Help my Uncle respond to this Anti-DEM spam...

[Dr Fate]

I'm not worried about this- but my good Uncle asked me to help him with this spam. Anyone already have some good responses handy?

CAN YOU NAME THIS COUNTRY?


Be sure to read to the end...



~709,000 REGULAR (ACTIVE DUTY) PERSONNEL.

~293,000 RESERVE TROOPS.

~EIGHT STANDING ARMY DIVISIONS.

~20 AIR FORCE AND NAVY AIR WINGS WITH 2,000 COMBAT AIRCRAFT.

~232 STRATEGIC BOMBERS.

~19 STRATEGIC BALLISTIC MISSILE SUBMARINES WITH 3,114 NUCLEAR WARHEADS
ON
232 MISSILES.

~500 ICBMs WITH 1,950 WARHEADS.

~FOUR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS AND 121 SURFACE COMBAT SHIPS AND SUBMARINES
PLUS
ALL
THE SUPPORT BASES, SHIPYARDS, AND LOGISTICAL ASSETS NEEDED TO SUSTAIN
SUCH A
NAVAL FORCE.

~IS THIS COUNTRY.....


RUSSIA? NO


CHINA? NO



GREAT BRITAIN? NO


FRANCE? WRONG AGAIN (What a Laugh!!!!!)


MUST BE USA? STILL WRONG (SORT OF)


GIVE UP?





THESE ARE THE AMERICAN MILITARY FORCES THAT WERE ELIMINATED DURING THE
ADMINISTRATION OF BILL CLINTON AND AL GORE.

If you help John Kerry get elected, we won't have any effective U.S.
Military capability left. Please tell your friends.

SLEEP WELL!


Also, keep this in mind as the political pundits spew their anti-Bush
propaganda. There are claims that our servicemen are deployed for too
long,
and serving longer tours. This kind of talk is sure to continue as the
election looms closer. If we still had all these military personnel,
troops
could be rotated more frequently.

[the Kelly Gang]

1. and if it were true what difference does it make ??..

but check the facts as they don't seem to tally to me !!

[CaTeacher]

2. I hope it IS true,

and I wish we would make the military even smaller. Why do we need this huge military and all these expensive toys?

There are hungry people in the world to feed. There are people suffering from AIDS. There are people with no health care. We need to get our heads out of our a---'s.

Why should our forces be so much bigger than those of say Canada? We only have friendly nations on our borders.

[Bozita]

3. Downsizing of the military was started by Bush the Elder

Ask the folks who live by some of the closed bases.

[Tempest]

5. Rumsfeld's idea

For a faster, lighter and more technological advanced military.

Funny thing though, most of the new technological advanced equipment Rumsfeld funded turned out to be shit.

Read up on the Wedtech scandal, or get a copy of "When The Pentagon Was For Sale".

[Tempest]

4. Division reductions

Bush Sr. eliminated 12 divisions, Clinton eliminated four.

NPR did a segment on this last week.

You should be able to find the specifics performing a Google search, or on NPR's web site.

[LoZoccolo]

6. End of cold war (duh).

If you help John Kerry get elected, we won't have any effective U.S.
Military capability left.

That's bull just because Clinton was operating in the context of a newly-ended cold war, and John Kerry's not.

Also, Bush* has depleted our military with an unnecessary war. We're talking about maybe starting up the draft again.

[K-W]

7. weve had a war time military budget during peace time

we didnt need a huge military, we wouldnt need one now if Bush wasnt taking us into unneccessary wars. The United States is a leader of the world community and a nuclear power, conventional nations arent attacking us anytime soon, and terrorism is best fought with intelligence and policing, not tanks.

[LoZoccolo]

8. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if these were cooked.

That is, I wouldn't be surprised if they included troops that retire normally as a matter of course, as well as weapons that regularly get dismantled and replaced by other ones and/or were lost during the conflicts we participated in during Clinton's tenure. I wouldn't be surprised if they fucked around like this.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. This one isn't at all as good as the restaurant

one with the little flags on the tables and the college professor, or the other one with the letter from the GI to the folks back home about how nice thing are getting in Iraq. It's interesting that we are back to blaming Clinton for..... Exactly what is the point of this? chimp cheney and rumsfeld have said themselves that they don't need a bigger military, and what good would any of that other cold war shit do anyway. That kind of rw crazy nut thinking keeps this country in disaster mode.

[LittleApple81]

10. THE WAR ON "terror" IS NOT ONE TO FIGHT WITH ARMIES! n/t

[Sparkly]

11. The hypocrisy is UNBELIEVABLE

In addition to what others have said about this being a continuation of post-Gulf War reorganizations started by Bush I, it is astonishing they can say this:

If you help John Kerry get elected, we won't have any effective U.S.
Military capability left.

They were crying during the 2000 campaign that the troops were overextended, complaining about 50 of them in the Balkans who they thought shouldn't be there "nationbuilding." How they can now defend the Iraq invasion is beyond me -- talk about "flip-flops!"

or this:

There are claims that our servicemen are deployed for too
long, and serving longer tours. This kind of talk is sure to continue as the election looms closer. If we still had all these military personnel, troops could be rotated more frequently.

First, many ARE being called back.
Second, there's a reason it's going to be difficult to recruit more.
Third, are they and their pals signing up?
Fourth, are the kids of GOP politicians signing up to set an example?
Fifth, isn't it absurd to keep blaming Clinton FOUR YEARS later? Are they saying the Chimp is that ineffective, unable to make any changes whatsoever despite being the leader of the free world, supposedly?

[wyldwolf]

12. A related article....

http://slate.msn.com/id/2082499/

Well worth a read...

In the most basic consideration, Clinton probably would not have fought this war (Iraq), at least not in the way it was fought. When Clinton confronted the Serbs over Kosovo, he firmly resisted using U.S. ground forces—beating back proposals even to threaten putting troops on the ground as a bargaining lever. He also directed that all U.S. pilots fly above 10,000 feet, well beyond the range of Serbian air-defense missiles. He wanted no American combat casualties—and he got none. It is impossible to say whether Clinton would have loosened his standards in a war with Iraq (assuming for a moment that he would have gone to war with Iraq). But it is a fair judgment that Clinton had little appetite for wars that would kill American soldiers. It is doubtful that he would have approved the sort of bold, swift, and unabashedly risky offensive that Bush approved for Gulf War II. It was to a large extent Clinton's arsenal. It was Bush's war.

[readmylips]

13. Clinton lied about consented sex, bush lied about war....

and our soldiers died. bush has bankrupt our military, bankrupt our nation, bankrupt the good name of the USA (per Gore).

[SoDesuKa]

14. Stretched Thin

The military is stretched thin because of Bush's unnecessary wars. Why is this point lost on right wingers? We went into Iraq because Bush lied.

[Green Lantern]

15. Cheney's contribution

I was in the reserves in the 80's and 90's, when we started to "enjoy" the peace dividend. Remember that?

George I and SecDef Cheney did the downsizing and they were not pleasant about it. People were thrown out of the service, benefits cut, training funds cut, travel funds cut, dependent support cut. On and on. Cheney oversaw the bulk of the downsizing of the US military. Clinton reaped the benefit of the peace dividend to help balance the budget, such as the peace dividend was.
If one wishes to discuss the breakdown of the military, they should read some history. (Why the hell do they think we needed so big a coalition in Desert Storm? Because we had downsized significantly by then.)

[newyawker99]

16. Hi Green Lantern!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Green Lantern]

18. Thank you!!

[Zen Democrat]

17. Base closing under Clinton done by REPUBLICAN CONGRESS.

[Dr Fate]

19. Kick

kick