From:
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 23:47:34 GMT

Nob, you should start all your political posts with a disclaimer: "The
following is a paid political advertisement of the GOP. I am Nob, and I
approve of this message."

You state several times that what I said is "An opinion (I) get to
have."

All opinions are not equal. I don't think your opinion in this case is
as valid as my opinion. What years exactly did you serve in uniform?
What grade did you hold when you left? You mention that you've talked
with soldiers in Iraq. Are these on the news, friends of friends, or
people you personally know?

I get to have opinions based on 21 years in uniform, from 1984 to 2005.
I commanded three units in that time. I entered service as a PV2. I
retired as a major last October. I have been deployed. I have earned
imminent danger/hostile fire pay. The people I talk to in Iraq and
Afghanistan are friends of mine. Some hold high rank. Some are
enlisted. Some are commanding units on the ground. Some are fliers.
They are there right now. I hear the opinions they get to have without
the media or White House filter.

I would suggest that my opinion could be qualified as an 'expert'
opinion. Can you say the same?

On to your propaganda:

Since when is Bush a leftist?

He's not, he's just reacting to the politics of that moment, where the Dems
were trying to make it seem like we didn't have enough people in uniform.

"In uniform" includes the Air Force and the Navy. We probably have
enough there. The Army and Marines are doing the bulk of the taskings
in Afghanistan and Iraq. Further, over 50% of those currently deployed
are reservists. Here's another factoid for you: not only is recruiting
down, but the pipeline of people leaving active duty and going into the
reserves is basically dry. People are getting out and staying out.
These are numbers, not opinions. As these reservists go into their
second and third deployments, they come back and their jobs are gone.
Divorce rates are up. They face all kinds of problems when they get
back. I have also started hearing about firms passing on reservists as
employees because of the fear that they will be deployed. And yes, I
know very well about the legal protections offered to soldiers that get
deployed. As with anything else, there are ways aound those laws.

We do not have enough people in uniform. It's getting worse, not
better. It's not political or opinion. It's a fact I get to have. And
we still have not talked about equipment readiness.

Translation: the military has lots of cool weapons. We're not afraid to
use them. They've been all over the world using them recently.

Sure, Clinton had them all over the place.

LOL! The old 'blame Clinton' conservative saw. Are you seriously trying
to compare military deployments during the Clinton years to now? You
lose.

An opinion you get to have.
An opinion you get to have.
An opinion you get to have.

See above. So are you a chickenhawk, or did you actually serve? If you
served, was it for more than two years, and were you higher than a
corporal when you got out?

Maybe, maybe not. The people I keep hearing from who are staioned in Iraq
are very dedicated to the goals there and don't want to quit. Even if they
did the only way to make up for what you seem to think is a crisis, would be
to institute a draft, which would be one of the worst things that could be
done becuase of the lack of dedication of the draftees.

Nice, but irrelevant. Nobody is saying, or to my knowledge has *ever*
said, that those serving are not dedicated. They are. And now that
we're in a quagmire, I think it would be irresponsible to pull out
immediately. That does not equal support for Bushie's policies.

Now ask the reservists and soldiers what their job prospects are when
they get back, whether they'll stay in or get out when their rotation
is over, or whether they want to get deployed again to Iraq or
Afghanistan. Think the answers will be the same? I can tell you what
*I* hear: "I'm gone." That's another fact I get to have.

Political bull**** aside, there are large issues facing the readiness
of our military. That the leadership of the country seems oblivious to
that is alarming to me. Rummy didn't even address equipment issues.
There's no point in addressing those, since you have to have people to
operate the equipment in the first place.

An opinion you get to have. Perhaps if the Dems hadn't been systematically
trying to dismantle so many of the things that help us gather information,
things would be drastically different.

"It's Clinton's fault!"

Um, when did the republicans take over the house? 1994? In case you
didn't know how it works, the House appropriates and funds those kind
of things. So how did the Democrats exactly pull this off, given they
were in the minority? That Clinton was one powerful fella.;-)

Then of course there's the fact that when Bin Ladin was offered up on a
silver platter to Clinton, he couldn't think of any reason that could be
used to hold him.

What was the report that Bushie had on September 10th? Something like,
"Osama bin Laden is Going to Hijack Several Planes and Use Them as
Weapons Against Buildings." I think that was it. What did your hero do?
He went on vacation. So let's not go there, OK?

That Democrats are screaming the sky is falling about the military strikes
me as just another bit of politics played for the purpose of trying to make
Bush look bad.

They don't need to. Bushie manages to do it all by himself.

So the reports just released about the current state of the military
are just Democrats posturing. Can I visit you in your world sometime?
It just seems so simple there.

rant about Alito snipped due to being entirely irrelvant to this
discussion, and factually wrong.

I'll address this one though:

When he was last up for confirmation he was UNANIMOUSLY approved by the Senate. The Dems seem to
think that they have to fight extra hard because he would be replacing a
swing vote on the Supreme Court.

So in your mind a judge in District Court or a Court of Appeals is
equal to a Supreme Court Justice. Can I visit your world sometime? And
all you have to be is 'qualified?' Then what was the problem with
Miers? Or in your opinion should she have been confirmed?

Ninny.

As for being a 'strict follower' of the Constitution: I want to own a
couple of nuclear weapons. According to the Bill of Rights, I have a
right to bear arms. The Constitution does not specify which arms those
strictly might be. Come to think of it, I want an aircraft carrier too,
and a squadron of F-16s. And an Ohio -class nuclear ballistic missile
submarine. Strictly speaking, why should I not have them?

Nob, you have an interesting perspective. Historically incorrect,
illogical, dense, extremely biased, but interesting. I suggest you go
review what the republican congress did to Clinton before you whine
about what the Democrats are doing to Bush. Back then, the republicans
referred to themselves as 'the loyal opposition.' Now that the shoe is
on the other foot, the republicans call the Democrats anti-American and
treasonous.

I'm sure you didn't really mean to say that. Nobody could knowingly be
that hypocritical.