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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (124332)	2/18/2012 1:07:20 AM
From: Farmboy	Respond to of 224757

Thanks lorne, I remember it well - happened just a couple of weeks before I graduated from high school. I don't know how old you are, but anti-war protests were a daily happening then. Soldiers returning from their tours of duty in Vietnam were spit on at the airports, and some even assaulted. They were loudly derided as 'babykillers' and other insults by anti-war protesters, some even going so far as throwing paper cups of urine on the soldiers. This by protesters who were, in many cases, refusing to report for military duty, burning their draft cards as a protest, and running away to Canada to avoid going to service during the war. The more 'well-to-do' ones who didn't want to go were able to 'buy' their way into the national guard at draft time, or received deferments for college, or for 'suspect' medical conditions. This was before the 'all volunteer army', days and in theory, everyone was subject to being called to do their military duty. Consequently we had doctors and engineers and lawyers submitting to a two year draft as enlisted soldiers, rather than going in for three or four years as officers, which they could have done due to their professional education/status. The Vietnam war put a huge strain on the country. "Draft Dodgers" as they were called, when they refused to do their military service (or 'commies' or 'pinkos') were doing a lot of the anti-war protesting, but in many cases the protesters were parents of draft eligible young men, or those who just objected to war for any reason, who protested the country's involvement in Vietnam. For example, Rush Limbaugh received a medical deferment, because he 'had a cyst on his butt cheek' supposedly, and Dick Cheney never went because he received several deferments for being in college. Bill Clinton was an 'anti', who was scheming to avoid the draft, however it turned out the country went to a 'lottery' system and Clinton was fortunate enough to draw a high enough number that he knew he'd never be called to report for service. My lottery number was '66' - I was in the last groups of young men to be covered by the draft regulations, and when I found my number was so low, and I was a sure shot to be called, I hot-footed it to a recruiter and ended up joining up just days before people with the same number were drafted. Once in, I decided the Army beat the hell out of picking cotton and pumping gas for a living, so just ended up reenlisting, when the time neared for me to finish my commitment. The fact I was in a 'shortage' job field, and the Army was paying what was then (to me anyway) a huge reenlistment bonus for people in that job to stay in, helped sway my decision. So here I was, this southern farm kid, standing at the pay window getting my bonus ($10K before taxes) counted out in $20 bills, then heading straight for the bank to deposit it. Talk about emotions! LOL Anyway, I'm Geezing, getting off the subject. But I don't even want to think about a situation where an American Military man would be called upon to possibly use lethal force to maintain order in the streets, and use this force against another American. I know I could use force to stop a robbery, or an assault, or similar illegal activity .... but simply to stop a fellow American from exercising a constitutional right to peacefully protest something the government was doing? I don't even want to think about being in that position. Truth is, I could well be the American out there protesting, just as easily as the one called on to enforce order. I'd just rather never be put in such a position, let alone venture to guess what I might or might not do.