing about me. I did not know I was chasing anything. I appreciate you telling me. What are you chasing? My belief in God? I believe I can never kill anyone for any reason whatsoever. What is your belief in God since you asked me of mine?
As far as the Israeli comment, you and I locked horns with your comments during the last Lebanon invasion from which I gathered you were a Muslim cleric since you criticized Israel so vehemently and have never laid a word on Hezbollah; not a word against Hebollah crossing into Israel, not a word against the murder of the Israeli soldiers, not a word against the kidnappings, not a word against Hebollah soldiers hiding among women and children while they shot at Israelis. Israel learned a lot by that invasion into south Lebanon. The next time they will be prepared. I notice not one article from any one about the murder in Beriut of a Christian leader. I wonder if the Hezbollah mad man would have been murdered by a Marionite would there have been the same silence.
From your comments here, I take it that you do NOT hope Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran accomplish their stated goal of total annihilation of the State of Israel. They will tell you they love the Jewish people, but that the land belongs to them, and they, thinking they speak for all Islam, will never rest until they have every square inch of it and Zionism is destroyed. These are their public statements.
When you have certain elements of radical Judaism believing that ALL the land belongs to Israel and the Palestinians should be pushed into other Arab countries or into the Sea mixed with the Hamas views, you have the situation in Israel and Palestine that exists today. When Arafat walked away from the Oslo agreements and would not sign them, it threw many moderate Israelis into the fundamentalist camp. It was one of those epic events in the history of two peoples. I do not think they will ever be able to get back to that place again. The Israelis who were forced out of the moderate camp into the fundamentalist camp now believe that force is the only way to stop the suicide bombers and the incessant rocket attacks that have been going on since the UN Declaration in 1948.
Both sides are headed pell mell for nuclear war within fifteen years if some sanity does not come to these fanatics. I dearly hope the fundamentalists on which ever side do not win.
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 968 comments)
on Tuesday, December 5, 2006 at 11:30:15 AM
Taxation with representation is very American. Citizens pay their taxes and that covers citizenship dues. We don't need a draft of any kind to supplement our already burdensome tax load. I do agree that there should be more opportunites given for citizens to volunteer their time and skills to further benefit the less fortunate around us.
by
Gary Vance (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 15 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 6:39:23 PM
There are times you cannot separate the action from the essence of a person. A person who murders is a murderer. A person who steals is still a thief. A person who calls Charles Rangel "Stupid" is still a "Jerk." I do some Jerky things and say some Jerky things, and I, too, at times am a Jerk, but not for disrespect of Charles Rangel. Why do I respect him? Read the last part of my last comment to Panurg.
I doubt if we disagree on as much as you think we do. I still believe in a universal draft for every American at the age of eighteen.
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 968 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 8:21:57 PM
Rangel, a veteran himself, makes it quite clear why he proposes a draft. It would require that chickenhawks (and there are so many of them that naming a few is pointless) put their own children's lives on the line when they espouse military force for dubious or, in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq, profit-making ventures. Simply put, Rangel wants those who stand to profit from war to be willing to offer the lives of their loved ones as proof of their professed sincerity in the cause.
by
Mark McVay (11 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 9 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 5:20:20 PM
You are exactly correct. I have no problem with Conscientious Objectors, but I expect them to serve two years for free for the country that gives them freedom to do all the things we do each day. I am not saying that Gary does not want to do that or did not do that. I know nothing about him.
My greatest problem is with the Chicken Hawks like GW and DC and their Crew. They use every angle they can to keep their butts safe and out of harms way, yet attack a man you won three Purple Hearts, Two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star. The Chicken Hawks like Rush Limbaugh and crowd never strapped a boot on, but love to send young kids to kill and be killed in a war that should never have been.
Here is a list of the top men in the present Bush Administration and a few others Chicken Hawks:
1. Name: George W. Bush (R-TX)
Born: 1946
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
2. Name: Richard "Dick" Cheney (R-WY)
Born: 1942
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service.
3. Name: Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL)
Born: 1953
Employer: Florida Taxpayers
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
4. Name: John Ashcroft
Born: 1942
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Six student deferments and one occupational deferment (teaching law at Southwest Missouri State).
5. Name: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Born: 1950±
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
6. Name: Karl Rove
Born: 1950
Employer: Bush
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: Student deferment (University of Utah; George Mason University-no degree).
7. Name: Donald "The Don" Rumsfeld
Born: 1932
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Korea
Notes: When the shooting started in Korea Rummy here was either 18, or about to turn 18. Not to worry for him, though - he spent the war at Princeton, wearing a ROTC uniform.
8. Name: Paul Wolfowitz
Born: 1943
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
9. Name: William "Bill" Bennett
Born: 1943
Employer: Empower America
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
10. Name: Rep. Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich (R-GA)
Born: June 17, 1943
Employer: Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
11. Name: David Limbaugh
Born: December 11, 1952
Employer: newspapers with low standards
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: David's no fool - he stayed in school! Straight from high school to college in '71, where he stayed 'till '75.
12. Name: Rush Limbaugh
Born: 1951
Employer: Yack Radio
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: Where to begin ... a joke about the Hindenburg? No, let's go right to the reason he had to stay home from the war - the world's most famous anal cyst. He's denied it, but www.snopes.com, the Urban Legends Reference Pages, has got the goods on him.
13. Name: William "Bill" O'Reilly
Born: 1949
Employer: Rupert Murdoch
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: Bill O'Reilly loves to come off as a straight-talking, blue-collar kind of guy. Funny, a lot of guys who fit that description and graduated high school the same year he did - 1967 - went straight to Vietnam. Not our Bill - he went to college. And he didn't just go to college, he spent his junior year, 1969-1970, in London. He graduated in 1971, briefly exposing him to the draft again, but Bill was miraculously spared.
