Ken and Mike,
I've also thought that some form of national service would be a good thing.
I'd think that something like VISTA or the Peace Corps could be a viable
option for those who are philosophically opposed to, or otherwise unsuited
for military service. Soon after I graduated from college, and was looking
for a job with a degree in political science, I got the card from the Army
that said "We Want You!" and the followup phone call from the local
recruiter. I talked to him on the phone and didn't tell him about my
disabilities (they aren't apparent in my speech). We set up an appointment
to talk more, and he was
I also think that there needs to be some mechanism to pay for the war other
than continuing to cut into social and educational programs. I serve on the
advisory council for our state Tech Act project, and funding for that has
gotten rolled into the war funding bill that recently passed both Houses of
Congress with the provision for the US to be out of Iraq by the end of
2008. President Bush has promised to veto this, if it comes to his desk
with the provision that we ar out of Iraq by the end of next year. I
actually agree with that, because I don't see Iraq being stable by that time
on it's own. I wish that weren't the case, but all my wishes, and Nancy
Pelosi's, and Dick Cheney's and George Bush's won't make it so. That being
said, I think continuing the present tax cuts is a bad idea. the
Pay-as-you-go (paygo) policy that was instituted under George HW Bush, and
continued under Clinton was a good philosophy, and is one that should have
been continued by the present administration.
With the number of service people who are returning with disabilities,
funding for Tech Act projects and other disability related services is going
to be very necessary. From what we've seen at Walter Reed, I don't think we
can count on the Department of Veteran's Affairs to handle these needs
well.
On 3/27/07, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I agree that some form of civil service should be mandatory for all
> citizens.
>
> ---- OrI agree iginal message ----
> >Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:32:17 -0700
> >From: ken barber <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Re: Some say US citizens need a war tax or a call to national
> service.
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >this is interesting. do you agree or disagree?
> >
> >--- "Kendall D. Corbett" <[log in to unmask]>
> >wrote:
> >
> >> Interesting piece from the Christian Science Monitor
> >> on the war.....
> >>
> >> *Few Americans share Iraq war's sacrifices*
> >>
> >> *By Gordon Lubold* | Staff writer of The Christian
> >> Science Monitor
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> *WASHINGTON***
> >>
> >> Ask Navy corpsman Adam Shepherd what he wants
> >> Americans to know about his
> >> service in Iraq and he says it boils down to one
> >> thing. "Just don't forget
> >> that we sacrificed a lot to be out here," says the
> >> medic, stationed at Camp
> >> Taqaddum, Iraq.
> >>
> >> It's a sentiment that many servicemen and women
> >> express. Five years after
> >> President Bush declared war on Islamic extremism,
> >> the military has lost
> >> 3,599 troops and spent $503 billion in Iraq and
> >> Afghanistan. Yet unlike past
> >> wars, even unpopular ones, most Americans have
> >> contributed little directly.
> >> Tire and paper drives of World War II are a dim
> >> memory. An increasingly
> >> narrow slice of the population serves in the
> >> military.
> >>
> >> Now, a growing number of observers question whether
> >> Americans should make
> >> some kind of sacrifice for what Bush himself calls
> >> the "decisive ideological
> >> struggle of our time." Despite the billions spent on
> >> defense, which
> >> represents 4 percent of the gross domestic product,
> >> many inside the
> >> administration and conservatives outside it believe
> >> it's time to spend more.
> >> But raising defense spending at a time when
> >> Americans are frustrated with
> >> the Iraq war is problematic. It also raises
> >> questions for the growing number
> >> of Americans who don't support the president's war
> >> strategy. So what should
> >> citizens do – if anything – to support US troops?
> >>
> >> Aside from sending care packages or volunteering to
> >> help those in uniform,
> >> Americans seem to have no ready answers.
> >>
> >> All this comes at a time when lawmakers, analysts,
> >> and many current and
> >> former military officials blame Bush for failing to
> >> mobilize the nation by
> >> calling on Americans to join the military or
> >> creating national service
> >> programs or even raising additional resources to
> >> help pay for the war
> >> effort. Instead, he has doled out tax cuts and
> >> suggested Americans can be
> >> true patriots by keeping the economy going strong.
> >>
> >> Says one retired general: "Marines are at war,
> >> America is at the mall."
> >>
> >> The president has also asked for patience as
> >> challenges to the war effort
> >> have mounted – a different kind of sacrifice that
> >> the public and Congress
> >> seems increasingly unwilling to make.
