Well, I served in the infantry, where patriotism was still the primary motivation, but I knew plenty of POGs that were there just for a paycheck or an education.
That being said I think we need major reforms in our military structure. We have few external threats that can do anything to the U.S., and we continue to see that our interventionist policies do nothing but cost us blood and treasure. I honestly think that with the SOSUS net, and the DEW line, we could make an all part time defense force, with a small expeditionary organization under the auspices of the Department of State to handle embassy security, with a special operations component to handle hostage rescue and the like. Anti missile tech has come to the point of reliability (look at what the Israelis are accomplishing with it) , our aviation assets can be cut dramatically, now that drones are viable both as offensive platforms and close in defense air support. I would like to see our national defense apparatus be focused on defending our nation and not enforcing our will abroad. On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 5:18 PM, Larry C. Lyons <larrycly...@gmail.com>wrote: > > Thing about the military is that now its serving much like the auto or > oil industry used to serve - a way out of a poor rural existence for > many in the ranks. For the officers, its either family, or genuine > patiotism. > > On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 4:30 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> > wrote: > > > > On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 1:14 PM, LRS Scout <lrssc...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> Now I certainly don't think that restricting people from voting on the > >> basis of race or gender makes sense, but I could see using other litmus > >> tests such as property ownership and military or civic service in order > to > >> grant the franchise to vote. > > > > I don't own a house and I've never served in the military. I think > > that these days, far too many people end up in the military because it > > is one of the few options open to them rather than out of a sense of > > duty and patriotism. > > > > I really don't think that the franchise is the problem. At the top, we > > have major structural impediments to change. It is a two party system > > and money ensures that it is the already entrenched interests that > > likely to be elected. At the bottom, we have an education system that > > has abandoned the teaching of civics and economics and that presents a > > glossy faux history of the founding of the country while completely > > avoiding recent history as "too controversial". > > > > If you want to make elections more rational and educated, change the > > stranglehold on power and convince the average person that their time > > and effort to engage will actually be worthwhile. > > > > Judah > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:350018 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
