Conservatives interesting love affair with the military

We can't love our neighbor if they aren't just like us. You know that they have to be straight and go to the same kind of church we do. Didn't you know that Jesus walked past all of the nowadays liberals and told them to go die?

The military is one of the legitimate entities as defined by the US Constitution. It serves a very important purpose. The military isn't entirely a socialist institution. Two reasons why, our Military is Voluntary and the second is you have the option to leave. If the military is against Your religious beliefs, then don't join. They will still protect you. That is a very weak argument. It is up to the individual to decide for themselves. You don't have that choice in a pure Socialist society. The government dictates your beliefs and if it says war, you go to war. That being said, the military pays you for working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you really did the math, the pay rate per hour is way below minimum wage. Thus, the government has to offer benefits to get people to join just like companies offer to employees to recruit them or to keep them. If they are risking their lives for their jobs, their employer most certainly should compensate them and their families for their service. Not many people can actually afford to buy an M16. They are very expensive weapons. It is not true that only military personal have M16s, many collectors have them in their collection. In addition, it is not like the Military "strut" around here carrying their weapons unless they are on duty on a Military base. You know your exaggerated statements have some real fantasy interwoven in. You rant against the military but never realize that is a necessary part of our country's survival.

They sure do talk a good game, don't they, but didn't they block funding for body armor and armor for the troops' humvees (sp) not so long ago? And aren't they all for "independent contractors", like Blackwater and Haliburton, to do things like electrical work and who cares if some of our soldiers get electrocuted? That's incredible, someone puts his life on the line in battle only to die taking a shower! The Religious Right doesn't like it too much when someone plays the "What Would Jesus Do?" card on them. I guess I should also mention that they don't favor this socialism or redistribution of wealth for those pesky gays or for illegal immigrants who came here as children with their parents when they had no control over their "criminal" behavior! Annie

So in your world the people who fight and die to protect our country are the same as those who collect welfare checks? The level of ignorance you show in your post just guarantees that you are fully incapable of understanding the sacrifice they make. You also don't seem to understand the difference between "universal healthcare" and healthcare provided as a benefit of employment. It's sad that you used to actually start intelligent discussions. Now you just plaster ignorance on the forum to insult people. I guess that must bring you some level of pleasure.

I think the important point missing from your description of the Military is that maintaining an armed force for the defense of the country is one of the few things that the federal government is actually supposed to do per the Constitution. Many of the things being done by the federal government these days are definitely not within its scope of duties or powers and yet... well, we have government trying to take over healthcare and running car companies. It might be easier to understand why a soldier gets to walk around with an M16 and you don't if you look at the opinion of the Supreme Court in PARKER v. LEVY, 417 U.S. 733 (1974): "This Court has long recognized that the military is, by necessity, a specialized society separate from civilian society. We have also recognized that the military has, again by necessity, developed laws and traditions of its own during its long history." So, laws regarding civilian society and military society may vary. The federal government has a duty per the Constitution to provide for the common defense and clauses in the Constitution provide the power to raise and maintain armies necessary to do so. Maintaining armies definitely involves housing and feeding and clothing them, it might even necessarily include educating them. Taxes levied and used to actually perform the duties assigned to the federal government is not wealth redistribution. That's not a religious issue either, that's a Constitutional issue. Politically, I am not a Christian. There are no politics of religion. I am a Constitutionalist. Our country slips further and further from the intent of the founding fathers, to our detriment. A return to the Constitution would put our government back doing its duty and not interfering with the privates lives of its citizens.

That's one way to look at it. Me, I see America's military as performing a service. They're working; they're not any sort of welfare recipients. Beyond that, I'm shutting my mouth about America's military. These brave men and women put their lives on the line constantly. I won't use them to make a dig at a political party. There are plenty of other things to use to play that pointless game.