I served for 10 years. My father was in vietnam in for 2 years when I was young. He spent 28 years in the Air Force. My brother has been in the Navy for 25 years and my sister married a Marine.

I don’t hate vets. I don’t want to deny veterans benefits. But, there is another side to this issue. For the people that think staying to provide stability for Iraqis is doable and worthwhile, the way the Webb bill is structured, forces conditions that oppose that goal. There are ways to provide benefits to veterans that won’t induce them to leave in the short term.

If you’re honest, you would see that using this bill to charge that republicans are against vets, is a little like conservatives claiming that progressives were unpatriotic for opposing the war. Progressives weren’t unpatriotic, they disagreed with the policy. Conservatives aren’t attempting to short change vets. Many, like McCain, believe in Iraq and believe it requires consistent staffing. Progressives don’t feel the same.

It’s disingenuous to argue that those that oppose this bill, don’t care about vets. There is more to the issue. And you (should) know it.

P.S. I hope your Mom’s okay.

More and more people will sign up for military duty, use them terribly, and then run off to get their own education — we’ll always have people in the military, and more people will be getting educated.

Since we’ve been using our military for the most vile of wars, I really don’t care if they use the military to get an education.

Of course, only complete idiots think our military members are as self-serving and vile as themselves.

I think we should provide generous veteran’s benefits, but we should be cognizant of our staffing needs and promote benefits that serve veterans without compromising our requirements.

I understand why democrats don’t care if veterans are motivated to separate. They want them all home now, anyway.

But, once you support this plan, you are forcing the hands of our government towards withdrawal, whether it’s in our best interest or not.

And under the McCain bill your stint of 10 years was2 years too short for you to qualify. And if you had been wounded and honorably discharged, tough shit there too. 12 years uninterrupted service is the main requirement.

Are you really that dense?

And I bet he can’t prove otherwise. Remember, he has lost all his records in the dodge game he played.

But, if you structure benefits that induce them to separate sooner rather than later, it will be a factor in their decision making and could cause many to leave.

WTF?
You spent all day and night arguing McCains lame assed reasons to deny veterans benefits?

Even I, who spent 9 years jumping into hellholes around the globe, then finally getting a career ending wound in Desert Storm, would not even qualify for benefits under McCain neocon backed version, much less the kids who get wounded getting off the plane in Iraq…

Frankly you have disgusted me with your crap and spin.
Glad I spent Memorial Day afternoon and evening taking two elderly veterans fishing, rather than reading the crap you posted all night.

Sen. Webb has the real military leadership credentials McBush lacks (being a flyboy & POW just not quite the same as Jim Webb doing the actual command thing-
______

Yeah, what’s up with all those POW’s lazing away the war like that. If they had any kind of leadership skills they would have managed to escape like in the movies, right?

Seriously, can’t you find enough to criticize in McCain without denigrating a whole group of people who suffered terribly in the service of our country?

If the GI Bill creates such a great incentive to leave the military, keep it and increase the incentive to stay in longer before taking advantage of the GI Bill.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/20/primary.wrap/index.html

If you’re tired of waiting around for those super delegates to make a decision already, go to LobbyDelegates.com and push them to support Clinton or Obama

If you haven’t done so yet, please write a message to each of your state’s superdelegates at http://www.lobbydelegates.com

Obama Supporters:

Sending a note to current Obama supporters lets them know it’s appreciated, sending a note to current Clinton supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Obama, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Obama. It’s that easy…

Clinton Supporters too …. !

It takes a moment, but what’s a few minutes now worth to get Clinton in office?! Those are really worth !

Sending a note to current Clinton supporters lets them know it’s appreciated, sending a note to current Obama supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Clinton, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Clinton. It’s that easy…

We are talking past each other.

I’m not promoting Bush achievements. I’m not denying any charges of Bush incompetency.

I’m only recognizing that Progressives are winning in the battle of ideas. Democrats will accumulate seats in the Congress that they already control in ‘09 and Obama will probably be the President.

I hear you lamenting Bush’s mistakes. I’ve heard it for a long time. I get it. I’m not disputing it.

What I’m asking is, what is the progressive plan. You win. Withdrawal is pretty much inevitable. On progressive terms. Now, that we have that settled, have you given any thought to consequences of the vacuum that will occur when our troops have withdrawn?

At some point progressives should start to feel comfortable with the leadership they have. I’m not sure leadership consists merely of pointing to someone elses failed initiatives. I’m sure progressives have a good plan for the withdrawal of troops. Maybe they could get that message out.

They are commenting on every article or blog post I read on the topic – all speaking out about what they perceive as a staggering betrayal.

Does anyone else remember all the finger wagging and bilious lectures about demoralizing the troops in a time of war? I recall it being TREASONOUS why just a few short years ago…

Sadly, and like many, I actually considered McCain to be someone of conscience and character then. Funny enough, I remember being chided for my naive perception of McCain by a friend who drinks deep from the kool-aid. He predicted years ago that the shine would wear off McCain pretty quick if he ran for president and…

I certainly take no pleasure in it. None.

Chirp… Chirp… Chirp…

But such is the mind of the Bush apologist. Fear the hypothetical, ignore the present -specially if it involves talking about Pres Bush’s many failures.

This is horse manure at its best. WTF are you talking about ’sooner rather than later’? These people already served. They earned those benefits.

Also, the CBO already reported that better benefits would lead to better recruiting -which would offset any loss in retention. Had you followed the VetVoice link you’d know that.

May 27th, 2008 at 1:06 am

Who gives a shit ?

They volunteered out of a sense of patriotism and duty ; not to fight an illegal invasion and occupation for a sorry little spoiled turd’s cronies to make oodles of cash and perhaps be maimed for life or die for that ………….

May 27th, 2008 at 1:04 am

That’s only “right” if you’re in the correct tax bracket too , BTW……………

I respect people in the military. They are patriots and I respect their service.

But, if you structure benefits that induce them to separate sooner rather than later, it will be a factor in their decision making and could cause many to leave.

I respect you desire to point to Bush failures, but it’s not showing us the way forward.

What else IS there to point to Backup? Can you please name for us ONE significant and lasting achievement? One time they got it right?

Tax cuts during wartime?