I am a new officer in the U.S. Army

[SON OF HARRY HOPE]

I am a new officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. I joined in 2005 and am
presently a first lieutenant. I have no prior military experience, but I
joined because I wanted to serve my country and our military and to honor
my grandfather who was an infantry officer during World War 1 and my
father, a retired Coast Guard Commander.

Far from being uneducated with no opportunities, I am a civil trial
attorney, and a sole practitioner in the Dallas area. I graduated in the
top 15% of my law school class at Southern Methodist University and have 23
years of civil trial and appellate experience, including both state and
federal court. I am in a JAG unit, and as you may have guessed, I am a bit
older (48 to be exact) than the young men and women to whom Congressman
Rangel is apparently referring.

I am profoundly impressed time and again by the degree of professionalism,
accomplishment and intelligence of the men and women in uniform I come in
contact with. I am not just referring to JAG officers, of whom there are
fewer than 2,000 on active duty and hardly twice that number in the Reserve
component. Rather, I refer to the noncommissioned officers and enlisted
personnel with whom I work. Almost without exception, they are smart,
diligent, responsible, resourceful and, as far as I can tell, the
best-trained military forces in the world. None make as much money
as they are worth (or as much as they probably could in the civilian
world), but in my opinion, this is not cause for scorn as Rangel seems to
think. Rather, it is the reason these warriors are heroes.

One of the tenets of Army values is a concept, perhaps somewhat forgotten
these days, called Selfless Service. This value is, I believe, one of the
prime motivations of these brave young men and women. I simply do not share
Rangel's pessimism about why soldiers choose to become soldiers. His
attitude is typical, however, of many Americans (including some--not
all--of my own family and friends), who simply cannot believe or understand
why an individual would choose to become a soldier. But this is the
essential disconnect--the inability to understand the concept of Selfless
Service--that animates Rangel and others who share his views. It is
puzzling that Rangel, himself engaged in public service (and a veteran),
would ascribe such motives to me and my fellow volunteers.
==================================================================================
Lady Bird Johnson (1912- ) Businessperson, Wife of Lyndon Johnson

Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.

[Randy Cox]

"SON OF HARRY HOPE" <***@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:qp5jon0gl1zj$.12z5nyqudo76y$***@40tude.net...
I simply do not share

Post by SON OF HARRY HOPE
Rangel's pessimism about why soldiers choose to become soldiers. His
attitude is typical, however, of many Americans (including some--not
all--of my own family and friends), who simply cannot believe or understand
why an individual would choose to become a soldier. But this is the
essential disconnect--the inability to understand the concept of Selfless
Service--that animates Rangel and others who share his views. It is
puzzling that Rangel, himself engaged in public service (and a veteran),
would ascribe such motives to me and my fellow volunteers.

As a jag officer you can count yourself among the finest officers in the
world. SMU is a fine law school. My daughter once turned down that special
scholarship that Dallas Judges and Attorneys offer to keep promising law
students from going off to the Ivy league schools.

She chose instead to marry a young enlisted man. She eventually became a
lawyer, but not at SMU...her loss.

Anyway, through the course of your studies you must have been exposed to the
"citizen army" theory. Many thinkers who concern themselves with history
and the preservation of the delicate balance of a democratic republic have
expressed their fears at the easy choice of a republic to rely on all
professional armies to defend them rather than a call to their citizens to
beat their plowshares into swords for battle.

Rangel is not attacking the concept of Selfless Service! First he is
concerned that the elite that make war decisions might be more inclined to
send the sons and daughters of the lower born and the "selfless" into battle
than they would their own, should they be subject to a citizen army draft.

Before the birth of this nation, the class distinction was so great than the
elite officer core watched from high hills as they sent their expendable
lower class soldiers into battle, standing tall in line, firing upon order,
dying upon the whim of the elite. My Cherokee ancestors taught these blue
coated Americans the nature of individuality in life and war.
They hid behind trees and followed their war chiefs only when the war chief
had better ideas than their own....and never for reasons of class alone.

You are an officer! You know the class distinctions between yourself and
the enlisted men! People with JD's don't join the military because it
presents the only hope of them ever getting an education that might enable
them to rise above their poverty. Rangel worries about those types. He has
done well for himself, but he hasn't forgotten that the military if one of
the few options of many to escape. To people with graduate degrees the
military is an opportunity for "Self-less Service" but to those with few
options in life, it is only an opportunity.

Last but most important! History shows that republics dependent upon
citizen armies rise to empire status. They do so because they have learned
the economy of unity and principle of common purpose. History also shows
the each generation of these great powers are tested and must prove their
own worth. Until the rise of America, all of the great empires of history,
all of the nations of citizen armies have fallen. They did so shortly after
the citizens had grown fat and rich and listened to the merits of the
professional army. How much more efficient must be those selfless warriors
who live and die for King and country than the farmers and merchants who
fight only for the life they hope to live in peace after the war has been
won.

I hate to disappoint you, but history shows the heart of a citizen who
fights because he has too, is a stronger heart than the heart of a warrior
that fights for the sake of the fight itself. The first generation of the
professional military does well. The second generation of professional
warrior begins to show more loyalty to his general than he does to the
politicians he despises. Generation by generation the professional warrior
relates to the General more than the despised politician. They tend to turn
against the civilian republic.

