Barack Obama "The Facts"

[Rob1647545496]

I wouldn't say all of them were the worst that didn't serve, but those that did are a great line up. FDR, Eisenhower, and Bush #1 were all great presidents in my book. I think that should be some sort of a requirement personally. The man that is Commander in Cheif should have working knowledge as to how things work in the military, how to utilize them, and what they need. I think that's the most paramount duty of the president is Commander in Cheif.

 

AGREED

[El Karacho1647545492]

I wouldn't say all of them were the worst that didn't serve, but those that did are a great line up. FDR, Eisenhower, and Bush #1 were all great presidents in my book. I think that should be some sort of a requirement personally. The man that is Commander in Cheif should have working knowledge as to how things work in the military, how to utilize them, and what they need. I think that's the most paramount duty of the president is Commander in Cheif.

 

I could not disagree with you more. Andrew Bacevich is a professor at BU, a former Army man, and the father of a young man killed in Iraq by an IED. Remember that Senate hearing that Gen. Petraeus spoke at a month or two ago? Yea, well Bacevich spoke right after him, giving the counter argument to Petraeus's point. One of the things I gathered from the couple courses I took with him is the importance of balance and depoliticizing the military. When our troops go to war, they're going as soldiers of the United States, not as soldiers of the Republican party as many Demoncrats are quick to assume.

 

The idea of the President being Commander in Chief is that a civilian MUST be in control of the military. So many people in this thread who would agree that military service is paramount also believe we should have assault rifles to protect ourselves from when the police and military break down our doors...well, which do you want? Do you want to be protected from excessive military power, or do you want a military man in charge of our government? Notice that anyone in military service cannot serve in a political office.

 

I agree that military service is valuable to understanding the CIC position, but it doesn't ensure it. Hell, G.H.W. Bush may have been a military man but he's also the father of the greatest military blunder in recent memory; I don't mean Bush #2, I mean his horrible miscalculation in allowing Saddam Hussein to retain power after the Gulf War, something a true military mind should've understood.

 

My point is that military service is far from guaranteed to provide an adequate CIC. FDR didn't serve in the military...dude had polio, no working legs. Pretty sure working legs is a prerequisite to military service. Wanna know another president that didn't serve in the military? Woodrow Wilson. So the 2 presidents that aided the world in the two greatest wars of all time had no military experience whatsoever, yet the three presidents that presided over the Vietnam war (JFK, LBJ, Nixon) all had some (though limited) experience.

[Scotty2Hotty]

With what we're up against now, I think we need someone that's had experience personally. I will agree the War on Terror has been saturated with too much politician infested bullshit. A man with experience might take a good look at it and say, enough is enough, take the fucking gloves off we're going to town.

 

PS- I meant to say Theodore Roosevelt BTW, don't know why I said FDR

[Science Abuse]

A man with experience might take a good look at it and say, enough is enough, take the fucking gloves off we're going to town.

Going to town with what, exactly?

[Adam]

anyone else think our country will be just fine with obama or mccain? They are both intelligent people, I just think I side with obama on more things but I think both will help us out if they win.

 

Hillary now there is something to worry about

[Science Abuse]

anyone else think our country will be just fine with obama or mccain?

Yes. Obama hasn't even secured my vote yet. I'm just here in this thread trying to battle the stupidity that has plagued our elections since the 70s. All people pay any attention to is hyp... of course, all our media gives them is hype, because they think that is all we want to watch. They invented the Rev Wright "scandal" for this very reason.

 

They both have to campaign for my vote.

[Rob1647545496]

I could not disagree with you more. Andrew Bacevich is a professor at BU, a former Army man, and the father of a young man killed in Iraq by an IED. Remember that Senate hearing that Gen. Petraeus spoke at a month or two ago? Yea, well Bacevich spoke right after him, giving the counter argument to Petraeus's point. One of the things I gathered from the couple courses I took with him is the importance of balance and depoliticizing the military. When our troops go to war, they're going as soldiers of the United States, not as soldiers of the Republican party as many Demoncrats are quick to assume.

