The Bernoulli Effect

Of course things might be different if Bush actually gave an honest speech and said: “This war against the Islamic terrorists will be long and very expensive, and we will need to raise the taxes of all our citizens to gather the funds to properly execute the war. Also we will need more manpower, and therefore I am sending Dick Cheney and all my cabinet officers to tour the college campuses of this land and dramatically urge our young people, and my own daughters, to join up with the military.” But that would take political courage and integrity, which Bush is sadly lacking. Instead we would hear Bush utter:” I want to thank all you young children for taking the time out from your busy schedules to come out today and wave those flags for me, it just makes me feel proud to be your President.” So, as I see it, Bush gets amount of respect which he has earned, which is not much.

I believe all the services have been meeting their quotas just fine without GW's intervention.

The amount of respect I'm witholding from GW is the topic of another post, and there's plenty to be said on that subject.

Btw, the "if you believe in the war so much why don't you volunteer (or send your son, or daughter)" argument is not even worthy of a third grade class.

But why not challenge the elite to ask their children to serve in the military after college before heading off to Goldman Sachs to become investment bankers? When George Washington and company fought for their freedom, it was they themselves who were doing the fighting. It was the British who hired out some mercenary Hessians to help on their side. I would like to see Bush make the call for the national sacrifice which is needed to sustain our military. Just as one example, the service life of our aircraft is undergoing a serious draw down as a result of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a lot of money is needed to purchase new and replacement aircraft. China is rising as a military power and Russia in not sounding very friendly lately; we are not in a very optimum shape to counter these potential threats. I don’t think America is going to fall off the stage as a world power immediately, but if it does eventually happen, it will occur because the conservatives and the elite are not willing to make the personal sacrifice which is required to preserve the freedom to which they pay lip service.

But why not challenge the elite to ask their children to serve in the military after college before heading off to Goldman Sachs to become investment bankers?

Why just ask the "elite" (whoever those are) to serve? Just to remind you as you've obviously forgotten: we have an all volunteer military. No one has to join if they don't want to. And the standards to get in are much, much higher than they were during the draft days. And the "elites" are joining: see Nathaniel Fick's book "One Bullet Away" in which he describes leaving Dartmouth to join the Marines' officer training school.

I would like to see Bush make the call for the national sacrifice which is needed to sustain our military.

You're making an assumption that a "national sacrifice" is necessary to "sustain" the military. Are you kidding? The military will need lots more money to replenish equipment, but defense spending as a percentage of GDP is at an all time low since WWII. Defense is not the largest fraction of the budget. Remember, we won the Cold War with one hand tied behind our backs, financially speaking.

I don’t think America is going to fall off the stage as a world power immediately, but if it does eventually happen, it will occur because the conservatives and the elite are not willing to make the personal sacrifice which is required to preserve the freedom to which they pay lip service.

Nonsense. You're the one paying lip service to a meme that you haven't thought through very clearly: the dearly-held vision of evil warmongers sending off other peoples' kids to be killed halfway around the world. If you really think that GWB doesn't agonize over the caskets coming home, I'm not about to waste any of my time trying to convince you otherwise.

This country might, or probably will, lose its position as a world leader, but it won't be because of our military. It will be because the vast majority of the population has been so poorly educated for so many generations (thank you progressive educators!) that they can't reason their way out of a paper bag. Come to think of it, that might well be how your "elites" come into existence: they'll be the tiny fraction who get a real, traditional liberal education that emphasizes real reading, real math, and real history.

“we have an all volunteer military. No one has to join if they don't want to”

Of course this is the case, but I am saying that it sure would be great if, in 20 years or so when those young men now in their twenties turn 40 and start to run for Congress, they could proudly say: ”Yes I answered the country’s need and served in the military in the 00’s” instead of: “No I did not serve, I saw no need to get personally involved, but I did send a care package to the troops”, ignoring that many of troops were on their 3rd or 4th tour in the Middle East and might have appreciated some relief.

“Nonsense.”

If you really think about it you will see that what I am saying is true. The $500 billion+ war in Iraq to make bomb craters is straining the military in most areas: its personnel & equipment, and thus its readiness to meet alternative threats. Although somewhat improving, the US continues to run a budget deficit by failing to either raise taxes or cut spending. Our US manufacturing of goods no longer produces enough items of value to offset the massive amount of goods which are imported. Our currency is thus declining in value (which ultimately is the sign of a weak country), which may help somewhat to sell our goods at a lower relative price, that is if we had enough to actually sell. We import oil and transfer huge piles of cash to unstable countries yet refuse to make any significant efforts to conserve usage or produce more supply. And yes, we think our education system will fix itself through a simplistic painless plan of requiring mandatory testing of students in certain grades.

I really don’t care if the next President is a liberal or a conservative, as long as they are able to stand up and tell the American people that we have serious problems, that these problems can be solved (or at least seriously mitigated), but that achieving this goal will require hard work and sacrifice on the part of all of us.

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One additional comment: In re-reading your post, I see you have expressed concern over the “execution of teenaged women and gays in Iran”. I was surprised by this because most conservatives avow almost daily that gays are ruining America and will inevitably bring the damnation from God down upon our country. Is this because you have realized the gay community might also include some conservatives, like that bathroom toe-tapper Larry Craig? LoL

Have a good weekend, looks like it will be a fairly nice one here in Houston.

One additional comment: In re-reading your post, I see you have expressed concern over the “execution of teenaged women and gays in Iran”.

I'm a secular conservative: I believe morality and ethics are not necessarily connected to belief in God, much less organized religion, even less one's attendance of a Baptist megachurch. I don't believe in legislating morality, and certainly some of those people are pretty reactionary about behaviour that they don't understand.

Having said that, there's no doubt we would be better off having a Christian theocracy in this country (even though that's not going to happen, left-wing paranoia to the contrary) than have anything remotely resembling shari'a law.

And regarding conservatives and gays: you might spend some time reading National Review's group blog The Corner. I think you'll be surprised at the variety of views and the sometimes downright testy debates that take place, not only on gays but all sorts of other issues. The evangelical religious right may have an influence on votes cast, but in the conservative think tanks they don't have much sway at all.

As you obviously know, October in Houston is the reward for surviving the summer. Have a good weekend, yourself.

Nice to see you back in action, Jeff! A couple of things I couldn’t leave unsaid:

“...we are not in a very optimum shape to counter these potential threats.”

So, am I to understand we are supposed to ignore the current and actual threats today in an effort to save up for potential threats down the road? Make no mistake about it: if we don’t succeed in the pacification of radical Islam, China and Russia will be the very least of our future troubles.

“I don’t think America is going to fall off the stage as a world power immediately, but if it does eventually happen, it will occur because the conservatives and the elite are not willing to make the personal sacrifice which is required to preserve the freedom to which they pay lip service.”

Excrement. If (and that’s a very big if) this were to happen, it would most likely be due to the liberal policy of cutting military spending in favor of socialist programs (national health care comes to mind). Seriously, who’s paying lip service here?

Nice to see you back in action, Jeff

Well, obviously it's pretty spordadic action. But thanks for checking in!