I've been saying this for a while, but it's nice to see someone from the right finally come out and say it. If you don't question why we are at war. If you just have blind faith in our leaders. You aren't fulfilling your duty as an informed citizen of America.
Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran and a potential presidential candidate in 2008, countered in a speech to the Council of Foreign Relations that the Vietnam War "was a national tragedy partly because members of Congress failed their country, remained silent and lacked the courage to challenge the administrations in power until it was too late.""To question your government is not unpatriotic -- to not question your government is unpatriotic," Hagel said, arguing that 58,000 troops died in Vietnam because of silence by political leaders. "America owes its men and women in uniform a policy worthy of their sacrifices."
"To not question your government is unpatriotic." Abso-freaking-lutely. We have the power to vote for a reason. As citizens we have an integral role to play in the proper functioning of government. And that role is to be understand what the government is doing, and to affirm or object based on that understand. What I see right now in the Republican party is a bunch of sheep who think they were given one vote by God, and that vote was for one-party Republican rule forever.
Posted by jherr at November 17, 2005 11:25 AMI wonder where you're looking if those are the only kind of Republicans you are seeing.
Posted by: Jacqueline at November 18, 2005 06:02 AMAt the 2004 convention all of the platform elements had 90% approval in the delegation. It was only just in the last couple of weeks that Republican approval of the war dropped slightly below 80%.
Republicans are sheep. All they care about is stopping what they view as the holocaust of abortion. Whatever happens in the mean time, the loss of thousands of soldiers, a scorched earth foreign policy, it's all meaningless as long as Roe is overturned. Republicans would flush the whole country down the toilet as long as they could watch as Roe went down as well.
Posted by: jherr at November 18, 2005 07:30 AMAt least 50% of Democrats voted for the resolutions to go to war, too.
People, in general, are sheep. Whether they call themselves Democrats or Republicans, Christians, Jews or Athiests. Their level of passion and involvement relies on thier priorities and interests. Sheep on politics may be lions on the basketball court. Sheep on movies may be lions on engineering principals . . .
You sound so full of hatred. It's sad.
Poor poor Republicans. We get the brunt of all of your frustrations. Whether we're Reagan Republicans or McCain Republicans - if we're to the right of Michael Moore, you hate us.
As a side note, Senator Hagel is one of the guys pushing for the draft to be reinstated.
Posted by: Jacqueline at November 18, 2005 11:12 AMThe entire Congress was lied to by the Bush administration. The Bush administration took all of the intelligent and spun it into a nice little package that completely supported their argument for war. They didn't look at the complete picture of what the administration actually had. In particular, a lot of the couching language of the CIA was removed. Which basically turned "may have weapons of mass destruction" into "has weapons of mass destruction".
Full of hatred? Yeah, maybe. For those that would destroy my country. Sure. I can't believe we are in another Vietnam. I simply can't believe it. I can't believe that there are a group of Americans that are so stupid that they would vote for this man again. It's confounding.
And frankly, I look at almost everything the real Republican stands for and it's completely alien to me. Prayer in the public schools? Teaching our kids that the earth is 6,000 years old? Telling women what they should do with their bodies? Spending money like drunken sailors? Lowering taxes on the mega-rich during a time of war? Ripping America apart with super-devisive rhetoric. Yeah, I just don't get any of that.
Today's hard-core conservatives remind me of the wacko NRA kids in high school who you just knew would be the ones doing the shooting at Columbine. You just want to smack them and say, "What the fuck are you thinking? Moron."
Actually I think Micheal Moore is pretty out there. I believe in fiscal responsiblity. I believe in a strong national defense. I'm pro-military.
What I am not for is whatever the fuck is going on in Washington with these neo-con clowns. It's completely disconnected from anything near reality.
No, this is not a country just for white people.
No, this is not a country just for christians.
No, you cannot tell me or my wife what our reproductive choices are.
No, you cannot tell my gay friends that they can't get married.
No, you cannot own machine guns, artillery or bombs.
No, you cannot start a war on a lie.
No, you cannot start a war with no clear exit strategy.
No, you cannot pass draconian laws that restrict our basic rights of privacy.
This stuff is basic.
All of our problems seem to stem from the Right's insistance that the "good book says to get in other peoples problems before getting on your own problems".
The government is not an extension of the church. Period. It's written right there in plain English in the first amendment. The very first freaking amendment. Fuck, the very first, freaking line of the very first freaking amendment.
As for a draft, I have said before that I support that. As long as it's even handed. We don't need chicken hawks like Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh and the rest of your neo-Gods pulling strings to get out of it this time.
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