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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Supporting The Troops

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  1. 1.

    DougJ

    The yellow ribbon is a signal to the troops that we won’t cut and run. That’s a helluva lot more important than crap like body armor, compensation, health care, housing, and education.

    Guys like you, Tim, are the reason the Democrats are viewed as the “mommy party”. Yes, mommy would like body armor, compensation, health care, housing, and education, but daddy knows that’s what is important is that you don’t cut and run.

  6. 6.

    srv

    Republicans support for the troops doesn’t die, it just fades away when there’s money to be made.

    Remember those “These Colors Don’t Run” bumper stickers after 9/11? Ever notice how faded they are now?

  8. 8.

    DougJ

    Are you insinuating something, Demi? I mean, if you have anything specific about the president eating a baby, I’ll be glad to take a look into it. Well, if there’s any reason for me to check into it, please bring it to my attention.

  9. 9.

    Sock Puppet

    Nothing is more inspirational to me than a Japanese made vehicle (a Lexus perhaps) festooned with a Taiwanese manufactured yellow ribbon and an American flag made in Malaysia.

    Now that it standing up for America.

  10. 10.

    Sock Puppet

    Charliedon’tsurf says: To leave now would be to dishonor the money we’ve lost.

    Charlie, it’s OK. It was all borrowed, anyway.

  11. 11.

    demimondian

    I mean, if you have anything specific about the president eating a baby, I’ll be glad to take a look into it. Well, if there’s any reason for me to check into it, please bring it to my attention.

    Did I say anything about the president eating a baby? Did I so much as suggest that the president ate the six-month-old daughter of an American patriot who’d served his country? Did I even suggest that George W. Bush is a filty cannibal who ate Joan McGilluddy, born in July 0f 2005, in the presence of her father, Spc. Howard McGillcuddy?

    Did I do any of those things?

  12. 12.

    Paul Wartenberg

    (yes, it’s a morphine lever post. sue me.)

    Unless you work for a fatcat energy corporation with billions in profits, it’s not worth it to sue you. Sorry, hope that doesn’t bother you.

  13. 13.

    The Other Steve

    I don’t agree that a volunteer army is better. I think it’s just political suicide to suggest we eliminate the draft.

    We’re going to end up with a French Foreign Legion pretty soon here, if we haven’t already.(How many soldiers in Iraq are immigrants?)

  14. 14.

    OCSteve

    Pooh:

    I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like that linked article. What a scumbag (Stein, not you).

    I know this is all easy to say for a guy who grew up with money, did well in school and hasn’t so much as served on jury duty for his country.

    I suppose I have to give him credit for saying what he really feels rather than mouthing platitudes he really finds reprehensible.

  15. 15.

    DougJ

    Some Chinese kid wouldn’t have his car magnet-making sweatshop job if it wasn’t for yellow ribbons.

    And that’s one less potential recruit for Al Qaeda, one less Chinese kids making suitcase bombs in his lab. Doesn’t that count for something? Or are you just too dumb to see that the best way to counter the hateful ideology of Islamofascism is by offering the obvious alternative to a life of terrorism — life in a sweatshop. I guess you must have missed that lecture in Economics 101. Too busy riding your bike around drunk, I guess.

  17. 17.

    LITBMueller

    I wish they made yellow ribbons that said “I ain’t going.”

    Or, how about “Supporting them over there…so I can stay here.”

  18. 18.

    Pb

    Paul Wartenberg,

    Unless you *are* a fatcat energy corporation with billions in profits, it’s not affordable to sue.

  19. 19.

    Otto Man

    Look, the administration does support the troops, but they’re making their support known in other ways.

    I mean, do you know how much time and energy it takes to smear the reputation of a veteran like Jack Murtha? A lot! And that means there’s not enough left over for frills like body armor and VA care.

    It’s all about priorities.

  22. 22.

    charliedontsurf10

    Sock Puppet Says:

    Charliedon’tsurf says: To leave now would be to dishonor the money we’ve lost.

    Charlie, it’s OK. It was all borrowed, anyway.

    Somehow, the visa bill always comes.

  23. 23.

    Zifnab

    I don’t agree that a volunteer army is better. I think it’s just political suicide to suggest we eliminate the draft.