14. Name: Michael Savage
Born: Unk.
Employer: UNK.
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: We're not sure if this frothing lunatic is still on the air. Didn't he get canned for saying all gays should contract AIDS and die? If only he could have channeled all that animosity against Ho Chi Minh - we'd be selling Big Macs in Vietnam today!
15. Name: Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Born: 1943
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: There are chicken hawks, and then there are chicken hawks. Saxby Chambliss is a chicken hawk supreme. He got himself elected to the Senate by casting aspersions on the patriotism of the incumbent, Democrat Max Cleland. Cleland lost three limbs serving his country in Vietnam. Saxby Chambliss was unable to serve because of his bad knees, but somehow is able to totter along as a recreational runner. Reason Five student deferments (University of Georgia 1966; University of Tennessee College of Law 1968) and 1-Y medical deferment for bad knees (football injuries).
Quote "Max Cleland says he has the courage to lead. But the record proves Max Cleland is just misleading." (Campaign ad questioning patriotism of Democratic opponent Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam.)
16. Name: Rep. Tom "The Exterminator" DeLay (R-TX)
Born: April 8, 1947
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: One of our most-nominated chickenhawks, Mr. DeLay has said he wanted to serve in Vietnam, but was unable to since all the positions had been taken by blacks and hispanics. We suspect there might be someone in Iraq today who would be willing to trade places with Mr. DeLay ...
17. Name: Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL)-Republican Speaker of the House.
Born: January 2, 1942
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: Dennis wasn't able to serve in the Army in Vietnam because his knees weren't up to it. He did OK as a wrestler in college, though. Rejected from advanced ROTC at Wheaton College for bad shoulder stemming from sports injury. A college wrestler and coach, Hastert is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Quote Responding to ex-P.O.W. Senator John McCain's "Where's the sacrifice?" criticism of Bush's plan for wartime tax cuts. "If you want to see the sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed and Bethesda hospitals. There's the sacrifice in this country."
18. Name: Sen. Chester Trent Lott (R-MS)
Born: October 9, 1941
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: We're not sure why Trent didn't serve. Maybe he didn't think he'd look good in Army green. He was a cheerleader in college instead. Wonder how he looked in a cheerleader's uniform?
19. Name: Brit Hume
Born: 1943
Employer: Rupert Murdoch
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: Master of the curled lip, stiff as a frozen haddock, Hume walks point for Rupert Murdoch every weekday from 6 to 7 pm. You might call him the Prime Time Propagandist.
20. Name: William "Bill" Kristol
Born: 1953 +/-
Employer: The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: The son of the "godfather of neo-conservatism," he's a smooth talker, but he never walked the walk in the glorious crusade against Charlie. Bill - where were ya?
21. Name: Dr. Marion "Pat" Robertson
Born: 1930
Employer: Christian Broadcasting Network
Conflict Avoided: Korea
Notes: Dr. Pat claimed in his biography to have "seen combat in Korea. He was in Korea in uniform briefly, but his daddy the Congressman got his reassigned to Japan. His picture belongs in the dictionary next to "pious fraud." Just recently declared that the State Department ought to get nuked, but has yet to be indicted for uttering a terrorist statement.
22. Name: Antonin Scalia
Born: March 11, 1936
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: The Peacetime Draft
Notes: Associate Supreme Court Justice Scalia - how come he wasn't caught in the peacetime draft of his youth? We dunno ... ask him.
23. Name: Clarence Thomas
Born: 1948
Employer: The U.S. Taxpayer
Conflict Avoided: Vietnam
Notes: Avoided the draft thanks to a school deferment. Got the deferment thanks to affirmative action at Holy Cross and Yale. Of course he's staunchly anti-affirmative action. He saw no conflict of interest deliberating recounts in Florida and the outcome of the 2000 election while his wife, Virginia, who works for the influential conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, gathered resumes for appointments in a possible Bush administration.
24. Bill Frist -- Senator, Tennessee; Republican Senate Majority leader .
Born Nashville, Tennessee, February 22, 1952
Military service None
Reason-- Student deferment (Princeton 1974).
Quote "We must stay the course, keep true to our principles, have faith in our armed forces, and know that history, in the end, will be on our side."
25 Rudolph Giuliani Ex-mayor, New York City
business consultant
Age 60
Born Brooklyn, New York, May 28, 1944
Military service None
Reason Student deferments (Manhattan College 1965; NYU Law School 1968); special deferment at request of federal judge for whom he was clerking.
Quote "Freedom is about authority."
26. Rick Santorum -- Senator, Pennsylvania
Age 46
Born Winchester, Virginia, May 10, 1958
Military service: None
Reason Turned 18 after draft ended (Pennsylvania State 1980; University of Pittsburgh 1981).
Quote "In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever, to my knowledge, included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 968 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 6:40:42 PM
Mark, don't think for a moment that our current administration would be slowed from war just because their children might have to go. Greed of this magnitude knows no restraint. These people would not hesitate to send their own mothers off to war if it ensured a few more dollars in their pockets.
by
Gary Vance (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 15 comments)
on Monday, December 4, 2006 at 6:44:44 PM
I have been trying to bring this simple fact to the attention of those whose kneejerk reactions to Rangel's proposals are sadly misplaced and seriously off the mark, Mark.
I wish you better luck than I have so far had.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Thursday, December 7, 2006 at 5:52:55 PM