 

The idea of the President being Commander in Chief is that a civilian MUST be in control of the military. So many people in this thread who would agree that military service is paramount also believe we should have assault rifles to protect ourselves from when the police and military break down our doors...well, which do you want? Do you want to be protected from excessive military power, or do you want a military man in charge of our government? Notice that anyone in military service cannot serve in a political office.

 

I agree that military service is valuable to understanding the CIC position, but it doesn't ensure it. Hell, G.H.W. Bush may have been a military man but he's also the father of the greatest military blunder in recent memory; I don't mean Bush #2, I mean his horrible miscalculation in allowing Saddam Hussein to retain power after the Gulf War, something a true military mind should've understood.

 

My point is that military service is far from guaranteed to provide an adequate CIC. FDR didn't serve in the military...dude had polio, no working legs. Pretty sure working legs is a prerequisite to military service. Wanna know another president that didn't serve in the military? Woodrow Wilson. So the 2 presidents that aided the world in the two greatest wars of all time had no military experience whatsoever, yet the three presidents that presided over the Vietnam war (JFK, LBJ, Nixon) all had some (though limited) experience.

 

a president who served in the military is very different then a presedent who is currently serving in the military. and even if you teach the smartest person in the world all the rules of chess if they have never played the game before do you really think they will win?

 

knowledge is power

and the only thing more powerful then knowledge is experience.

[Akula]

Prases that remove the sting of anything I read on the internet and cause them to immediately lose credibility.

 

"STRONGLY URGE each one of you to repost this as many times as you can! Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or Media outlet...do it"

[El Karacho1647545492]

I will agree the War on Terror has been saturated with too much politician infested bullshit. A man with experience might take a good look at it and say, enough is enough, take the fucking gloves off we're going to town.

 

This reminds me of another thing that professor showed us in a few documents. Apparently the US Army is trying to create the "socially conscious soldier" that helps the soldier sitting on a street corner in Tikrit or Baghdad or wherever be aware of the various culture's he's immersed in (wahabbism, sunnis, shi'as, kurds, etc). The problem with this is that it still doesn't solve the idiotic upper echelons of the government that have yet to tell our soldiers who to kill.

 

The "War on Terror" is simply a marketing campaign by the Bush administration to prevent him from saying "War on Some Muslims" because that's un-PC. How the fuck is a socially conscious soldier going to help the cause if he doesn't even know which group of Muslims he's supposed to be killing. Its bullshit that we put our men and women out there to wait until an IED or suicide bomb goes off to figure out who they should be shooting at.

 

What we need to do is be realistic, spend some serious money identifying that actual problem, whether its Sunnis or Shiites or whoever, and fucking kill the militant faction. Don't just wait around "peacekeeping" and spending billions of dollars, figure out who the enemy is, where they are (because even though we've occupied all of Afghanistan and Iraq they're still finding enough safe havens to attack us and others every fucking day), hunt them down and kill or capture them. Thats how wars are fought, not by waiting around until we lose a few more lives.

[Scotty2Hotty]

We're trying to go to a thinking soldier. As I was there it went from conventional Saddam Iraqi army, to new Iraqi army. It was quite confusing after that who we can engauge or not engauge. They think by us knowing more about their fucked up society and country, we're better off finding and killing the enemy. Either way, as I experienced it was cat and mouse. But most units need to not be fucking pussies and get out on foot. Kick over a few rocks, rattle some cages and best of all clear your route on foot when you can. We did all of this and didn't have 1 soldier killed in my company. We adapted, and met the shit face first when we could. That's a big reason why we weren't fucked with or ambushed as often, we let them know we're not scarred. Too many ROE's aka rules of engaugement are changed and put into place. And the recent threat of court martials have soldiers and marines second guessing pulling a trigger. It's wrong, and we should utilize all assets we have, mainly air power. One way or another Al-Qaeda and other insurgents keep getting in, and by all means I'd rather they try to bomb a military that is armed and trained for it.

[Tractor]

The military is a tool of government to protect and/or expand its world interests. A tool should not be put on trial for any reason by its own government for its actions while fulfilling a governments wishes.

I say blow the whole place up and take what we are after, then repopulate the area in a couple decades and make it a nice vacation spot.

 

Evan

[HAOLE]