Moreover, he’s wrong: they are not all full-time, professional, well-trained and well-equipped soldiers. Often as not, they are National Guardsmen. Guardsmen make up as much as 40% of the total U.S. presence in Iraq.

What’s more, someone from Kentucky really aught to know better than to make a statement like that. Half of the Kentucky National Guard’s equipment is deployed to Iraq.

What a d0o*$h.

Spoken like a career politician in need of a pink slip reminder. I hope the military personnel read that and send him packing.

McConnell served briefly in the United States Army Reserve during the Vietnam War-era but was discharged for unknown reasons.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Mcconnell

i can see what he means though. people volunteer in the military and they can’t complain when they are deployed. after all, what do you expect?
HOWEVER, as civies, we should not be putting them at risk for no reason. i think that is where the distinction/qualification should be made. they chose to sign up, but that doesn’t give the gov’t free reign to waste their sacrifice or deploy them on whims.

Plus, many new recruits choose to enter the army for lack of better opportunities elsewhere, or to open up new opportunities (GI Bill) that may have been difficult to obtain otherwise. Is it fair for others who didn’t join the army, because of a privileged childhood, to demand that those who are less privileged do there bidding without good reason and evidence?

Hippocrite is the word that comes to mind.

i totally agree that we can not play ‘toy soldier’ with the service men and women. i just think there is some room to say that people aren’t conscripted or drafted and that the opportunity to gain a trade/skill/education comes with a risk of being in harms way at some point.

Here a few points:

(1) While it’s true that people sign up for the military knowing the possibility of getting sent off to war, the deal is supposed to be that we’ll only do so if it’s necessary. The Iraq war was not necessary. As such, it violates the covenant between the country and the people who defend it. Servicemen sign up to protect and defend the country, not to act as guineas pigs in some neocon experiment. And calling the Iraq war a “neocon” experiment is a generous assessment.

(2) This is typical of the Republican view in the world. Get sick? It’s your fault, you probably could have avoided it. Need medical care? You should have earned more money so you could afford it. Die in useless war? You shouldn’t have signed up in the first place. On the other hand, lose money speculating in mortgage-backed bonds? We’ll bail you out completely.

He wouldn’t recognize a so-called “professional” soldier if he saw one. This is another example of the callous disregard they have for those fighting:

“In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.

Her hands trembled as Maj. Stefan Wolfe, the prosecutor, argued that Whiteside, now a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, should be court-martialed. After seven years of exemplary service, the 25-year-old Army reservist faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120101782_pf.html

Amazing…