Mysteriousman, I'm curious about which right you have that I don't. Last
I looked we had pretty much the same rights. As for our opinions about
who your leader should be, well guess what neighbor. We are linked
economically and militarily. Have been for decades. What affects your
political scene affects us and vice versa. Need I also remind you that
being most 'powerful' is not necessarily good. Americans are also
despised around the world. When I was living in Europe Americans were
coming to the Canadian emassy requesting CDN stickers for their car
because their USA stickers made them targets for tire slashers.
As for the most powerful nation in the world. That is because the US
spends more money on its military than we do. There was a Russian
General who was asked about his worst fear. The answer was "Canadian
soldiers armed with American equipment on German soil." If as much money
was spent on programs to assist your own people as was spent in military
budgets there would less social problems.

why would i every fight a war . that was based on a lie. see we see
america in to total ways i see my usa as bullys .you see us as good
guys. i cant say that anymore guess that why i spent two years in
stockcade for refusing to follow orders , it was well worth it. i would
never sell my soul to the devil. and far as i,m concerned bush and
cheney are the devil.but i guess if i were sitting in whitehouse that
tax pater pay for and i never been to war i would think the same way.in
order to fight a war. you need to no what it feels like, being born with
silver spoon in your mouth. does not deserve respect i was in gulf war
i beleived at time it was right to fight. now i would not pick my weapon
up for nothing . unless to protect unlike many people hear i fight ny
own battles i dont need government to save me. like they would anyway.

Population my canadian brother. The US has arox. 297 million ppl, while
canada has only 32 million. I have met canadians in uniform, and I
believe that comment was probably more of a barb toward Americans than
an actual fact about readiness. really, I was not that impressed with
the canadian army, other than they are our allies and have never
shierked from standing beside us as such. Go canada!!!Our neighbor!!!
our brothers!!!

Put me on record: I am neither Republican or Democrat. I am an American.
I dont care which way you vote, just whether you vote knowledgably, and
not by popularity or hearsay. Please take time to read the issues, amd
maybe this year we wont see reports from malls of ppl who can only name
one candidate. There is more at stake than the one minute rhetoric and
insults you hear on commercials during the Oprah Winfrey show!

mysteriousMAN,

Very simply put,

the reason we have the right to 'say' who YOUR leader should be, is
because WE CANADIANS have the SAME RIGHTS to OUR opinions, as you,
and all other US citizens have to yours.

You have even suggested yourself mysteriousMAN, that Hillary should be
our Prime Minister. That's fairplay!!! I for one do not take offence at
someone expressing HIS FREE AND LEGITIMATE OPINION!!!

So be good mysteriousMAN and send that comment right back where it
belongs: police states and communist nations where FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS
NOT A RIGHT!!!

In closing mysteriousMAN,
'www.' stands for WORLD WIDE WEB. Imagine, that means not just
Canadians, but all citizens of the WORLD have a RIGHT to 'say' who they
think should be running your country!!!
But don't blow a fuse mysteriousMAN, only you citizens of America have
the RIGHT TO VOTE!!!

I love Canadians..........................

Karmafury, your going to have to think hard about which right I'm
talking about. The Clintons were trying hard to take a lot more then
what they did take. I still say that if Hilliary gets in office there
will be more shootings in schools that will start within 6 mos. after
she's in office. If we lose that right then the next step is to take the
dollar bill out of our hands. That is how we will lose our freedom.
Because that's how our goverment can control the people
here....Voileazur, You, Yourself said that Hilliary would be the best
for the U.S. Then you came back that you were wrong about her.{At least
you did that}........Gery, I haven't forgotten you, On Tuesday you said
"kids today need to go to at least bootcamp, maybe they'll learn
respect." Well I have NO RESPECT for anyone who spent two years in the
stockadefor not following orders. That seems too long for not following
orders. Not unless the orders were not to commite a crime of some kind.
If you served two years then you might have a D.D. So no matter what you
have to say it means nothing to me. I would rather disagree with anyone
here and be proven wrong then to discuss anything with you.....Now I
keep hearing that this war is all about the OIL. Well I want to see the
FACTS on that.

MysteriousMAN,

About yours: "... You, Yourself said that Hilliary would be the best
for the U.S. Then you came back that you were wrong about her.{At least
you did that}."

With all due respect, on the 'Hillary supposed change of heart' post of
mine, look up 'SARCASM'.

It is an acceptable, and honorable form of reply in a debate, and saves
one from resorting to primitive insults (a sort of 'cave men' practice
in my opinion), in the event where your opponent choses insult.
With this last comment, be clear I am not referring to you
mysteriousMAN.
In the course of our few exchanges, you have withheld an impeccable code
of honor.

Mysteryman I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I am going to be putting several posts on here, but this will be the
first one: Why did America go to war against saddam?

very simply put. Our president, elected by the people was given
information that led him and others to believe that saddam was a threat
to the world. After long deliberations and "peaceful attempts" to get
rid of wmd in Iraq, America AND BRITAIN decided it was time to go to the
next step because negotiations were not working and did not appear that
they would ever work.
After we went to war, we found out that the information we had in the
beginning was not as reliable as first thought; some was out fright
fabricated I believe. What happened then? Our people elected president
dismissed the people at fault for the misinformation; and he did it
publicly WITH AN APOLOGY for the mistake in choice of advisors.

Now I am sorry but the President is just one man. He doe snot know
everything, he is not perfect. He does however have a duty to listen to
those chosen to advise him so that he can make an educated choice on
matters, which is what he did.
And when he found out that they were not competent for the job, he
dismissed them.

What more can you ask?

Now do not get me wrong. Like I said he aint perfect I believe he has
made some big mistakes too, but again he is one man and he is working
off of knowledge he has and we dont.

