The National Crossroads Part One

[AesSedai]

We stand today at a crossroads in our nation's history, and it's not because for the first time we will have a black man or a woman as a major party candidate.

We are in the grip of a recession that will, in all likelihood, get worse before it gets better.  We are in two wars with an ever-dwindling army.  We are still dependent upon foreign oil that will not last another hundred years.  

Come November, we will have to choose who will lead us and down what path we will go as a country and as a world power.  

John McCain has said that we could be in Iraq for the next hundred years.  With what army, Senator?  Enlistment continues to fall as more and more young men and women are refusing to die for a war that seems to mean everything and nothing at the same time.  Who's going to fight this hundred year long war that Senator McCain is advocating? 

We cannot continue to maintain our presense in Iraq and any semblance of national security for a sustained period of time without a draft.  That's right, a draft.  I know it's a word that everyone's afraid to hear or to utter, but that is where Sen. McCain's road leads, whether he admits it or not.  The math just doesn't add up any other way.

In fact, though the current administration would have you believe otherwise, we have a draft going now.  We call it "Stop-Loss", but it's a draft.  What else would you call forcing young men and women who have fulfilled their Army contracts to continue serving?

But soon, Stop-Loss will not be enough, not with the plans of the Senator from Arizona.  A full-fledged draft will be required.

I remember when I was younger I used to long to have lived in the 1960's, being a liberal with a troublemaking streak.  And I remember my mother telling me how very wrong I was, since she had lived through it.  I never believed her, always assuming that it was because my mother was a coward who didn't want to take the risk revolution demanded.

But now I'm no longer a teenager and I have children of my own, and a broader perspective.  I like to think that I see the bigger picture now.  And for the first time, I see what my mother meant.

I don't want to see another Kent State.  I don't want to have to search for names on a memorial the size of The Wall.  I don't want to go to a class reunion to find that a third of the boys I graduated with died in battle.  

And I don't want to see my country -- the country I have loved and believed in for my entire life -- torn apart before my very eyes.  

Because this will not be World War II.  This is Vietnam.  And if the people of the sixties wouldn't accept Vietnam, we certainly will not tolerate its child in Iraq.  

Down Sen. McCain's road are protests and riots, death and imprisonment.  And a generation of disgruntled, embattled youth who have never known a government worthy of trust will be asked to die for oil companies profits.  

 

 

[Redwind]

Apr. 17, 2008 at 2:32 PM

This is a great article.  I have been vying for Ron Paul for President.  He wants to bring home all of the troops from everywhere.  We don't have a need to be in all those other countrys.  Like he says "What would we do if they started coming over here and putting up their troops".  Not exact words but close enough. 

That would also:   1. Save us tons of money  2. Bring our troops home (The troops have supported Ron Paul double any other candidate so that should tell you something) 3. More protection for our Country and on and on.

I will be going to our district caucus this Saturday as a delegate unless the "Old Republicans" somehow get their wish and boot us out.  They are afraid of change and being attacked I guess more so than all of us loosing our freedoms and our country due to the financial strain we and our future generations face.

By no means am I some kook that the media has labeled us, not that there isn't some, lol, but a mother of two who is literally scared to death for my children.  I do not want a draft and would flee to Canada with my children other than see them carried off to war for someone else's pocket.

Didn't mean to be winded but I really cannot understand why someone would vote for McCain. 

[p2of9]

Apr. 17, 2008 at 2:49 PM Ron Paul all the way!

[truthrowan]

Apr. 17, 2008 at 4:50 PM Wonderful Post.

[wendy46121]

Apr. 17, 2008 at 11:48 PM Agreed :P  Votng popular.  This is pretty much exactly what would happen if he gets into office.