SOLDIERS SUPPORT...LIVING?

The next time I hear a right-wing wacko broadcaster, pundit or caller tell the audience how much our troops love George W. Bush, their exalted never-made-a-mistake Commander-In-Chief, or how anxious they are to keep fighting and dying, I'll have this to counter with:

Thirty percent of former U.S. soldiers who have been called back to duty involuntarily to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed to report on time, and eight have been declared AWOL, the Army said Tuesday.

Our voluntary army isn't so keen on volunteering for Iraq. I don't blame them a bit. Way back during the Vietnam conflict, we had an underground network funneling deserters and draft-dodgers to Canada and Europe. Some thought it unpatriotic and treasonous -- we thought they were doing the moral thing. I wonder how long it will take, if Bush gets elected and this disastrous continues on the same basis or, even more likely, spreads to other countries in the Middle East, until a similar network surfaces.

One further thought: American men (it was, mostly, then) didn't shirk their duty to protect their country in WWI or II -- the threat to our nation was clear, the alternative unthinkable, and our people responded. Women sacrificed, (mostly) men bled and died in great numbers, and the four years of WWII required great dedication and unity of our entire populace. So I have no doubt that Americans will rise to the challenge ANY DAY ANY TIME that our way of life, our liberty, our revered institutions are threatened. I mean, truly threatened, not an illusion.