Gee, war is brutalizing. Who knew?

The American public may not want Bush's war, but they aren't mobilized against it. Bring in the draft and that would change overnight. So, he's breaking the back of our volunteer army, and creating a huge amount of stress-induced mental illness for our troops to deal with , while doing it on the cheap and doing all he can to deny them the health system support they need.

I don't understsnd how anyone at all can support Bush when he throws money at his rich friends like a drunken sailor, while cutting funds for the troops for health care, safety equipment, armory, combat pay - you name it, he cut it. For heaven's sake, he was even making our wounded soldiers pay for their own meals in the hospitals! How lousy cheap can you get? And then he goes around talking about how much we owe our troops and how much he cares about them.

I do wonder if he convinces himself he means it when he's telling these lies? It's scary to have our president suffering from a severe case of cognitive dissonance.

The 10% figure is bogus. The Pentagon has no credibility whatsoever. They took the real percentage and lowered it. And the silencing of the bloggers is just further proof that the Pentagon does not support our troops.

You got that right Ron . . .
Security for the brass should be the claim.

War is a process like anything else (in struture, at least). In process control, we have the extreme ends of the Bell curve.(about 17%). 17% who don't want to hurt anyone and might even disobey orders to do so. Then you have the 17% who joined the military for the specific purpose of blowing things up and killing people. Of course there is that middle 66% that is not too crazy about the job, but will follow orders if forced to do so. With a totally volunteer army (note: mercenaries), the statistics are probably skewed to the killer types while in the draftee army, the statistics are probably skewed towards the "disobey orders to kill" type.

Since we have been negligent at teaching the humanities in our school system for forty years, I rather suspect that the margin for altering the range of this Bell curve will have changed very little.

The Conservative Deflator,
We had a draft during the Vietnam war and it didn't seem to shorten it. When you have Presidents who allow ego, religion or greed to consume them to the point they "kill all messengers bearing bad new" then these wars and accompanying atrocities will continue.

Here is a website and study which explains much of what we are witnessing in Iraq & Afghanistan and other sites of violent conflict. http://www.lucifereffect.com/ The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo, explores a study he conducted on how good people are led to do evil things, to use current language. There is nothing that can be done in the current context of violence and militarism using traditional solutions. This is not a political problem; it is a social and spiritual problem. Until we are willing to let go of the usual explanations for violence and inquire radically into the core issues, there is not solution, only Band Aids for the gaping wounds of our society. Until we awaken individually and face the Truth, we will continue to spiral into the abyss of fear and ignorance.

Dennis Kucinich is not the perfect answer to all the ills that confront us, but he comes so much closer than any other candidate on either side of the political spectrum that he needs to be taken very seriously. At least, read what he has to say from his own site, www.kucinich.us.

Peace,
st john

Dennis Kucinich is most assuredly the one who can help our nation to heal fastest and restore stability in all ways - militarily, psychologically, emotionally, fiscally.

Vote Kucinich, completely new direction for US and the world.

We took undereducated kids, undertrained them, under equipped them, fed them lies, put them in life and death situations and turned them into monsters. We sent them to kill innocents: women, children and men: When they come back we don't care for their physical or mental injuries but we decry any one who says their efforts were wasted, they died for nothing. Along with the billions of dollars, the 600,000+ lost Iraqi lives we can add our American soldiers to the garbage pile that this war was destined to become from the second it was conceived by immoral war criminals.

Isn't everybody fighting in Iraq, other than the Coalition of the WIlling, civilians? What are they doing there again? Answer - look at the new US embassy in Baghad.

What about Ron Paul?

S.

I can imagine the anger level is high among the troops! The anger level among American's is growing every day too. The troops have gotten a far bigger screwing than we American taxpayers have with this mess Bush created. They have been spoon-fed lies from day one about the noble cause they were indulging in. Only to discover it was all a pack of lie's designed to make them fight, die and kill innocent people for Bush's glory! So, I imagine the anger and resent is to the boiling point (if it were me it would be boiling over by now)! What Bush has done to everyone in this country is criminal! It should be proscuted to the full extent of the law. He should rot in jail for his treason against the American people! But I really have doubts he ever will. Our high flown principle's will mean literally nothing to anyone until he is. He is war criminal if I ever saw one.

We have become a society that glorifies the military so excessively that we can't recognize that the military has members who are simply sadisitic perverts who enjoy hurting and killing other living things. I have met them first-hand. This becomes even more true when you have a mercenary (read, volunteer) army. Sadists self-select into roles like these.

That is why having a draft and using National Guard soldiers is a good thing for a democratic society. If everyone has skin in the game, we are less likely to engage in endless wars, like the one we find ourselves in in Iraq.