> >>
> >> Americans would be willing to sacrifice in real ways
> >> if they were asked,
> >> says Fred Kagan, a senior analyst at American
> >> Enterprise Institute, a
> >> conservative think tank in Washington. "It's one of
> >> the worst failures of
> >> the administration, the weakness of its efforts to
> >> make it possible for the
> >> American people to support its troops."
> >>
> >> Soon, Mr. Kagan and other strong supporters of going
> >> the distance in Iraq
> >> will release a report that among other things will
> >> explain why mobilizing
> >> the nation in support of the war on terrorism has
> >> become so critical – and
> >> offer practical ways on how to do it.
> >>
> >> Military recruiters have their own solution –
> >> enlist. Since the military
> >> became an all-volunteer force in 1973, an increasing
> >> number of servicemen
> >> and women have come from lower-income households.
> >>
> >> With few exceptions, the conspicuous absence of the
> >> social elite – including
> >> celebrities, the upper class, and children of
> >> politicians – in the military
> >> creates the impression that this war isn't worth
> >> fighting, says Charles
> >> Moskos, noted military sociologist at Northwestern
> >> University in Evanston,
> >> Ill. "This is the no-sacrifice war."
> >>
> >> But if it's not possible to enlist, some say the
> >> next best thing is money.
> >>
> >> Enter Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the independent from
> >> Connecticut, who last
> >> Thursday proposed a new tax to raise money for
> >> troops. The "Support Our
> >> Troops Tax" would raise $50 billion per year over
> >> the next five years to pay
> >> for defense and veterans benefits and services. The
> >> proposal, coming in the
> >> form of an amendment to the fiscal 2008 budget, is
> >> what Senator Lieberman
> >> calls the need for a "shared sacrifice."
> >>
> >> "It's my way of making a larger point that our
> >> military went to war but our
> >> nation didn't go to war," he says. "And as long as
> >> that is true, we are not
> >> going to have the success and the victory we need."
> >>
> >> The senator concedes that taxes are unpopular and
> >> that levying one on an
> >> already unpopular war may not go over well with the
> >> American public or
> >> fellow lawmakers. "There may be other ways to do
> >> this, but we haven't been
> >> creative about it," he says.
> >>
> >> Other observers say the problem is not that
> >> Americans haven't been asked to
> >> sacrifice, it's that they're indifferent to
> >> sacrifice.
> >>
> >> The burden of the war on terrorism has fallen
> >> exclusively on the nation's
> >> young – the current generation known as the
> >> Millennials, born beginning in
> >> the 1990s and known for their penchant for
> >> conformity, public service, and
> >> duty, says William Strauss, a prominent generational
> >> historian and author of
> >> 10 books.
> >>
> >> He says it's difficult to convince other Americans
> >> to sacrifice because so
> >> many of them are baby boomers, who grew up during
> >> Vietnam and typically
> >> don't trust institutions like the military. Thus,
> >> they are less inclined to
> >> want to make a sacrifice in the same way their
> >> parents did during World War
> >> II or their sons and daughters are doing now, Mr.
> >> Strauss says.
> >>
> >> Political calculations aside, that generational
> >> mind-set may make it
> >> difficult for the nation's leaders to ask for people
> >> to make a sacrifice –
> >> especially during an unpopular war, he adds. Still,
> >> the war on terrorism
> >> presents baby boomers with a dilemma.
> >>
> >> "It's one of the questions for boomers; as a
> >> generation, they need to
> >> reflect on whether they are looking for a free pass
> >> through history," says
> >> Strauss, "and to see what their legacy will be as
> >> elders."
> >>
> >> The memory of 9/11 is "a little distant now," says
> >> Strauss, who believes it
> >> may take another dramatic event before the country
> >> is truly galvanized and
> >> therefore capable of true sacrifice. "If we have
> >> that, the nature of our
> >> nation's response could surprise us."
> >>
> >> •*Tom Peter contributed to this story.*
> >> --
> >>
> >> Kendall
> >>
> >> An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's
> >> redundant!)
> >>
> >> The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
> >> unreasonable one
> >> persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
> >> Therefore, all progress
> >> depends on the unreasonable man.
> >>
> >=== message truncated ===
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> >____________________________________________________________________________________
> >TV dinner still cooling?
> >Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV.
> >http://tv.yahoo.com/
> >
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>
--
Kendall
An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
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