Now for the draft, lol...
I do not believe in the draft as it was before. however I believe in
what I call a partial draft (and yes I served not only in the army but I
went to Bosnia as well; and my ex-wife lost her mental health to Iraq).

First: At age 18 men AND WOMEN have a choice. Continue on with
education (you can take one year off for vacation) or go into the
Service. Now yes there would be considerations for those that are not
physically fit for service; they could do something else productive for
the service like teaching or warehousing, or any other number of jobs.
If you do not believe in war or do not want to go into service then you
better continue on with education. There's enough grants and
scholarships out there that you will not have a problem with money.

If you chose school, everythign is obvious fromt here on out (and yes
you need to maintain a certain gpa you cant just say I am in school,
fail all your classes and think your getting by).
If you go into the service several things happen.

a. you immediately go to school five days a week and earn your
associates degree in general education. The government pays for this so
no out of pocket expense for you. needless ot say there will be no more
gi bill.

b. After you get your degree, the top, say, 20% gpa, have the option of
continuing for their bachelors in a field they choose. Same thing,
Uncle Sam pays for it completely.

Now we come to the catch. If you only get your associates you then owe
2 years of active duty service to the united states for the education
they paid for (all benefits stay the same as far as pay, allowances,
shelter and everything; just no more gi bill). If however, you got your
bachelors, then you owe Uncle Sam FOUR years. Basically one year
service for each year of education.

This way when you get out of service you not only have a degree you also
have experience.

And btw, yes the top so many gpa of bachelors would be sent to officer
candidate school.

Now this next part is a revamp of the military. To begin with there is
no more national guard vs reserve vs active duty. Your first two years
in you are absolutely non-deployable excpet IN STATE for state
emergency. This is while you are earning your associates degree. your
second two years in is either active duty, or if you went for bachelors
degree, then reserve status, or stand by. You would not be deployed if
going for bachelors unless there was absolutely no other choice left.
During these first years, you WILL do one month of training in the
summer (field training) and one month in the winter. You will also
train every weekend. No more one weekend a month two weeks a year. Our
soldiers just do not know what they need to know if deployed.

That is not all of my ideas but it gives you an idea.
I would love ot hear all feedback as long as it is RESPECTFUL and
POLITE. I know not everyone will agree and that is your right. But
please do not get belligerent if you do disagree.
Thank You.

On a side note... This method would put a stop to the problem of
sentaors kids and congress persons kids avoiding war because of mommy or
daddy. If they are in the service, they will go if needed.

By the way. This nonsense law that you have to be 21 to drink beer even
if your in the army? I am sorry. If you are old enough to go to war
and die for us you are damned sure old enough to enjoy a beer.

What say you?

"If you are old enough to go to war
and die for us you are damned sure old enough to enjoy a beer.

What say you?"

emotional, patriotic... but the danger of becoming an alcoholic during
the teen years is much higher than once adulthood is reached, this is
because of the paradoxical effect drugs have on pre-adults. This change
over happens at different times for different people, but i think we
serve our service men well not to make it easy for them to become
drunks.

Again if the are olde enough to die in war (ino ther words mature and
disciplined enough)....... then they are disciplined enough not to
become drunks.

Is that true?
You understand there's a bio-chemical nature to under-age drinking that
makes it much harder not to become an alcoholic...

seems finding solace in alcohol for the trauma of war is a real danger,
compounding that with being underage seems to be a bad idea.

I understand what your saying, and I am not saying to not have
safeguards, such as counseling (which the military should require for
every single person coming off deployment no matter what) or anything
else. And I agree wholeheartedly with continuing classes inalchohol
awareness like parts of the army does already. But they should have a
choice. By telling them they have to fight and die, we are telling them
they are men and women, not kids.
But there's no completely right way and no completely wrong way to look
at this. It is something that is in the middlegrounds, like an adult
being required to wear a sefty belt in a car.

well let me see in 1991. i dont remember all you war people beside me.
when i was being shot i could be wrong what you think

I t hink this worlds a big place Gary, and the war zones can be an even
bigger space. You were not the only one out there (Thank God I was not
out there for either of Iraq's).

Oh wait a sec. You were the one in the stockade, that's right. Maybe
thats why you did not see nayone else out there. We all followed orders
like we agreed to when we raised our hand and gave our pledge.
And like one other person has said (I have not read all the posts yet,
sorry) I have no respect for anyone wether they are military or not, no
matter what the matter is over, that says they will do something then
refuses to do so.
And I can not believe that you had legal justification to refuse any
order. If any of those orders were illegal, you would not have spent 2
years in the stockade.

Sorry for the heat everyone. Gary managed to spark one of the very few
things that really does bother me. I watched SEVERAL people cry when we
got told to go to Bosnia on christmas eve and refuse to go, stating they
did not have to go; they only signed up for the college money. That is
one of the reasons I have the belief of college or service (and service
puts you through college). Look above if you have not read it yet.
And then, even though my ex wife has very little of my respect anymore,
when she was ordered to deploy to Iraq in 2002, just four months and one
day afer hte birth of our second son, she did so, without any whining,
any hesitancy or anything. Yes she was upset; so was I. But she went
without any arguments. And she stayed until the war got too much for
her and she literally lost her senses. She has been in and out of
Psychiatric care ever since, and to this day she has y deepest respect
as far as having done what she agreed to do in the first place.
Again, I am sorry for the raving, but sometimes I have to just let it
out... Know what I mean?

That was a good one Daniel. If you have noticed if you don't say what
Gary saids he gets upset. I also noticed he made a comment that he
punched a kid in the mouth for having all the ansewers that he didn't
like.