    There’s nothing inherently wrong with a draft beyond the basic idea that teenagers should die so that our 30-somethings can live in prosperity. But as a principle – that the citizens of our country should be required to serve in the defense of that country – it is sound. The problem is in how we use our military. We should not have been invading Vietnam. We should not have been overthrowing a reigm in Iraq. These are manageral issues that we can ignore when service is voluntery. The US Armed Services are formed, effectively, from patriotic mercenaries. They’re training, killing, and dieing to meet their car payments and put themselves or their kids through college, to put food on the table.

    The moment you make the Armed Services an involentary institution, you change the composition of your army. You’ll end up with a situation not unlike mandatory public education. You’ll have army “dropouts” and “underachievers” that a volunter army just doesn’t see the same numbers of. People won’t be there because they feel they want to be or they need to be. They’ll be there because they have to be there. Typically, conscripts like that make very poor soldiers.

  24. 24.

    Tim F.

    Pooh –

    Great example of the composition fallacy. I might start putting up a composition fallacy offender du jour in the spirit of Duncan Black’s Wanker of the Day.

  25. 25.

    Sock Puppet

    Charliedon’t: I like the Visa bill analogy. Maybe we can claim our card was stolen? That way we won’t have to pay that nasty $400 billion tab.

  26. 26.

    Sock Puppet

    Somebody should consider making a yellow ribbon that simply says “Incontinent.”

    After all, they suffer, too.

  27. 27.

    srv

    But as a principle – that the citizens of our country should be required to serve in the defense of that country – it is sound.

    Not sound by any American precedent. If mandatory servitude to the federal state is such a great idea, why didn’t our founders put it in as a requirement? Why did they say no to George Washington? The federal state exists to serve the citizens, not the other way around. Most of them were pretty clear about this.

    Now you can make a debate about state power based on our history, but modern americans would not be comfortable with it.

  29. 29.

    Lines

    Israel figured out how to make manditory military service work and its amazing at the level of pride that people have in their military. Comments like “we don’t need America, we can wipe them off the map in 2 days” are routinely overheard there. The citizenry is fit, happy and full of pride. What does our non-servitude give us? Cheeto stains and carpel tunnel.

  30. 30.

    srv

    What does our non-servitude give us? Cheeto stains and carpel tunnel.

    Well, somebody had to pay for all those F-15I’s and JDAM’s.

  31. 31.

    Pooh

    Tim,

    Are you referring to Stein or the blog to which I linked? (He’s actually a friend of mine when we talk about any subject that isn’t politics…)

    I think that the editorial was meant to be ironic, but I’m not sure.

  33. 33.

    Ancient Purple

    One of the items the Carpetbagger report forget to list was the faux inticements that were promised to people in order to get them to stay in the military.

    In October of last year, the Pentagon cancelled the signing bonuses of Army Reserve and National Guard members who re-signed up to extend their tours of duty.

    The military promised them $15,000 as a signing bonus and then cancelled it claiming that the bonus violated Pentagon policy.

    How nice they discovered that violation after people had re-enlisted.

  34. 34.

    Tim F.

    Pooh –

    I mean the blog post, where XWL sees ‘Stein’ and interprets that to mean The Left. He even has the courtesy to capitalize it for those of us doing a caps-sensitive search for composition offenders.

  35. 35.

    ppGaz

    Why aren’t we hearing more about the good things that come from the Chinese magnetic decal industry?

    Couldn’t we put a “Iraqi Freedom — Support Our Occupiers” sticker on every vehicle in Iraq, for instance?

    In Arabic, of course.

  36. 36.

    RonB

    DougJ, I hope I didn’t blow your cover over at Carpetbagger. I’m on the late shift in Korea and I couldn’t resist.

  37. 37.

    DougJ

    Are you Bilfil? RonB. Come on over and argue with me some more in the top thread. Let’s see if we can get something going.

  38. 38.

    Joey

    Personally, I love it when a five million pound SUV that gets a quarter of a mile to the gallon has “Support the Troops” magnets plastered all over it. The best part is, even if you tried to explain the obvious irony, they still wouldn’t get it, and would probably have to go spend a hundred bucks to fill up afterwards just from idling at the stoplight as you tried to explain it to them.

  40. 40.

    Faux News

    After all, they suffer, too.

