Draft coming, students told
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroo...05wartalk.html
Draft coming, students told
By SUSAN ELAN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: November 5, 2004)
Reinstatement of the draft is imminent, war correspondent and author Christopher Hedges told a crowd of more than 120 students and residents yesterday at Manhattanville College.
"We are losing the war in Iraq very badly, but the Bush administration will not walk away from the debacle without trying to reoccupy huge swaths of the territory they have lost," Hedges said. While working for The New York Times, he covered fighting in Central America, the Balkans and the Middle East, including Iraq during the first Gulf War.
To regain territory lost in Iraq, it will take double or triple the current 140,000 troops, Hedges said during the last lecture in a series called "The Costs of War."
The reservists and National Guard members who make up half of the U.S. forces are stretched to the breaking point and need relief, he said, and the draft is the only way to assemble the numbers needed. Reintroduction of the draft will be made in the name of the war on terrorism soon after an attack in the United States or abroad, he predicted.
"The war in Iraq will no longer be an abstraction," he said. "It will become deeply personal. In the next few weeks look for shifts in administration policy leading in the direction of an escalation of the war."
Hedges encountered no detractors at Manhattanville, unlike his experience at Rockford (Ill.) College in May 2003, when he was booed off the stage while giving a commencement speech shortly after President Bush's battleship announcement that the U.S. mission in Iraq had been "accomplished."
On the contrary, many in the audience last night said they had braved rainy weather to hear Hedges indict the seductiveness of war and the dangers of mindless jingoism as an antidote to their depression over the results of the presidential election.
"It's been a hard week and there are much harder times ahead. That's why it is so important for us all to be together tonight," said Connie Hogarth, who has a peace and justice center on the Manhattanville campus named after her. "After we finish grieving, we have to get back to working for peace and justice, and an end to this war and its killing."
Hedges' audience remained rapt as he wove poetry, mythology, history and Freudian psychology with anecdotes about colleagues lost on distant battlefields and his own brushes with death. He criticized military heroic ideals that thrive during war and the way war distorts the human imagination. In the fervor of war the individual sacrifices thought for a false sense of belonging to something larger, he said.
"At the end of the Vietnam War, we became a better country in our defeat," Hedges said. "We asked questions about ourselves that we had not asked before. We were humbled, maybe even humiliated. We were forced to step outside of ourselves and look at us as others saw us. And it wasn't a pretty sight."
Those who confuse his anti-war stance with an anti-soldier position are mistaken, Hedges said. "War in the end is always about betrayal. Betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians and idealists by cynics."
Draft coming, students told
In my eyes this war has been a total betrayal of soldiers by politcians.
And since when did "mission accomplished" mean having to at least double the ammount of soldiers you had in the first place.
The Government are liars...........if government was a product, selling it would be illegal.
Peace
Draft coming, students told
it amazes me folks inability to learn from mistakes
Draft coming, students told
Dang..the fear-mongers of the Left,never do let up-do they ?
They continue to claim that they support the troops-but they don't support the mission..therefore,they don't support the troops in my opinion.
I think that every youngun should have to serve 2 or 3 years in the military,like the Israeli's do. It would help to displace their lifestyles of selfishness and un-gratefulness,teach them to work together as a team..maybe even grow em a spine..and reverse the effeminazation promulgated by the Left.
If the liberals had their way,America would be a nation of 'girlie-men'.
Draft coming, students told
Quote:
They continue to claim that they support the troops-but they don't support the mission..therefore,they don't support the troops in my opinion.
Torog, there are many many Troops who do not believe in the war they are fighting......I have read countless times that troops feel they are fighting a war based on oil and money.
What was the mission they were sent to do?
Was it to get rid of WMD's? which are obviously not there .
Was it to get rid of Saddam?, beacuase I understand that two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in prep for a planned autobiography.
Was it to finish off his Daddys work?
Was it so he can install yet another puppet governmnet so that military bases can spring up making it easier to do the same to the next country he wants to call his own?
Quote:
I think that every youngun should have to serve 2 or 3 years in the military,like the Israeli's do. It would help to displace their lifestyles of selfishness and un-gratefulness,teach them to work together as a team..maybe even grow em a spine..and reverse the effeminazation promulgated by the Left.
In your opinion what are the 'younguns' ungrateful for ? .
