"Senator John Kerry has called the activation of reservists and National Guardsmen "a backdoor draft," as if joining the reserves or the National Guard is supposed to mean an exemption from ever having to fight. The theme of troops as victims has been a steady drumbeat in the media, because of the way the media have chosen to filter the news, filtering out heroes, among other things."
This was all setup during Clinton's Bottoms up review of the military back in 93'. It was decided then to CUT the active duty force levels and rely heavily on the reserves and Guard to augment the residual samller active force....The Peace Dividend.
Senator Kerry must be forgetting that around the same time he was pushing for the forced early retirement of 80,000 senior enlisted. Where would we be now had that insanity gained traction?
In 36 days of fighting there were 25,851 US casualties (1 in 3 were killed or wounded). Of these, 6,825 American boys were killed. More US Marines earned the Medal of Honor on Iwo Jima than in any other battle in US History.
"Uncommon valor was a common virtue"
These numbers are in no way intended to denigrate or minimize the sacrifices being made on our behalf in the war against islamic fascists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other unreported locales. They are intended to make the point that America made major, hideous sacrifices for freedom in the past. Now, our country and our military are being knowingly undermined and stabbed in the back by an unholy confluence that includes the democrat party, hollywood, academe, the "mainstream" media, the unions, and other anti-American seditious organizations. We at FreeRepublic must fight back through all available means, or we could indeed lose to the islamists.