    What about “painful rectal itch”? That ain’t no joke son.

    (Tip of the hat to Saturday Night Live parody of the Smuckers commerical…”with a name like that it HAS to be good”!)

  41. 41.

    D. Mason

    Ancient Purple thats a nice one. Another one they forgot to mention is the prohibition on body armor … Sure they included the part about the army failing to supply body armor but they should have dug a little deeper and they would have found that soldiers aren’t even allowed to supply their own. That’s right folks, when these kids write home to mom and pop telling them about how Uncle Sam wont pony up for some flack jackets their family might have to skip a few meals to pay for military equiptment that they’ve already paid for. Most families would smile while they made sacrifices to pay for that armor since they know it might save their childs life. Imagine the tears when mom hears how her baby was just killed while his $6000.00 armor sat in a locker under direct orders from his C.O.

  44. 44.

    Angry Engineer

    There’s nothing inherently wrong with a draft beyond the basic idea that teenagers should die so that our 30-somethings can live in prosperity.

    Heh – more like “50-somethings”. Sorry, but us younger Gen-Xers are going to be conscripted into service if things get bad enough to reinstitute the draft.

  46. 46.

    demimondian

    Nah, Pooh, I don’t think that it’s in the interest of fairness. He’s made a completely false claim on two levels, not only in asserting that the “left hates the military”, but even that “Stein hates the military”. Stein, in fact, argues in his piece that we should provide all the things which aren’t being provided to the troops on the ground, but that we can’t claim we support “the troops but not what they’re doing”. I’m not sure I agree, but that’s got nothing to do with “hating the military”.

    So the original claim the author of that blog made is still false, malicious, and ill-considered.

  47. 47.

    The Other Steve

    They’ll be there because they have to be there. Typically, conscripts like that make very poor soldiers.

    And yet we won WWII using mostly conscripts. No, I’m sorry… that argument against the Draft has pretty much been discredited.

    The reason we no longer have a Draft is because some bright guy in the military brass thought “Hey, if we limit the number of soldiers the army has if we get another whack job from Texas in here as President, they’ll be less likely to commit soldiers to war without first getting the OK from the American people”.

    You see the idea was we’d have a standing army large enough to propel an invasion, should that occur, and give us time to have Congress re-implement a draft and train the new soldiers.

    Nobody considered a President would just up and send our military into a situation where they were completely undermanned, and then not have the courage to go before the American people and ask for what was needed because it was politically difficult.

    Yet… As they say. If you make a policy idiot proof, the world will produce a better idiot.

  50. 50.

    Daniel

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the information cited in the link is out of context. For example, decreases in “imminent danger pay,” and the like might be offset by other pay increases. The body armor issue is another thing that lefties can’t help themselves in taking out of context by not addressing real concerns about tradeoffs with mobility.

    Basically, these are statistics brought to you by a partisan lefty blog. It might be worthwhile to take it with a grain of salt if you’re looking for a more accurate picture.

    Although he tilts right, if you’re looking for a fairer analysis on these sorts of issues, check out Jason Van Steenwyk’s blog. He also has the added advantage of having served in Iraq.

  52. 52.

    RonB

    Doug, I can’t seem to find you in that top post, did they catch you or did you just move on? I wasn’t able to get on until now.

  53. 53.

    demimondian

    Pooh, I understand he’s your friend — and I’m restraining myself on your account. That said, I really think he’s fundamentally set up a straw man, first about “the left”, and then with Stein himself.

    Stein asks “Can one support volunteer troops without supporting the war aims they are ordered to pursue?” To me, the answer is clearly “yes” — but asking the question, and arguing that the answer could be “no” hardly seems like “hating the military” to me.

  54. 54.

    Sock Puppet

    Want to end the war in Iraq pronto?

    Draft young Republicans.

    War only appeals to the privileged when it is conducted as an armchair sport.

  55. 55.

    RonB

    I first got introduced to the blogosphere during my wingnut days, and I still hang around my old site and try to poke holes in their little world of MSM bias and socialists trying to take everything over,etc. It doesn’t go well for me, but I have retained the friendship of the blog owner even though we are now polar opposites politically. It’s the only rational discussion I get to have there anymore.

  57. 57.

