Sunday, November 26, 2006
The Idea of National Service
Not your usual draft proposal!
1. Regular physical exercise,
2. Learning discipline, strict schedules, rules of behavior, etc.
3. Learning proper dress, grooming and hygiene,
4. Learning the English language as written and spoken,
5. Being taught Civics in the
6. Taking a course on American history in a positive manner, not bent on slander,
7. Learning manual skills of the office, especially typing,
8. Teamwork, and how to get along with others, politeness,
9. How to march; that is, military drill instruction and practice
10. How to handle a weapon or two, and how to shoot them well.
11. An opportunity to learn a foreign language if qualified.
12. Learning a trade or semi-profession useful in civil life.
The inductees would be tested for mental aptitude, physical health, attitudes towards service, a minimum of three options they would choose for service, and then would enter the first 11 levels of training as given above.
The options they would be given for service in (12) above, under strict supervision, might include:
1. Military
2. Police
3. Neighborhood Watches (under police supervision)
4. Peace Corps
5. Hospital trainees
6. Building Houses for the Poor
7. Firefighter assistants
8. Forrest Ranger Helpers
9. Environmental Cleanup Program
10. Border Patrol
11. Emergency Rescue and Ambulance services
12. Flood and Disaster Work
13. Elder Care Assistants
14. Road Crews and Street Sweepers
15. Sanitation Workers
16. County and City Maintenance Services
17. Other tasks not thought of yet.
A possible solution would be to absorb only 19-year-olds for the year-and-a-half to two-year service time, thus bringing down the total to perhaps 16 million 19 and 20-year olds, or so, over two years at the peak, which is still an extremely daunting number.
This needs a lot of thought to make it practical and useful! It is a political disaster, particularly when many youngsters (and their parents) do not want to serve at all. However, it would benefit everyone.
Labels: National Service
Friday, November 24, 2006
Chaos 2006
Just who isn't going mad and fighting?
We have a ancient group of religious madmen called Jihadists bombing everyone in Iraq.
We have a group of Secular Humanists in the US that want to take control and move us into an International government.
We have a group of Loony Left Wing Liberals in our country that want to destroy our current way of life in order to install a Socialist government, and they make common cause with the Secularists.
Then we have a group of Ultra Right Wing Extremists who want to overturn the government and create a "Christian" theocracy by force.
Lurking around underneath the cover of these Humanists and Loons are the hard-core Communists, who follow the discredited dictates of Marx and Lenin, and call for the distruction of our society in order to build a Communist utopia, and raise a crop of little communist automatons.
Somewhere in the murk are the Neocons that still believe in projecting US power into the lands of the Jihadist enemy simply to kill as many of them as possible, especially in Iraq.
Another group that I will classify as Pacifists declare their unalterable opposition to any form of war and conflict, thus ceding the battle for minds, hearts and territory to the enemy. No fight here!
Hispanics have their agenda, which seems to be the reconquest of America by infiltration, as do the Muslims.
Iranians are threatening to blow up the Jews in Israel and our citizens in the US as well.
The Israelis, in turn, are threatening their own attack on Iran.
China is building a huge military capability, North Korea has the bomb now, Taiwan has a competant force poised to repel a Chinese invasion,
Afghanistan and Pakistan are scenes of deadly combat between the Taliban and NATO forces.
Hugo The Citgo Chavez is arming to defeat a phantom US invasion of Venezuela, and to dominate Central and South America.
Darfur is continuing to be the site of genocides despite UN (so-called) peacekeepers presence.
The Russians are not standing still militarily either. Their rocket forces are formidable, and their tank forces are strong and reliable, if not up-to-date.
India still looks warily at Pakistan, as if their long-standing conflict over Kashmir will reignite at any moment, and China is always pressuring them in the North.
What is this all about? To me, it is about survival of our way of life in this tumultuous world.
The majority of Americans support fighting to maintain our nation.
Labels: China, Iran, Muslims, The Leftwing
Monday, November 20, 2006
National Service
Congressman Charles Rangel is not one of my favorite legislators. However, he has championed a form of National Service for all young men and women, I presume after high school graduation and before college, with no exemptions to be allowed. There is merit in this, so long as the service tasks allowed are a form of military or police work, and not softie jobs of any sort.
