The morning after the Republican presidential debate is a good time to remind GOP candidates that the most pressing concerns of its presumed voting base, the military, stand in contrast to the candidates' platforms, with the possible exception of Congressman Ron Paul's re: his opposition to the US invasion of Iraq.
To repeat what I'd posted to Congress 1-1/2 yrs ago -- the issues and concerns raised in these Stars & Stripes letters deserve your attention prior to the November 2008 election because they express an ever-growing sentiment of popular opinion.
Either see the light and adapt to the public's will, or lose, again.
Think for yourself--May 16, 2007
I am an Individual Ready Reserve call-back, or drafted soldier, same thing. I come across too many people who agree that this war [in Iraq] is a lie. How can any American soldier agree to side with our commander in chief?
Religious stories one-sided--May 15, 2007
Lately, there have been many articles about religions and their goings-on around the world. For example: Bible classes in Georgia public schools, prayers for mountain tops, Anne Coulter and her right-wing blabber, "miracles," etc. I was unaware that Stars and Stripes was a reporting agency for Christian fundamentalism.
Generals did the right thing--May 15, 2007
The officers who took a stand on the Iraq policies after retiring from active duty were rising stars. One of them had been referred to (while I was on the faculty at the Army War College) as a top candidate to be Army chief of staff someday. These courageous officers gave up outstanding careers because they felt that someone needed to take a stand against the current policies. An active-duty soldier could not do so by law.
Permit openly gay troops--May 14, 2007
It is time for religious bigotry to quit making social/military policy. We would still have slavery if that were the case.
Army needs the draft--May 12, 2007
What the Army needs now is a draft. The ideal of 15 months deployed and 12 months at home is not reasonable for most soldiers. If I had known this would have been the case, I never would have joined the Army. I most certainly will not re-enlist if this current trend continues.
Gay brother would be asset--May 11, 2007
I submit that the military has too many important issues right now to continue worrying about a "problem" most of the U.S. public and world have overcome.
Troops want to go home -- May 11, 2007
The president said over and over he would veto any bill that has anything to do with the American soldiers coming home. Why doesn’t he realize that he is hurting us in Iraq? The American people want us home so we can shed no more blood on foreign soil.
Reward proposal an 'insult' -- May 7, 2007
The current salary (2006) for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $165,200 per year and they get to see their family and friends regularly. These are the people who make the decisions on what we should get for staying deployed more than 12 months, when most of us have had the chance to see our family for only 15 days out of that year.
Holding Wolfowitz accountable -- May 7, 2007
What kind of age is this where policymakers can send soldiers off to die in a complex war they mischaracterized, damage the prestige of the country we love, yet not be held in the least bit accountable?
Painful questions about Iraq -- Apr. 28, 2007
"Global War on Terror": Ever notice that the "war on terror" happens where three-fourths of the world’s remaining oil and natural gas reserves are? If Iraq was the world’s second largest exporter of tofu, would we have invaded?
Not sold on bankruptcy logic -- Apr. 28, 2007
...if the letter writer is living in a converted boxcar (as he describes), he should be livid at the unfairness of his beloved Republican-led tax breaks over the last six years, which shift the tax burden from the top 2 percent of income earners to the middle class.
There was no lack of support -- Apr. 26, 2007
I must apologize that only some of my compassion rests with the 32 victims of Virginia Tech. The majority of my compassion rests with the more than 3,320 men and women who gave their lives for their country and their families.
Operation Iraqi Freedom is a worse massacre -- Apr. 26, 2007
...when a soldier is killed, he may get a corner of his hometown newspaper and on a slow day CNN might place the soldier’s name in the ticker across the bottom of the screen. Why is it that the war is on the back burner compared to what’s happening on the home front?
Don't count on 15 months -- Apr. 24, 2007
Let’s analyze this. We have been in Iraq for more than four years. Almost every single Army rotation has been extended. The one-year tours turned out to be 15 months long. The only guarantee we have now is that we will stay there for at least 15 months, but I will not be surprised if it is extended to 18 months.
Wants his life back -- Apr. 24, 2007
In my 27 months in the military, I would have spent 15 of those months deployed. If it is only three more months, then why won’t the good Secretary of Defense Robert Gates deploy for 15 months, stand in long lines just to barely make out his wife’s voice, and not even know his own children.
The horror of VT and Iraq -- Apr. 20, 2007
The loss of young American lives at Virginia Tech has occurred one hundredfold to young volunteer American military in Iraq. When will this country and its leaders learn that war must always be a very last resort?
