Wednesday, August 20, 2008

McCain on reinstating the draft: "I don’t disagree"

Oh my--Looks like Johnny Boy wants to reinstate the draft. From YouTube:



Here is the transcript:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Senator McCain I truly hope you get the opportunity to chase Bin Laden right to the gates of hell and push him in as you stated on your forum. I do have a question though. Disabled veterans, especially in this state, have horrible conditions [...] My son is an officer in the Air Force, and I am a vet and I was raised in a military family. I think it is a sad state of affairs when we have illegal aliens having a Medicaid card that can access specialist top physicians, the best of medical and our vets can’t even get to a doctor. These are the people that we tied yellow ribbons for and Bush patted on the back. If we don’t reenact the draft I don’t think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

JOHN MCCAIN: Ma’am let me say that I don’t disagree with anything you said and thank you and I am grateful for your support of all of our veterans.
(Town Hall; Las Cruces, NM 08/20/08)

Now I'm guessing that John McCain didn't even understand what the audience member was even asking, and that McCain was simply agreeing with the question for the sake of agreeing. But this brings up a disturbing point here. The U.S. military is already breaking down due to the extended troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. The McCain campaign was more than happy to provoke a shooting war between the U.S. and Russia over the Georgia crisis, much to the greed of the lobbyists eyes as they take in huge fees from the Georgian government. And McCain has already sung the tune for bombing Iran. I seriously wonder just how many more wars will President McCain send young Americans into meat grinders with a broken military? John McCain is a war monger and if he is elected president, you can count on McCain to institute a military draft so he can continue the 100-year war in Iraq, and create new wars with Iran, Russia, or whatever other nation that pisses off McCain's explosive temper.

2 comments:

Paul Racataian said...

Hello Eric,

Thank you for confirming that I am not crazy. Although 'we' may be crazy. I can not find a Dem to touch this topic. They won't discuss it with me because they are afraid of what the right will do if this topic is brought to the table.

I'm prior military. I served in the first Desert Storm. I have strong feelings against the draft for one basic reason:

1. It is bad enough to be in combat conditons with people who volunteered to be there. What I don't need is someone next to me covering my back that didn't volunteer.

No one gets war. This current administration has gone out of their way to shade 4000+ deaths over the last 5+ years.

I'm beginning to think that America only supports the troops when it constitutes putting a stick-on ribbon on their car.

Well anyway, thank you Eric for showing at least one other voice that feels somewhat how I do.

I just don't understand why this isn't the number one issue. Take that loop, dedicate it to a website, drop millions of flyers with the website link and giant letters saying "McCain to Reinstate Draft" all over college campuses around the nation. I've been told that college kids don't vote. But they might if they think they could get drafted. It seems like a no brainer arguement to me.

As I see it, America may consider reinstating the draft because a group of people thought we would have oil forever.

I'll fight to defend the constitution, but to ask our armed forces to go out and kill and die because your buddies misplaced a few decimal points years ago is nothing more than being a hired assassin for the rich and powerful.

America blows off alternative energy sources for 30 years, falls way behind the rest of the planet, and now wants to reinstate the draft and have men and women like me go and fix their screw up with live rounds and bombs?

Sorry America... Sorry Sen. McCain. We got into this mess without the draft. I will not stand by and watch you get more people killed for oil and to increase the prices of the stocks you and your friends own.

I just wish more people would start screaming about this. Maybe if Sen. Biden gets the VP spot he will.

Eric A Hopp said...

Hello Paul:

Thank your for your comment, and no, you are not crazy. I've been looking at both the Iraq war, and the broken U.S. military, and had serious fears that we would have to reinstate the draft just to continue this wretched war.

I think that the Democrats fear the draft issue because of the stigma of drafting young men to die in the disastrous Vietnam War. The Democrats may not want to raise the issue because the Republicans would brand the Democrats for "bringing back the draft." This is rather hypocritical, considering how the McCain campaign has been pro-war in Iraq, and that the broken U.S. military could never survive in another eight years of war in Iraq under a McCain presidency. While John McCain may say that he opposes the draft, McCain may end up flip-flopping in expanding some form of draft just to keep the military intact. As it is now, there is a draft in forcing current American military personnel in extended tours in Iraq, and keeping them in the military well after their enlistment contracts have been fulfilled. So the draft has been a "hidden" issue--it has been in the back of our minds, but we're too afraid to speak out on it.

But I will also say that the politics have changed here. The Bush administration has agreed to a 16-month timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces out of Iraq, even as President Bush has repeatedly rejected any form of timetables here. I'm sure that an Obama presidency will continue with the Bush 16-month withdrawal timetable, without much change. I'm not sure how a McCain presidency would react to the Bush timetable. Will McCain continue with the timetable, or will he reject it and keep the U.S. war in Iraq going? Considering McCain's pro-war stance, and his explosive temper, I wouldn't be surprised if President McCain tears up the Bush timetable, claiming that he knows the Iraqi people want another eight years of war in their country--oh, and we'll also bomb Iran just for the heck of it.

Is it time to start singing Country Joe and the Fish's famous song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0jxHB3E710