Such a program should not be used as a dumping ground for the unemployed and unemployable, however. There should be serious training involved, and competence tests for the participants that are public records of success or failure. Anyone not performing well should be retained for extra time to correct their failures, thus trapping those who want to drag their feet into more service. On the other side of the coin, foot-draggers who want to stay around forever for a free lunch should find themselves in front of a courts martial.
The merits of National Service of this type are several fold: High school graduates would have an immediate job for a year or year-and-a-half; the training they receive could be of immense benefit to them in civilian occupations; the discipline they would be subjected to by the military or police would be of great value in shaping their character and their health; the nation would benefit by creating a vast pool of trained men and women in the event of war or catastrophes; the police would benefit from having what amounts to paid rookies; and the military could benefit by having a large pool of trained men to recruit for permanent positions in the all-volunteer armed forces.
I would support a program along these lines wholeheartedly.
Labels: National Service
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Historical Mania
The search for historical parallels: is it a waste of time and energy?
There are a number of historians and and a host of amateurs who spend considerable time and energy attempting to identify past situations and outcomes that parallel some present situation. They do so to draw conclusions about the probable outcome of the situation at hand, and to support a lesson to be applied now by those in charge of policy and command of forces. In most cases of these prognostications, I submit that there are significant dangers in applying them:
1) Interpretation of past events through historical records is not a perfect science, and the records are most likely imperfect; 2) Objectivity of the historian is immediately questionable, since he started out to find a parallel--in his estimation--which is a biasing process; 3) It is extremely difficult to believe that sufficient parallism exists between events, timing, communications, states of mind, the available tools (of warfare, for instance), and the manifold intangibles of leadership, belief in a cause, motivation, training, scalability and insight, to name just a few aspects for the comparison between now and then.
There is one area, however, that makes study of history pay. That area is the practice of deception of fallible human beings. In warfare, deception is a major weapon, and historical lessons in how to deceive the enemy can be put to effective use today, if properly updated technologically.
The other useful aspect of historicism is to frame the debate about the current situation with pseudo-effective parallels from the past in the minds of the people concerned, the objective being to influence government policy and direction. Some would call this dishonest, wouldn't they?
Using the Vietnam quagmire comparison with our current Iraqi situation is an example of this framing. The comparison is superficial at best, and falls apart the minute equivalent details are brought to bear.
The one similarity I can agree with is the role played by the media in creating a climate of defeat in the minds of many Americans at home, and snatching defeat from victory at the last moment! This technique has been 'very helpfully' refined and extended since the Vietnam era, to the point that it has taken the media only three or four years to reach the public and the government with its defeatist attitudes, instead of the ten years it took back then.
There is much to be said for common sense and simply thinking one's way through a problem, instead of burning minds up looking for parallels from the past to guide the way.
Labels: History
Thursday, November 16, 2006
What Mandate?
The lesson of the election is being distorted, in my opinion.
We hear daily blurbs that the people have spoken and we need to pull out of Iraq. That is the Dems version of the election results. We, the American people, have said via our votes that we deplore the war, and want out, according to the Dems.
I have a different take. We the people want a victory in Iraq. We haven't seen sufficient progress over the past years to feel satisfied that we have been doing all we could to effect our success. Thus the Bush Team is faulted for not pursuing the war aggressively enough . We do not want an abject pullout, but a convincing win in Iraq. Many of us feel that more manpower on the ground, and more aggressive pursuit of the radical Islamists and militias of the clerics would rapidly dry up the insurgency. We seem to have kept our troop levels steady and modest while the insurgents have reinforced themselves from Syria and Iran. We do not own the night, and the day is iffy too. Granted, it is Iraq in the end that must control their own security, but we need a thorough cleansing of the radical population right now.
Such a cleansing would take a large commitment of forces, on the order of another 150,000 to 200,000 men, to close off Baghdad, seal the borders, and to lead the Iraqi forces further into self-supporting effectiveness. Then, too, it would be handy to have such a force in Iraq in case the Iranian situation goes sour, and the Syrians act up with them.
Some people have complained that this force augmentation would mean multiple tours in Iraq for many soldiers. That is why our soldiers serve. As long as we need to fight in Iraq, soldiers will fight and stay there to ensure their victory. We need more troops as well, which should lead to a draft again, but with a major difference. Let the volunteers fight, and let the draftees man the US stations left by the volunteers. Let the draftees decide to join the regular forces if they so desire after they have been trained up thoroughly.
