Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post

1) No, merely that Summers got more wrong in that book than he got right. In fairness, as he got older he changed some of his positions and thus got smarter, I guess one could say.

2) The civilian leadership screwed up and the military leadership screwed up. Tossup on which was worse. I fault the military more because they had an obligation to the nation to do it right or explain why they couldn't -- and they did not. Just as they screwed up initially in Iraq.I disagree. The 1/3 rule applies. 1/3 will object to a war, they will be from the political party opposite the one that started the war. 1/3 will support it and they will be from the party that started the war. The other third, the big middle, will waffle back an forth depending on how the war is going; if it's going good they'll be okay. If it is not going good, they'll gripe. Thus, if a war is not going well, about 2/3 will be complaining -- crying as you put it. That's been pretty much true in all our wars all the way back to the revolution. There are a few nuts on each end, some people are truly anti-war and oppose all wars -- that's their right. there are a few that want more wars (some of those will be in uniform, some not).You're entitled to your beliefs. Thatr's all any of us are really entitled to -- all the rest SOMEBODY pays for.

3) I strongly disagree with you on two counts. The guys who serve are well compensated for what they do. It is not an 'entitlement' -- it is compensation, timely and deferred, for service. They deserve what they get but no more. They like every other American are 'entitled' to a fair shake on life. No more and no less.You might want to give that some thought. I understand where you're coming from and agree with the goal or desire it expresses but I don't think that passes the fairness test. I also wonder how many people who don't wnat to spend a hundred bucks of their money will get a hundred from someone else and vote the way the payer wanted them to...I was referring to the sentiment that you expressed in this quote from your earlier post:As I said, in my opinion, the sentiments expressed in either of those two sentences is not in keeping with any American values I ever knew. I guess mt wife qualifies as one of those family members you cited -- she doesn't think much of the idea. I'm being polite there.Your 'tax' ideas.

4)You're entitled to your opinions and to express them but I do have two suggestions. First, every American is entitled to their own ideas and to state them but I suggest you might really want to give serious thought to the 'soldiers and their families are special' and your tax thoughts -- not least because there are, proportionally, as many kids of that top income batch as there are 'working class' people in the services. Everybody can't be a soldier...

5)Secondly, if I thought most Americans are as bad as you say, I wouldn't stay here.

Fortunately, I'm pretty sure they aren't so I can stay...
1) I'll assume you know more than I do regarding Vietnam. It seemed to me as if the military was never allowed to go "all the way" in developing a strategy for that war? Perhaps no one in the military demanded this?

2) I think you may have point here with this 1/3 concept.

3) In the United States we have many groups who extract economic rents from the government. Some groups deserve more than others. Taking care of combat soldiers and their families is one way of attracting people to the military, and most importantly, seems to be the honnorable thing to do? When I read about soldier's families living on food stamps, or veterans getting the run-around at the VA, it disappoints me. It especially disappoints me when I read about other groups that get taken care of or "bailed out" while combat soldiers do not. I should mention that in my own experiences I feel the federal government has treated me very good (education benefits, health care).

As far as my voting plan goes, I'm not sure what "fairness" you're talking about? The way I see it, if you can't pass a simple civics test in English and come with $100 every ten years, then you shouldn't have much of a say in what happens in this country. And while someone could pay for someone's vote under my plan, they can do so today as well.

4) I pretty sure that you're wrong about the same proportion of the rich serving as the working and middle classes? This is something we'll have to find data on to confirm.

5) Nowhere did I say Americans are "bad." I can go on for a long time on why I think America is a better place to live than anywhere else. I just don't think Americans handle war very well. In fact, most of the Western world doesn't handle war very well. Somehow the West went from a people that thought its destiny was to conquer the world to being conquered by political correctness and decadence. Given the Zeitgeist of today, do you think we could conquer North America like the early Americans did? The allies killed 130,000 Germans in a day at Dresden, and the US vaporized 200,000 Japanese with the two atom bombs. This could never happen today. We could have ended our "problems" in Iraq and Afghanistan in no time if we still had the will that we had back in WWII.

I believe its WILL that wins wars (this isn't a new idea of course), and I see very little of it in the West today.