catch this back door draft scam

[donsu]

http://www.buzzflash.com/mailbag/04/12/mai04340.html


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Subject: Met a naval officer--

Over the holidays I met a naval officer traveling in Prague. He stayed at my hotel. He told me that the Marines and Army were hurting for reenlistments, so the DoD is planning to ask Navy personnel to volunteer to go into the Marines or Army. If there aren't enough volunteers, the personnel will be chosen by someone in the chain of command.

He also said shore duty for Navy personnel returned home from 6 month deployments was being privatized. Those jobs are what has provided Navy personnel time for a "normal" family life, with at least a 90 day window to attend to weddings, graduations, holidays, and so forth. With the privatization of those jobs, that 90 day window will be gone and no personal family planning can take place. The naval officer thought it would really hurt morale.

He said that the massive unit rotations that will take place every year now, the next being in March, are a huge undertaking for the Navy since the equipment is put on aircraft carriers and shipped home.

At any rate, plan on some changes for the Navy. Extra "boots on the ground" will come from that branch of the DoD before a draft begins.

I told a military friend that the military occupational specialty between someone on a ship and someone in the infantry has got to be night and day. He told me that sailors were no less "prepared" for combat duty in Iraq than a Reservist who sells air conditioners stateside. The training was the same--little to none.

A BuzzFlash Reader
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[proud patriot]

1. It angers me to no end how our service people are being miss-used

:grr:

[tk2kewl]

2. I have been wondering when that was coming

I mean, if bushCo has no qualms about sending 50-60yr old guardsmen and reservists, why wouldn't they start putting sailors on the ground?

[ccarter84]

3. Whoa

Ok, so what do we do, this is an awfully formidable opponent, and of course it's being privatized because 'its in the interest of efficiency' or something like that.
Anyone thinking Paula Zahn might take this up? She did a segment two/three days ago on how the Reservists weren't getting adequate training etc.

[donsu]

4. you trust Paula Zahn?

nt

[ccarter84]

11. feelin the love bro'

guess not, but it was just a suggestion

[blm]

5. I've been saying for a few years now that BushInc is purposely destroying

the military so they can have a privatized military controlled NOT by the people, but, by the corporations like Halliburton and Enron, with the American people forced to pay for protection according to "market prices" at any given time.

[ingasm]

6. Dodgeball

Im 18 years old and in college. If there's a draft then I won't try to avoid it, but I will do everything in my power to stop the violence in Iraq. If I am drafted, it will ruin my life plans. What does the President have to say to that?

[Killarney]

7. I don't understand how Bush got the military vote.

I really don't.

He's abusing them.

What worries me is that with our military stretched so thin, what if we get attacked and need them for real rather than a corporate war? What then?

[billyoc]

8. A lot of sailors go to infantry school,

more than you might think. All of the ships that are too small to carry marine detachments(destroyers and frigates) send their Boatwain's Mates and Gunner's Mates to Ship's Landing Force School at Little Creek Amphibious Base in Little Creek, VA for a month of infantry school.

Yes, I learned this the hard way. :(

[Warpy]

9. Working class people can't afford lives, so they shouldn't have them

So goes the thinking of the elitists in GOP world. They really do see us as cogs in a big machine, as able to think and feel as any chain or belt might be. This is the same view the aristocracy held of the peasantry in Europe. They denied the peasantry could feel pain, because they weren't refined.

Everything in GOP world comes from the top down. Your daughter is getting married? Well, you shouldn't have had one. You wouldn't feel bad about it if you hadn't been self indulgent enough to produce children.

It's a very weird mindset. The corollary is that "well, it isn't me, so why should I care?"

It took Europe two world wars and a depression to shatter this way of thinking. Corporations may be bringing it back. It's certainly alive and well in the US.

[C.C.D.]

10. Any wonder 40% will not re-enlist???? (nt)

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Why? Why? Why? .... Why do they vote for Chimpus Khan?

Why???????

[blm]

13. I think the media has greatly exaggerated military support for Bush.

They manage to focus only on the Left Behind believing grunts who think they are battling Satan.