Of course this is all against the Dems objectives, which is to let us lose in Iraq. So the loss of thousands of our men dead and many thousands wounded, will have been in vain. What a crock!
Labels: Dimdems, politics, Politics and Iraq, The Leftwing
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The Subterfuge is Becoming Apparent
Doesn't take long for Leftists to show their true selves!
Pelosi backs Murtha: hard Leftists both.
Waxman has so many investigation ideas he is paralyzed with joy.
The impeachment groups are frothing at the mouth to get started in earnest.
Waxman will find something to hang his hat on that will convince Pelosi to drop her opposition to impeachment, however nebulous it is in fact.
Pulling out of Iraq in a very short time is being pushed vigorously.
The GWOT will be downplayed, in favor of "accomodation" with Muslims--to our grave detriment.
Clinton is resurrecting her Health fiasco--the largest bureaucracy ever proposed!
We will see the Hate Crime bill running through the House soon.
The Minimum Wage increase will be passed in the House and the Senate, despite the obvious bad impact on the economy and employment according to most economists.
Illegal Immigrants will get amnesty, whatever they call it to disguise its real nature. This is the payoff for Hispanics voting Democratic, and cementing them as a major base for the party.
Christianity will be under increasing attack in the public place.
Last, but most significant, our taxes are going up, regardless of what some Dems say. They need to pay for their largesses and scams. Since 80% of the taxes are paid by the top 10% of the wage earners, this is nothing but blatant robbery of the most productive people in the economy in the name of the government. Redistribution of wealth is an idea from the Devil.
Labels: Dimdems, Pelosi, The Leftwing
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Disaster in Washington!
Progressives get their day.
Not only do we have an error-prone Administration, but now also a Progressive Congressional majority.
Gridlock is the best possible outcome for the next two years. If we get Killary in 08, who is posing for now as a moderate, but is actually a rabid liberal progressive, the future directions of the country will be irrevocably harmed. Open your wallets wide, they are about to be raided, so you might as well make it easy on yourself. If you make a decent amount of money per year, you are in even greater jeopardy for a raid: the whole theme of Progressives is to take away from the well-to-do, slice off a hefty bunch to allow the government to expand dramatically, and to line the pockets of the new managerial class to meet "needs", and then dole out the remainder to illegal immigrants and others who sit and wait for their share. Socialism is on the way now, for sure. Soros, the MSM and the limousine liberals have won the day.
So be it. Perhaps Republicans, now in opposition, will be as nasty as the Democrats and the MSM have been for six years. It seems to work: tell a lie and repeat it a million times, and the public believes it!
Not enough of you voted Republican! For shame!
Labels: Dimdems, The Leftwing
Monday, November 06, 2006
Vote Republican
Get over your desire to punish Bush for whatever you think he has done wrong. Get over you desire to punish Republicans for not being able to be as strong as you wanted. The problem with such punishment is Democrats.
Those people on the Left are very, very dangerous to America, and to its citizens, on a number of points, especially: increased taxes; an impeachment movement against Bush; an attempt to cut-and-run in Iraq; and bill after bill to take taxpayer money from the well-to-do and hose down the "needy" with the proceeds, including Illegal Immigrants, and anyone that can plead discrimination or devastation by hurricanes; a big boost for the UN from us (that 0.7 % of GNP the UN wants the US to pay per year.), and a further weakening of our sovereignty and freedom of action; plus an almost guaranteed pass for Iran and North Korea for developing nuclear weapons. leftwing Democrats cannot be trusted with the security of the nation.
Thank God that Bush has two more years in office. He can be counted on in this situation to veto those propositions that hurt America.
Vote Republican!
Labels: Republican, The Leftwing
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
John Kerry Again--With Foot in Mouth
Good try at covering up Kerry's true feelings about the military: he loathes everything about it. The issue is joined now at a very opportune time. In the past years he has made many derogatory statements about our forces, usually accompanying a rant against Bush. I trust the MSM will keep the issue alive for the next few days to remind the public of what mentality they are faced with when voting for the Ultra Liberals of today.
Vote Republican
