Saturday 19 October 2002

Washington is a Sacrifice-Free Zone

And here we have the crux of the matter, just as in World War 1 we have a bunch of arrogant politicians, so self-assured in their technological supremacy that they are willing to send their country-people to war. A war that has ONLY dubious motives and a war that no-one except the international bankers will win. And to make it worse they're a bunch of cowards as well. I can't see Tony sending either of his two sons off to war.

When is the world going to realise that these people are self-serving wankers who will quite happily send all of your sons and daughters off to die, whilst their vile off-spring enjoy a comfortable life by the swimming pool. These people are fakes and liars and they will lead humanity to it's greatest conflagration yet! They are manipulating us.


Let us pause on the eve of war to reflect on who the Americans are who will die. In any war, nearly all of the fighting and nearly all of the dying are done by the youngest soldiers who hold the lowest rank. Of the 58,152 Americans killed in the Vietnam War, three out of four were between the ages of 17 and 22, and three out of four were under the rank of staff sergeant -- corporals and privates.

Today, there are 1,182,412 enlisted men and women on active duty in the United States military. It is from their ranks that the vast majority of all American combat casualties in the next war will come. If you need further proof of the complete separation of the people in power in Washington from the people at peril in the Persian Gulf, just consider this: Not one of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives has a son or a daughter on active duty in the enlisted ranks of this nation's military.

Sgt. Brooks Johnson of the Army's 101st Airborne (187th Infantry), who has already served in Afghanistan and before that in Kosovo, Bosnia, Korea and Germany, is the only American enlisted man now on active duty who is the son of a member of Congress. His father is the incumbent senator from South Dakota, Democrat Tim Johnson.

A wise and just manpower policy is the foundation of our national defense. The all-volunteer army, it was agreed by its supporters, was to be a peacetime service. Any major military engagement was to be the signal for resumption of the military draft. The argument was straightforward: If the stated goals of the nation were worth fighting and dying for, then we must not hesitate to ask all Americans to shoulder the duty and the risk of that fighting.

That is most certainly not the case today in proudly "classless" America. In 2002, the American Establishment -- political, economic and journalistic -- has no personal stake in the men and women who defend the United States.

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