Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - How will you feel if Bush is re-elected?

Boo · 10-31-2004, 12:53 PM

I voted satisfied.

While I do agree that this administration has made a few mistakes, I feel that Kerry has little to offer. Every time I see him, I see a person blown by the issues, guided by a minority of voices and utterly without backbone.

President Bush got handed a plate full of shit. He reopened a war that has little chance of being a full victory and has ran up a huge deficet while doing it. I do wonder what other choices he had. Clearly some people are holding military screwups and other blunders against him personally when the initial blame belongs to the intelligence community, the military planners, and at least in part to the politics of war.

The vacuum of assistance by the United Nations and not going into Iraq would have created an even poorer image to the world.

Here is an email snip from a friend of mine that is on active duty.

Quote:

The Global War on Terror/Military Draft/Other Military Fallacies: In the military, we call it GWOT. It's there. it's real. And it's not going away, even if we leave Iraq. We need to stay the course to help spread freedom and to protect our sons and daughters from going through their own 9/11 later down the road. I know, I know, Mr. Kerry, that you love to state that we've lost over 1000 personnel in Iraq. That we've lost more this month than last month, more than last month than the month before that, etc. But the media (and the Kerry camp) thrives on perpetuating the bad news, and doesn't do much to report on the good that is going on over there. We are affecting change! This is not another Vietnam - this is an example of the phrase, "The best defense is a good offense." God Bless a President who will make the tough decisions to protect our country, at all costs, and God Bless the soldiers who are over there doing their job because they know they are making history, making a difference (and there are plenty of soldiers over there who support being over there and what they do!)

Draft? What draft? We're not having a draft any time soon. The entire military is going through a phase called Force Shaping. We are doing more with less, but we are doing it smarter. I can't speak for the other services, but in the Air Force, we are DECREASING the size of the force by 20,000 or so this year. We're doing that by separating Airmen who WANT to separate before their enlistment is up, by kicking out those who have Article 15 convictions or have otherwise gotten into trouble, and by DECREASING new recruitment by 11,000 this year. But we're still getting the job done. We have adopted a concept called the Air Expeditionary Force, which in a nutshell means that instead of being stationed all over the world as we were during the Cold War, we're establishing leaner, quicker, stronger groups of forces in a variety of specialties that can deploy at a moment's notice. We've been at this for a few years, long before Iraqi Freedom. With the AEF, each base knows when it's "on the bubble" (either going to deploy or going to be on call in case they're needed) and each unit gets a sufficient amount of time to gear up for, as well as to recuperate from, their time "on the bubble." This way, it's never a surprise, so we can plan our family vacations, school schedules, etc. around our time "on the bubble." How are we doing this and still decreasing our forces? By contracting out many non-combat jobs to civilians (i.e. Finance, Personnel, Medical, etc. - thus, creating more civilian jobs in military communities.) Mr. Kerry likes to refer to the Stop Loss program as a "back door draft." It's not. What it does is allows the military to TEMPORARILY keep personnel in critical specialties in the military until those recruits in Basic Training and Technical School are finished with their training and are able to fill the gaps caused by those who want to separate from the military. Stop Loss is not a wartime "back-door draft" program - it's a military personnel management tool, just like enlistment/reenlistment bonuses, Flight Pay, etc. that's used during peacetime, too. I was on Stop Loss during the Gulf War - my AF specialty is aircraft weapons loading (bomb/missile loading) and of course we were needed during the Gulf War. My enlistment came up while I was deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Desert Storm and I was unable to get out of the AF. But a funny thing happened while I was on Stop Loss waiting to get out - I realized that the AF is a GREAT way of life, and next thing you know, I'm closing in on 17 years of proud military service. I don't know where I'd be now if I hadn't been affected by Stop Loss, but I know where I'll be in 3 years - a decorated military veteran with 20 years of proud and faithful sevice to my country behind me. And do you know what I fear the most during these last 3 years? I'm afraid of having to serve under John Kerry. He'd be my Commander in Chief, and as such, I am supposed to take a bullet for him if I were ever in that situation. My inner conflict is that if I were to ever be in that position, I couldn't do it, I WOULDN'T do it. I couldn't give my life for a Commander in Chief who doesn't support the military 100%, someone who I personally feel is shady and deceptive and lacking moral character. President Bush? I'd lay down my life for him in a heartbeat. Even if I was a Democrat, I wouldn't vote for a man who downplays the importance of our National Guard by trying to say that his military service was more important than GWB's because he served in Vietnam and GWB just served in the Guard back home. The National Guard is a pivotal part of our Total Force. Many people remember after 9/11 that we had air patrols 24/7 up and down America's coasts, protecting key cities like NYC, Washington DC, LA...but what people probably don't know is that the active duty Air Force, for the most part, stopped supporting that mission a long time ago. Those missions are now flown by Guard and Reserve units. For John Kerry to insinuate that it's no big deal or importance to serve in the Guard is a slap on the face to all military personnel.

I have heard this same sentiment from several of our soldiers. The thing worst than being held due to stop loss is having to work for a Commander-in-Chief that does not believe you are doing what needs to be done (been there personally under Clinton). During this time of strife, I will vote for continuity in war, I will vote for consistency for the troops, I will vote for Bush.