What's the mission? -- Apr. 18, 2007
Are we in Iraq to fight al-Qaida in Iraq — which did not exist until we toppled the only government who could control the Sunni/Shiite infighting?
Extension a 'morale killer' -- Apr. 18, 2007
This is my third deployment. If I were single, I wouldn’t care.... But I am not. So [this decision is] killing me. I missed my little girl’s first birthday and now I’ll miss her second; my 6-year-old son the same thing. I have listened to my children grow up on the phone.
Legal opinions are worrisome -- Apr. 18, 2007
Holzer’s casual presumption of guilt and conviction of all Guantanamo detainees is distressing for a person who holds himself out as a member of legal academia. Worse yet, Holzer’s shameless baiting of defense counsel as "pro-terrorist lawyers" panders to the lowest form of patriotism and is completely unworthy of a member of the American bar.
Sneaky move by Halliburton? -- Apr. 10, 2007
Is Halliburton moving to Dubai to avoid paying taxes on the profits it earns from Operation Iraqi Freedom? If so, that may be legal, but it is ethically irresponsible.
Please drop Coulter -- Apr. 5, 2007
For a newspaper with a distinguished history and a want to be taken seriously, granting a public voice to such a near-sighted, mean-spirited, ill-informed, self-proclaimed bigot is reprehensible.
Where does Coulter belong? -- Apr. 5, 2007
It’s not fair to serious conservatives to put her on the Opinion page, and she’s certainly not funny enough to put with the comics.
Quality KBR laundry service? -- Mar. 31, 2007
I don’t think any of the soldiers would mind KBR using a little detergent and some dryer sheets while attempting to clean our clothes.
Timeless quotations -- Feb. 23, 2007
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." — Hermann Göring, April 18, 1946
Pace's comments 'disturbing' -- Mar 24, 2007
Military leaders are hardly the caretakers of our morals, nor should they be. Their personal opinions have no place in the media when those opinions are bigoted, discriminatory and morally suspect in the 21st century.
(Coulter) Rantings need a disclaimer -- Mar. 23, 2007
If Coulter’s column is going to continue in Stripes, maybe the editor should put a disclaimer on her rantings to state that this is entirely her very biased opinion and not necessarily based on facts. Either that, or move her articles to the comic section.
Coulter shows her bigotry -- Mar. 23, 2007
By all means, give us liberal columnists who criticize Condoleezza Rice’s failed Middle East diplomacy, and give us conservative columnists who criticize Joe Lieberman’s vote against banning same-sex marriage. But the moment a columnist applies a racial slur to Rice, or an anti-Semitic insult to Lieberman, that writer stops arguing rationally and enters the territory of bigotry. It is also the same moment that writer would be looking for a new job. Coulter has loudly staked a claim in this territory and is mature enough to deal with the consequences.
Views on gay sex are flawed -- Mar. 21, 2007
Pace thinks homosexuality is immoral; I think government-sanctioned discrimination in the "Land of the Free" is more immoral.
Save money by saving bases -- Mar. 19, 2007
It dawned on me this morning while reading Stars and Stripes how to fix the problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — or at least save enough money to renovate the hotel where wounded troops must endure while staying there: Stop moving soldiers and families from adequate facilities and posts such as Friedberg’s Ray Barracks in Germany to relatively austere Fort Bliss, Texas, where the need exists to build housing, barracks, motor pools, etc., in order to accommodate the units moving there.
Won't sit down for standup -- Mar. 19, 2007
I simply believe that if Coulter wants to continue to make such "jokes" that the comedy club circuit might be a better outlet for her First Amendment rights. Is it too much to ask as a reader that you raise the bar on the political discourse in your pages?
Coulter out of step with GIs -- Mar. 18, 2007
Coulter’s tactics and conduct in the political arena do not seem to be in keeping with the values that the military embraces. Because we hold our people to a moral and ethical standard that encompasses their actions on and off duty, that standard should be reflected in our "community newspaper."
Incomplete picture on liberals -- Mar. 16, 2007
I hear Republicans scream bloody murder when funds are spent on social programs for the needy, yet say nothing about "corporate welfare."
Hold Bush responsible -- Mar. 16, 2007
I’m unsure how taking care of troops became "ignore facts, get stupid and follow blindly." From the grossly negligent "planning" for the invasion to the current shameful care for wounded veterans, this administration has used soldiers as a politically charged club to subdue and vilify any type of opposition or rational judgment against the (failed) ideas and plans of the president.
Many more Stripes letters opposed to GOP policies can be found here, organized into three lists dating back to Aug. 2002.