| Subject: My top 3 |
Author:
Duane
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Date Posted: 10/12/04 3:30am
In reply to:
Ben
's message, "Choosing a President" on 10/11/04 8:03pm
Ben:
>I still find that I cannot put
>someone back in office who took us willingly into a
>war that was not urgently necessary. His "preemptive"
>philosophy could be an excuse for anything, and his
>utter disregard for the Constitution is frightening.
The more I think about it, and the more I see/hear/read, the more I find myself objecting to the way we're handling Iraq.
I don't agree that it was a frivolous venture - I believe that it was a warranted action, worthy of military efforts.
But we're truly screwing the men and women in our armed forces to acheive our military goals. Stop-loss and inactive ready reserve recalls are just a band-aid to cover the fact that our military is woefully understrength to handle what we're doing in Iraq.
Whoever's elected needs to fix these things:
1) Our armed forces' retention policies - as it stands, you can sign up for a 4-year active duty stint, serve well, and be honorably discharged. But then you can be reactivated 3 years and 364 days later and forced to serve an additional year and a half. This is complete bullshit. We need to implement service agreements that are DONE when you've finished whatever amount of time you initially agreed to serve. None of this IRR B.S. - when you're DONE, you're DONE. If you want to re-enlist, of course you can, but if you want out, you should be able to get the FUCK OUT - finally and forever.
2) If we don't have enough people signing up, don't make those who've already served take up the slack - do the right thing, and raise starting salaries for those entering military service. Give bonuses. Assure those signing up that, once they're done, that they're done - that there's no spectre of recall hanging over their heads. It's simple economics: if you're not getting enough willing applicants, you're probably not offering enough money. Don't steal labor through "back-door-draft" policies like stop-loss and IRR.
Simple as that.
OK - so what's most important to me are the following:
1) Economic policy
2) Military retention reform
3) Medical Tort reform
Of course, #1 trumps all - and Republicans will always win in this category. Kerry's plan to increase taxes on all people earning $200,000 a year or more will harm the growth of small business. Small businesses generate 70% of all new jobs in this country each year. Kerry says he'll implement this tax, yet he says he supports small business?!? It just doesn't add up.
But #2 is pretty important - the spectre of the military draft is in the backs of everyone's mind right now - a simple solution would be to pay our troops more - raise salaries until you get enough willing volunteers. Simple as that. Neither candidate has expressed any inkling that this is even an issue to them, so I might be SOL on this one.
Anyhow, that's where I come out.
Duane
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