I am going to take this opportunity to highlight a writer who has turned on a lightbulb.
He has hit the nail on the head about the GOP's relationship
with the military. For years we have seen people who did not serve proclaim
their never dying love for anyone in uniform. How noble they were, how
selfless the sacrifices they (and their families)made in defense of the
Nation. How they exemplified all that was best in America.
Why are they so quick to shout, "Send in the Marines!" "Bomb the fuckers!"
"Kill them all, let God sort them out."; while at the same time, these same
GOP leaders made sure their children never serve, cut funding for health
care, VA, family support, supplies, logistics, etc.....
<more>
No matter what you feel about Kerry's comments, he is right in that many
serve as the only way out of their own social position since student loans
and other avenues have been cut. But once the shit hits the fan,
these same volunteers serve with honor and courage.
So what is the basis of the GOP's cognitive disconnect?
The writer Driftglass lays it out. Its all clear now. In the middle of a
blog about the Marine Corp being shorted 20% in its budget due to something
called a "war", this writer has pulled the curtain away.
Once you look at the GOP's behavior from this viewpoint. It all makes sense.
Some of the post will make hard reading since Driftglass makes hard
judgments; judgments that may be justified based on past experience.....but
make no mistake about it, he is right on the money.
R
----------excerpt----------------------
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/...
.....The shorter wingnut argument for the catalog of sins and obscenities
their Party has committed against the military -- from dumping kids into a
combat zone with cardboard body armor and Purple Heart Mobiles, to veteran's
benefits cuts, to stop-lossing soldiers until they crack, to why the
Barcalounger Bravehearts of the 101st Chairborne have rabidly and
categorically refused by the millions to enlist in their Iraqi War for
Everything That Is Good And Decent -- has always, always been the same:
"They volunteered."
Spoken with something between a sneer and a smirk.
Because while "They volunteered" is what they say, in wingnut code it means
"They were stupid enough to volunteer."
The Right views the military in exactly the same way their great-granddaddies
viewed their slaves and their daddies and granddaddies viewed their
sharecroppers.
As property.
As chattel they could simultaneously brag on for their productive utility,
and work to death without a second thought or pang of conscience.
.....
Because they view "Semper Fidelis" as a smutty little joke played on people
foolish enough to actually believe in it -- something akin to the sign
reading "Arbeit Macht Frei" over the gates Auschwitz -- instead of a solemn
compact that runs both ways.
As the military is called upon to stand between we civilians and harm, so we
civilians are called upon not to use them as ass paper. As disposable human
HandiWipes that whatever gorgon Jerry Falwell really worships put here for us
to use up and toss out.
Not to use them as human footstools to prop up our decrepit egos.
They are our children, and when we send them off to kill and die in our name
we are bound by honor to be fucking well positive that they go armed and
armored to the teeth for a fight that is based on threats that are both
incontrovertible and unavoidable.
The war in Afghanistan against the Taliban was such a cause.and the Neocons
coldly and deliberately used it to bait-and-switch us into Iraq and their
Glorious War for Oil and Empire.
They sent our children off, wrapped in Kleenex and IOUs, to die in Iraq for
lies and the greater glory of George W. Bush's Oedipal complex.
And now that those kids are spent -- now enough of them have died to fill a
country town, and enough of them have been wounded to populate a small
city -- the Party of God that sent them off to bleed in foreign deserts for
no damned good reason wants to make them beg for relief.
Wants to abuse and humiliate them one last time. Make 'em dance a little more
before kicking them to the curb, rolling over, and going back to sleep.
And why?
Because they volunteered to defend their country at a time when criminals and
cowards and liars run the place.
Because they served during the Age of Dubya.
An age when one can either be a Good American or a Good Republican, but one
can no longer be both.