Time to get Mad.

Kim du Toit brought this article, written by a Marine Colonel to my attention. Take a gander at it. I can't pull any quotes out and let you nibble, you have to digest the whole thing.

And then come back here and take a breath.

As good as President Bush has been to our military, I believe that he's screwed up in a big way by not enlarging the size of our active duty forces. I think we should have at least two more Army divisions on active duty, to cover our obligations without burning out the troops. Our Air Force needs new planes, even if their just copies of our older models. The B-52's have been flying since the Korean War, folks. Think about that. You can thank the good folks at Boeing for implimenting a safety and engineering standard that has allowed those planes to keep flying long after people thought they would be done. I'd like to see more Marines on active duty, so that the Marine Corps won't suffer a service-wide case of combat fatigue. The Marines are some of the toughest SOB's you'll ever run across, but they can only do so much.

Between Congress and the President, governmental spending has jumped, and yet only a small percentage of that jump went to the military. Tie in the fact that some weapons programs have been cut (not without good reason), and that percentage gets even smaller. For Pete's sake, Kim du Toit had to raise money to buy good scopes for our MILITARY snipers! Pay and benefits increases only go so far in retaining good troops, and when the military can't even get the equipment that it needs, we're not too far away from "really really bad shitstorm" type situations!

This isn't some sudden problem that jumped up in the past few years, either. This started under Bush Sr, and was ramped up during the Clinton Administration. Clinton closed more bases and handed out more pink slips to the military than any other president in modern history. To put it bluntly, Clinton gutted our military. While Bush has undone SOME of that damaged, he hasn't done nearly enough to bring us up to where we need to be.

And that's not the biggest problem. You want to know what really pisses me off? I don't think that Bush will ever bring the military up to where it needs to be. I don't think he'll ever have the cojones to cut public pork-barrel spending in order to send that money to the military. However, our only other option is even worse when it comes to military spending. John Fonda Kerry LOATHES the military, folks. He hates it with a burning passion. How do I know? Look at his record!

He voted to kill the Bradley Fighting Vehicle
He voted to kill the M-1 Abrams Tank
He voted to Kill the Patriot anti Missile system
He voted to kill every Aircraft carrier laid down since 1988
He voted to kill the Aegis anti aircraft system
He voted to Kill the F-15 strike eagle
He voted to Kill the Block 60 F-16
He voted to Kill the P-3 Orion upgrade
He voted to Kill the B-1
He voted to Kill the B-2
He voted to Kill the FA-18
He voted to Kill the B-2
He voted to Kill the F 117

It's all in the public voting record, folks. Open for anyone to see. Kerry has voted against the miliary equipment that we are now using on a regular basis. If John Fonda Kerry were president, our military would be nothing but men dressed in medievil armor waving swords! He also voted to cut the funding of the FBI by 60%, to cut the funding for the CIA by 80%, and cut the funding for the NSA by 80%. Do you really think this man cares about national security? Do you really think this man cares about military readiness? HELL NO! Kerry would be happy to see the US Military whither away like Canada's forces, to be replaced by some "international multilateral" force. He's proven it time and time again.

Gun rights are the same story. Bush? "I'll sign a new AWB if it comes across my desk" Scary shit, folks. At least we could petition our congresscritters to vote against extending the AWB. Kerry on the other hand has made damn sure that he voted against the 2nd Amendment time and time again. Kerry has missed well over three-quarters of the votes in the Senate this year, but by golly he was there to vote FOR the AWB extention! It's the same story time and time again. Bush may not be doing the best job, but compared to John Fonda Kerry, Bush might as well be the second coming of Theodore Roosevelt!

Is this what the election has boiled down to? Someone we're ambivilous about vs. someone who would toss America into a baby-blue blender and hit "frappe"?

Yeah, it's time to get mad.