Last week a RW Chief Warrant Officer's letter blasted the democrats, and liberals in particular. He's incited quite a response. Letters below over three paragraphs have been excerpted but are well worth a read in full. One is written by a Navy Commander against the war in Iraq.
All Dems want defeat? HardlyThis is in response to
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=43301">“ ‘Rags,’ Dems want U.S. defeat,” letter, Feb. 5) I could not believe what I was reading, that this chief warrant officer actually believes all Democrats want the U.S. to lose in Iraq.
So using this narrow thought pattern, we can conclude that Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, whose son is a Marine fighting in Iraq, is cheering for his defeat, and that Army Maj. Tammy Duckworth, a well-known Democrat from Illinois and helicopter pilot who suffered catastrophic wounds in Iraq, is encouraging our failure.
What I find most disturbing about this letter is the way the writer equates the death of a couple of military members a day as no big deal, since 125 people die every day on America’s highways. I am sure this will make all the widows and fatherless children of this war feel much better.
Chief Petty Officer Marion Boyanton
Camp Arifjan, Kuwait
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=43382 Some on the right didn’t serve...Let’s look at those the draft never caught:
George W. Bush joined the National Guard
.
Dick Cheney could have served in Vietnam but for student deferments and that he “had other priorities.”
John Ashcroft was busy teaching business education.
Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., a super-patriot, all-American guy who, during the Vietnam era had student deferments and then a football injury to his knee; Lamar Alexander, former governor of Tennessee; ex-Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga.; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas; former House Speaker Dennis Hastert; Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. — all could have been drafted.
And let’s not forget Roger Ailes, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly of Fox.
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http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=43424
Many liberals in the ranksAfter reading the Feb. 7 letters, I felt it my patriotic duty to hop on the First Amendment rights bandwagon as the writer of “Liberals couldn’t handle draft” chose to do.
How dare he push his criteria for serving in the armed forces as the norm? The “special breed” he describes is a wildly romantic notion. People enter the service for a multitude of reasons. They include money for school, see the world, get in shape, etc. And a fact that would cause even the most delusional “special breed” to get weak in the knees: Many among our ranks are as liberal as any Birkenstock-wearing, granola-eating, Eastern religion-loving, yoga-practicing, Prius-driving, homosexual tree-hugger living at Haight-Ashbury (and they all made it through boot camp).
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‘Seditionists’ was a stretch“Liberals couldn’t handle draft” left me confused. Was he trying to be funny when he labeled an entire portion of the United States (liberals) as “seditionists,” or, scarier, was he serious?
Patriots not only have the right to free speech but, as they perceive it, the duty to speak out. Does the writer believe everyone in the military is conservative? I have made the Navy my career — even though I’m a “liberal.”
Maybe his excuse for this liberal will be that I’m an officer. However, I worked my way here from abject poverty as a child to multiple jobs during college while my classmates were partying or dating, to finally getting my commission in the Nurse Corps. I’ve never bought my way out of anything and I’m more proud of my service to my country than almost anything else.
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http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=43462