Did you not notice the countries where the generals ruled? Do you honestly
think those generals were brought to power by farmers and merchants? No!
They came to power at the point of a bayonet, and those wielded by soldiers
dedicated to "Self-less Service"....to their family the military and the
head of that family.....the general.

Fat and lazy citizens are quick to applaud your talk of "Self-Service".
Your willingness enables them to avoid harms way. You mean every word, but
even as you speak these words, your disdain for the lesser humans that just
don't see what you see oozes out of you in a warrior's arrogance. You are
not ready to wrest power from the unenlightened politician like Rangel, but
you are ready to hold him in some degree of contempt...even as you have no
clue in all your education that his call for a draft is based on a far more
complex issue than "failure to conceive of Self-less Service".

I thank you, Sir, for your service, but I prefer the shared experience of a
call to arms issued to all over the polished professional soldier. I
believe your heart is in the right place, but the best of your intentions is
not likely to beat the odds of history. There is a cycle to empires.
Professional armies of great empires in the later stages are usually beaten
by the citizens armies of those empires to come in their early stages.

That this idea has escaped you with all your education shows the danger.
These important truths of history continue to repeat themselves because they
are so easily forgotten.

Randy R. Cox

[Roger]

You fucking liar.

This is by Daniel Jones, at http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110009372

Post by SON OF HARRY HOPE
I am a new officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. I joined in 2005 and am
presently a first lieutenant. I have no prior military experience, but I
joined because I wanted to serve my country and our military and to honor
my grandfather who was an infantry officer during World War 1 and my
father, a retired Coast Guard Commander.
Far from being uneducated with no opportunities, I am a civil trial
attorney, and a sole practitioner in the Dallas area. I graduated in the
top 15% of my law school class at Southern Methodist University and have 23
years of civil trial and appellate experience, including both state and
federal court. I am in a JAG unit, and as you may have guessed, I am a bit
older (48 to be exact) than the young men and women to whom Congressman
Rangel is apparently referring.
I am profoundly impressed time and again by the degree of professionalism,
accomplishment and intelligence of the men and women in uniform I come in
contact with. I am not just referring to JAG officers, of whom there are
fewer than 2,000 on active duty and hardly twice that number in the Reserve
component. Rather, I refer to the noncommissioned officers and enlisted
personnel with whom I work. Almost without exception, they are smart,
diligent, responsible, resourceful and, as far as I can tell, the
best-trained military forces in the world. None make as much money
as they are worth (or as much as they probably could in the civilian
world), but in my opinion, this is not cause for scorn as Rangel seems to
think. Rather, it is the reason these warriors are heroes.
One of the tenets of Army values is a concept, perhaps somewhat forgotten
these days, called Selfless Service. This value is, I believe, one of the
prime motivations of these brave young men and women. I simply do not share
Rangel's pessimism about why soldiers choose to become soldiers. His
attitude is typical, however, of many Americans (including some--not
all--of my own family and friends), who simply cannot believe or understand
why an individual would choose to become a soldier. But this is the
essential disconnect--the inability to understand the concept of Selfless
Service--that animates Rangel and others who share his views. It is
puzzling that Rangel, himself engaged in public service (and a veteran),
would ascribe such motives to me and my fellow volunteers.
==================================================================================
Lady Bird Johnson (1912- ) Businessperson, Wife of Lyndon Johnson
Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.

[Trey Harlow]

Bullshit

Post by SON OF HARRY HOPE
I am a new officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. I joined in 2005 and am
presently a first lieutenant. I have no prior military experience, but I
joined because I wanted to serve my country and our military and to honor
my grandfather who was an infantry officer during World War 1 and my
father, a retired Coast Guard Commander.
Far from being uneducated with no opportunities, I am a civil trial
attorney, and a sole practitioner in the Dallas area. I graduated in the
top 15% of my law school class at Southern Methodist University and have 23
years of civil trial and appellate experience, including both state and
federal court. I am in a JAG unit, and as you may have guessed, I am a bit
older (48 to be exact) than the young men and women to whom Congressman
Rangel is apparently referring.
I am profoundly impressed time and again by the degree of professionalism,
accomplishment and intelligence of the men and women in uniform I come in
contact with. I am not just referring to JAG officers, of whom there are
fewer than 2,000 on active duty and hardly twice that number in the Reserve
component. Rather, I refer to the noncommissioned officers and enlisted
personnel with whom I work. Almost without exception, they are smart,
diligent, responsible, resourceful and, as far as I can tell, the
best-trained military forces in the world. None make as much money
as they are worth (or as much as they probably could in the civilian
world), but in my opinion, this is not cause for scorn as Rangel seems to
think. Rather, it is the reason these warriors are heroes.
One of the tenets of Army values is a concept, perhaps somewhat forgotten
these days, called Selfless Service. This value is, I believe, one of the
prime motivations of these brave young men and women. I simply do not share
Rangel's pessimism about why soldiers choose to become soldiers. His
attitude is typical, however, of many Americans (including some--not
all--of my own family and friends), who simply cannot believe or understand
why an individual would choose to become a soldier. But this is the
essential disconnect--the inability to understand the concept of Selfless
Service--that animates Rangel and others who share his views. It is
puzzling that Rangel, himself engaged in public service (and a veteran),
would ascribe such motives to me and my fellow volunteers.
==================================================================================
Lady Bird Johnson (1912- ) Businessperson, Wife of Lyndon Johnson
Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.