Astounding LTTE to Newsweek re: draft

[Bunny]

Bringing Back the Draft

Anna Quindlen is off the mark about what younger people think. I am 25 and have a wife and child as well as a promising career. But if a draft were set into motion I would gladly accept an assignment and do so with pride. Quindlen underestimates the psyche of America's youth. It is parents who oppose the draft more than their kids do. If the draft were enacted I don't think as many planes, trains or automobiles would be crossing our borders as you think. Just because the parents are cowards doesn't mean their kids are.

Steve Pounders
Mesa, Ariz.



Isn't Mr. Pounder's last sentence frightening? The parents are cowards? Well, Mr. Pounder, if you're such a hot shot, why aren't you in Iraq right now?

[Ruffhowse]

1. This is rich. Meathead with masculinity issues pounds his chest and

feels "macho". But is he in Iraq right now? Talk is cheap buddy.

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. Not to mention the welfare of his wife and child

I would hope that would be AT LEAST as important as going and fighting this stupid war.

[Bunny]

5. That is very troubling.

What about the welfare of his wife and child? And did it ever occur to him that a parent's fear of the draft is based on very REAL memories of what happened the last time our young men were drafted for war?

Cowards, indeed. I think we know who the real coward is.

[mahina]

8. Well said!

"Cowards, indeed. I think we know who the real coward is."
Sing it !

[aquart]

2. He's 25.

He figures he'll be 26 by the time anything is enacted. And somewhere he remembers that was the cutoff age.

Too bad they're extending it to the thirties.

[Snotcicles]

7. He reminds me of

this time my wife picked me up from work. I just got off after a long shift and she was driving. I was tired and had me seat tilted back, it was nice out and we had the windows down. About half way home my wife made a lane change in front of this tough guy a little quick we do admit. Next thing you know after my wife moves back into the right lane this freak is along side us blastin his horn screaming at her very violently and pulls in front of her and slams on his breaks. She stops and is scared so I get up and out of the car and start walking toward his car he notices me as he is getting out of his gets back in and peels rubber trying to get away.
Maybe he realized he was late for work all of a sudden.
He was in his mid twenties above average height and weight, but then so am I plus thirty years.

Speaking of work I gotta go.

[Sugarbleus]

9. Exactly...."Too bad they're extending it to the thirties."

Someone ought to send the guy a copy of that new proposal on the Draft.

Gee, Testosterone is a wonderful thing isn't it? That's what the military banks on too. That "I'm immortal, won't happen to me" shortsighted attitude. What a pity.

On the other hand, maybe this man is an assault weapons lover and just can't wait to shoot something type. :shrug:

[bluestateguy]

4. Until he enlists, he's a chickenhawk

Talk is cheap.

[liberalnurse]

6. Talk is cheap....

and at age 25, it can roll off the tongue quickly. Maybe a recruiter needs to visit Mr. Pounder.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. Wonder if he's ever visited his local VA hospital

or a local military hospital where the wounded from this war are housed? Has he even TALKED with anyone who has served? I doubt it.

[ClintonTyree]

11. The "cowardly" parents...................

just may be more mature and well informed to let their children die for Bush's oil war. This 25 yr. old he-man can spout off all he wants, but until he picks up a gun to back up his rhetoric he's just another chicken hawk.

Parents, people my age, have seen the folly of wars for no good reason (Viet Nam) and just MIGHT have a little more knowledge on the subject than Mr. Testosterone. Keep your mouth shut sonny, you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. I hope his cowardly wife is ready to go kick some butt too!

And his cowardly brothers and sisters too! Mr. pounder will be over there Pounding some ground, but who will be left here at home to pound Mrs. Pounder? Jody that's who!

I have a feeling, that when the Drill instructor starts being Mr. Pounder's Mom and Dad, he will wish he'd listened to his, "Cowardly Parents"! Mr. Pounder is just POUNDING his chest like Bush does IMHO! Primates all do that!

[qanda]

13. He acts like he's speaking for all youth...

The young people that I've talked to don't want a draft and so I don't know who he's speaking for. I remember reading a story about the young people at the RNC wanting war but not wanting to go fight the war.

Here it is:

Young Republicans support Iraq war, but not all are willing to join the fight

By Adam Smeltz

Knight Ridder Newspapers


NEW YORK - Young Republicans gathered here for their party's national convention are united in applauding the war in Iraq, supporting the U.S. troops there and calling the U.S. mission a noble cause.

But there's no such unanimity when they're asked a more personal question: Would you be willing to put on the uniform and go to fight in Iraq?

In more than a dozen interviews, Republicans in their teens and 20s offered a range of answers. Some have friends in the military in Iraq and are considering enlisting; others said they can better support the war by working politically in the United States; and still others said they think the military doesn't need them because the U.S. presence in Iraq is sufficient.

"Frankly, I want to be a politician. I'd like to survive to see that," said Vivian Lee, 17, a war supporter visiting the convention from Los Angeles,

(more)

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9556221.htm

[blm]

14. I'd bet a paycheck this letter is from a GOP operative.

.

[Mandate My Ass]

15. Sounds weird

I agree w/ poster who said this could have come from an operative.

Almost the very minute you become a parent, that child's welfare becomes your very first priority and all other priorities lag way behind. Either this guy is lying out his blowhole, or he lacks the capacity for parental empathy.

Reading this letter, I am not only to believe he, the main wage earner, would cavalierly abandon his own child, but also that he doesn't value or even understand his parents' concern towards himself and his wellbeing. Weird. :shrug:

[Zorra]

16. Sign up now. Talk is cheap. Why wait for a draft? Another phony freeper

claimer.

He probably has a poster of his hero in a flight suit, that brave National Guard Deserter, Georgie W Bu$h, tacked up on the wall of his garage.

[Ravenseye]

17. What scares me...

is not per se the prospect of being drafted to defend this country. I'd be 4f because of past injuries, but if not I'd gladly serve. In fact I tried to volunteer after high school, but they discouraged me because of my physical condition...bum knee.

No, what scares me is that they're talking about a 'skills' draft. A draft for people from 18 to 35 to fill skill positions here stateside. They need computer operators, IT people, etc...things like that at the Pentagon and other locations. To meet the demand for these jobs they're talking about making everyone sign up for the draft with what skills they have, and then be drafted for that.

I'd gladly do my duty to serve my country in uniform as previous members of my family have done. I wouldn't be so enthusiastic if I were drafted, put in a 1984 blue jumpsuit and told to sit and collate every day in some office building in Virginia.

[Bunny]

18. I'm posting the link to Newsweek for this LTTE:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5971841/site/newsweek/

[PsN2Wind]

19. His last sentence about parents being cowards

I would give ten to one that noone in his immediate family has served in the military. Bravado is easy when your ass is in AZ.

[AntiFascist]

20. Oh really??

If there were no repercussions from starting a draft I'm sure it would have been started long before now.