If my country was under a genuine threat then of course I would defend it, and I know this is the view held by many people but saying that the war in Iraq is built on crap is not unpatriotic. Realising that the government are liars is not unpatriotic.
It is my genuine interest in politics that lead me to think this, I did not want to believe that the government are liars, after all who would?. I did not want to to believe that there are hidden agenas. It was only when i started reading and researching instead of looking at the crap that is put infront of me that I found out this. I suggest you do the same.
Torog when are you gonna see that this is not about Men/Girlie Men or left and right , the government have lied to the people again and thousands of people have died because of the Iraqi invasion.
Peace
Draft coming, students told
Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbaholic00
Torog, there are many many Troops who do not believe in the war they are fighting......I have read countless times that troops feel they are fighting a war based on oil and money.
That's because you read too many liberal articles.
What was the mission they were sent to do?
Was it to get rid of WMD's? which are obviously not there .
The WMD's,were shipped out to Syria and can be found in the Be'Kaa valley.
Was it to get rid of Saddam?, beacuase I understand that two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in prep for a planned autobiography.
The UN voted unanimously,to use force to make saddam to comply with over 12 years of requests and resolutiona.
Was it to finish off his Daddys work?
We followed the UN resolution that did not authorize gittin rid of saddam in DS1,see what happens when we do what the UN wants ?
Was it so he can install yet another puppet governmnet so that military bases can spring up making it easier to do the same to the next country he wants to call his own?
Yup
In your opinion what are the 'younguns' ungrateful for ? .
If my country was under a genuine threat then of course I would defend it, and I know this is the view held by many people but saying that the war in Iraq is built on crap is not unpatriotic. Realising that the government are liars is not unpatriotic.
IMO,younguns are ungrateful for the many blessings they have,which they wouldn't have-if it were not for our soldiers securing our freedom..and few acknowledge,that all Blessings flow from God. Liberals would rather that our younguns focus on being vain,selfish and narcistic,liberals want younguns to assume the mantle of victimhood,and ask 'what has my country done for me ?'.
It is my genuine interest in politics that lead me to think this, I did not want to believe that the government are liars, after all who would?. I did not want to to believe that there are hidden agenas. It was only when i started reading and researching instead of looking at the crap that is put infront of me that I found out this. I suggest you do the same.
Torog when are you gonna see that this is not about Men/Girlie Men or left and right , the government have lied to the people again and thousands of people have died because of the Iraqi invasion.
I reckon that someday,with any luck,you'll 'see' that Freedom ain't free..and that everyone deserves Freedom..not just the ones who already have it,like you and I.
Peace
Peace back at ya..Have a good one...Torog
Draft coming, students told
Quote:
I have read countless times that troops feel they are fighting a war based on oil and money.
you reply.....
That's because you read too many liberal articles.
First of all I am not a Liberal, I will read Liberal articles as I will read right wing articles. I feel we have been continually lied to over the war on terror, Also regardless of where I have read that countless numbers of troops feel they are fighting a war based on oil and money do you not find it worrying that troops feel like this?
Quote:
I reckon that someday,with any luck,you'll 'see' that Freedom ain't free..and that everyone deserves Freedom..not just the ones who already have it,like you and I.
I agree that every one deserves freedom but I doubt that the people of Iraq's freedom was high on the list when the war was planned. On your last post you agree that puppet governemnt and military bases were on the agenda .
Immagine a couple of hundered years ago...............if the french had just decided that they were gonna liberate you from the British, tear your country in half then occupie it. I immagine it would be a simular picture to Iraq today.
Do you not see that the government is about as corrupt as it gets?
Peace
Draft coming, students told
Quote:
Originally Posted by Torog
Dang..the fear-mongers of the Left,never do let up-do they ?
They continue to claim that they support the troops-but they don't support the mission..therefore,they don't support the troops in my opinion.
I think that every youngun should have to serve 2 or 3 years in the military,like the Israeli's do. It would help to displace their lifestyles of selfishness and un-gratefulness,teach them to work together as a team..maybe even grow em a spine..and reverse the effeminazation promulgated by the Left.
If the liberals had their way,America would be a nation of 'girlie-men'.
you're a liberal torog! and you can't even see it.
ron paul is a conservative. you are not. you're for tyranny and enslavement.