    Com Con

    Ron, I’m still there on “Ambushed on the way to the podium”. And some others have joined me. Let’s go crazy. Come in as a liberal to argue with me.

  58. 58.

    DougJ

    Ron, I’m still there on “Ambushed on the way to the podium”. And some others have joined me. Let’s go crazy. Come in as a liberal to argue with me. Just to double check with you — this is David Carr, not the other carpetbagger, right? I may have posted at the other Carpetbagger recently too.

  60. 60.

    Rusty Shackleford

    DougJ Says:

    Are you insinuating something, Demi? I mean, if you have anything specific about the president eating a baby, I’ll be glad to take a look into it. Well, if there’s any reason for me to check into it, please bring it to my attention.

    Hil-freakin-larious!

    DougJ needs his own blog. It will be the blogging equivalent to The Colbert Report.

  64. 64.

    Paul Wartenberg

    I think Joel Stein wrote an article about not wanting to support the troops anymore as it encourages teh Powers That Wannabe into thinking people will allow them to undersupply and underfund the war effort. Can’t find the link for it, will need to re-locate it…

  66. 66.

    Stormy70

    Business has been booming in this southeast Georgia town since just after Christmas when thousands of 3rd Infantry Division troops from neighboring Fort Stewart began returning from a yearlong tour in Iraq and finding their bank accounts flush with combat pay, tax breaks and bonuses.

    It’s not just a year of being unable to hit the shopping malls and car dealers that has troops flush with cash. During their yearlong Iraq deployments, they earned combat pay and other incentives, and their income wasn’t taxed.

    Several soldiers interviewed estimated they earned an extra $700 to $800 per month while in Iraq, totaling up to an extra $9,600 for some from their year overseas.

    Wow. They seem to be happy.

    Do you guys only read lefty blog “analysis”? It shows.

  67. 67.

    srv

    Do you guys only read lefty blog “analysis”? It shows.

    Happy to be back? The lefties must be shocked, just SHOCKED! See how good year long deployments are for their bank accounts? Heck, they should just do it every year!

    Considering your link is to CBS News, I’m guessing you think the Yahoo and Hackworth links above are “lefty” and CBS is “righty”.

  68. 68.

    Stormy70

    I read this guy, who actually knows what he is talking about.

    Of course, he actually served in the military and knows how it works.

  69. 69.

    I.B. Concerned

    Hello Fellow Americans!

    I stumbled across this site while searching for some magnets to promote my business…but I found this blog post about “Chinese magnets” and all of its defeatist, antagonistic, cowardly-displayed opinions instead. I am greatly disheartened that you folks are wasting time that could be perfectly productive by arguing with each other like children on an internet blog post, instead of WoRkInG on your careers, or VoLuNtEeRiNg, or WoRsHiPpInG, or CaMpAiGnInG, or (God-forbid) rearing your child to become a great leader one day.

    Perhaps our biggest problem in America is that instead of getting your own campaigns together and actually taking a step towards creating the world you wish to see, you’re sitting in your comfortable home offices bitching at each other instead of uniting with like-minded people to actually BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD!!!

    Some of you have complained about people who drive foreign made Lexuses and display “Chinese” yellow magnet ribbons.
    Honestly, is that the best you can come up with while typing from a computer whose components are made overseas and whose internet service providers and Help Centers are all based in INDIA?!?! I am pleased to correct your ignorance and inform you that more Toyota (and Honda and Nissan) products are made in the U.S. than in Japan–at least the ones made for American consumption. And about those yellow magnets? You COULD have found them that read, “MADE in U.S.A.” if you HADN’T been in a Wal-Mart (number one exploiter of 3rd world countries and destroyer of local economies) putting your local business owners and neighbors out of business all to save 13 cents on a package of razors–which, by the way, are also made OVER SEAS…

    Perhaps none of this group’s confusion is its members’ fault. Perhaps the media is to blame for creating mass misinformation, inciting panic, and for the general state of ignorance in which most Americans live. It seems obvious that most of you are taking your daily news from Colbert, MSN, Yahoo!, and, what’s worse, OTHER BLOGS. This is absurd.

    People, its time you logged off of the web long enough to have a reality check and discover that you aren’t going to be a productive member of society as long you’re sitting there angry, hiding behind your computer, instead of rallying together with your colleagues to BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE!

    I.B.C.

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