I am a Vietnam vet, so veterans matters are one of my special interest groups. I served all of 20 months (time off for being in ‘nam) and rose to the exalted rank of Spec-4. In those days, there were plenty of us who were not pleased in being where we were, but didn’t like any other choices. (I still don’t like ice hockey.) I know more of military tactics from reading about Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan, than my time in the army. At what point have the parts of the Democratic Party coalition been driven so far apart that we guarantee four more years of wandering in the wilderness? Have we so divided ourselves that we are already conquered so that John bomb, bomb, bomb Iran McCain will be the one inaugurated in January 2009. The comedians and political pundits will have full employment. “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” voltaire

Regardless; suicide among active duty soldiers and Guard and Reserves, who do not have the same support structure as active duty soldiers, ALL need as much support as is required and then some.

“If Hill hadn’t supported this…”
I am not clear on your meaning of ‘this’ Cee.
Thanks in advance for a clarification.

Iraqis who helped Americans

Odd isn’t it?

Glad to hear you have more mobility at least in the wireless end of things. Rest easy heal well.

There’s YOUR friendly reminder.

Read your post again and reply. Or better yet, take some literacy courses, and THEN post.

it was hillary who pushed for research and medical help for victims of agent orange

You mean she tried to atone for her country’s crimes by helping the Vietnamese victims of American defoliation campaigns? No? Of course not you couldn’t have meant that! Only our precious golden boys in arms suffer. The foreign heathens don’t understand pain as we do!
Because let’s face it, America’s “suffering” is nothing but a pin-prick, a paper cut, a little shove to its fragile ego… compared to the horrors unleashed upon the “savages” (in this case “gooks” and “slopes”) unable and unwilling to appreciate our largesses and generosity in bestowing ‘napalm freedom’ and ‘Agent-Orange demokracy’ upon their ungrateful selves!
But that’s OK. Let’s keep our soldier-boy Schutzstaffel worship and veneration at a high level. Let’s feel and vicariously suffer for their post-traumatic this and that (“Oooh, I’m so depressed having butchered so many people in gruesome ways, even though I was only following orders. Oooh, woe is me and my GI Joe psychic pain”).
Their hapless victims only know post-traumatic death!

Thursday, January 31, 2008
harkin, hagel, obama take action to prevent suicide among active duty soldiers

http://harkin.senate.gov/pr/p.cfm?i=291649

http://obama.senate.gov/news/070419-why_were_soldie/

Just a friendly reminder.

And now the WiFi works like a champ! I’m still all thumbs using the keyboard/mouse on the laptop, sigh, but am getting used to it. The computer is SO fast! Much faster than the mini-Mac.

Hillary truly cares about helping the troops. And she’s worked hard with both Republicans and Dems to enact such important legislation.

I also need to do a post about how she has specific plans to help Iraqis — gotta be careful how I phrase this or Shirin will be all over me (snort!) — especially those Iraqis who helped Americans (which I can dig that Shirin thinks betrayed their own people, but who I think we can ALL agree nothing horrible should happen to).

(I just want to watch Shirin ride a horse! See the Fuck Kos story for that conversation! I’ve never seen her, but I can imagine a spirited Shirin riding a horse at full gallop! I’m smiling.)

My best friend has been in the military for thirty years. He’s been all over the world, including almost two years in Iraq. And he reacts all the time to crap like this with the same statement- the military is NOT Anti-Clinton, and the military is NOT Anti-Democratic Party. Most of the higher-ranking officers are, in fact, Conservative and Republican. But the boots on the ground are as bipartisan and diverse as the civilians back home.

Trash the lame, inaccurate talking points already.

First: disclosure. I support Obama in the primaries.

Second: I have a decent amount of respect for Hillary Clinton – I have and continue to disagree with a lot of her votes, and those are primarily why I do not support her (along with my disagreement with a lot of the legislation she pushed in the Senate). There is also some distaste for her that is assocaited with many of the things that went down during the Clinton presidency past (DOMA, NAFTA, Welfare Reform, and a lot more).

Third: It is my opinion that either will make a much better president than what we have now (of course, my left toenail could do that), and that both represent an enormous advance over the candidates Democrats have commonly offered up in the past.

Fourth: Neither truly meets my standards, because I am proudly and solidly in the far left camp in politics, and both are pretty standard liberal to liberal-left mainstream politicians.

Finally, regarding the military vote: I really do not think that ANYTHING will convince the military to support Hillary Clinton – there has been so much propaganda, so much derisive bile, so much programming of the military personnel with respect to anything Clinton, that it really seems to me to be impossible for her to overcome that, regardless of where individual military personnel’s interests lie. This is unfortunate, illogical, self-destructive on their part, but (IMO) true nonetheless. I also think that the military vote will be tilted Republican no matter which way the primary goes…that vote is going to take a long time and a lot of deprogramming to shift into the “D” column.

Best regards,

RedDan