Women in the Military

I am in the active the Army right now as an Artilleryman. However, I have been able to do a wide range of jobs since I joined in 2001. I have worked in personnel administration, various military intellegence roles, as well as being on the frontlines during combat in Iraq. I have nothing against women and firmly believe they have an invaluable place in the military today. I also believe that one day women will serve on the frontlines next to men. The only thing about the whole scenario that concerns me is the fact that women should be held to the same standard as the men they are serving with. Throughout my vast experience in the military the saying "you are only as strong as your weakest link," holds very true. If a female can handle the same physical and mental stress a male combatant can, then more power to them. It's just all going to take time.

Damned if you do; Damned if you don't...

The war in Afghanistan is finally getting what it needs, more troops. There is only one problem with this that I can see. It’s the fact that the vast majority of them are ours. I had come to think that terrorism is affecting the world as a whole. When the war on terrorism started eight years ago the majority of the free world was behind us. It seems as the war went on country after country started to back out due to political pressures even though it was clearly stated in the beginning that this wasn’t going to be a short war. So the burden on America grew greater and greater as we took care of the slack that everyone else has left. The problem with this is that as more and more countries denounce terrorism in one hand, they then turn around and in the other condemn America for being world wide bullies. I would like to see what will happen when we finally withdrawal combat forces from Afghanistan. Terrorism isn’t going to go away and without western infidels in their back yard to fight, they are going to travel abroad. When that happens I want to see what the world as a majority will say about the U.S. Why didn’t we stay and finish the job, why did we lose the war in Afghanistan, why did we let terrorism spread across the globe unchecked. It will definitely be interesting and it looks like that will be starting within the next few years. So let’s see what plays out, are we going to be world saviors or the western Satan.

Comment on American Dream Post

Being a current soldier and combat vet it is really good to see people that aren't directly involved in the military taking notice of the things we have to go through and deal with. It was a very well written article that shows solid statistics. The example you used about seeking mental health treatment is very true and unfortunately in the past you could hurt your career if you sought treatment. I really don't see the war ending in 2010 though, it would be outstanding to pull our troops from Iraq and be able to concentrate on Afghanistan but I believe it's going to be awhile yet. Overall a really well written article that I enjoyed reading.

Where There's Smoke There's Fire...

Government, just the word can be scary, aggravating, intimidating, or sometimes even comical. Our government has been around for over 200 years and is constantly adapting to an ever changing world, not to mention trying to work out all the kinks that were already in place. This whole process to me seems to get even more complicated by the constant infighting between political parties and everyone else.
All too often the left and right spend more time pointing fingers than actually working on the issue at hand. I truly believe that is one of, if not the main problem facing our government today.
Something that doesn’t help the fact is that main stream media uses this constant conflict to gain ratings, which in turn fans the flames between the political isles. So it seems like a never ending cycle with everyone involved just feeding off the anger and aggravation. With an atmosphere like this it’s not surprising that the American people and the world for that matter are losing faith in the United States.
If we could all stop for a little while put aside the petty arguing and work together to get things accomplished in this country, we would be a lot better off. How many times has a piece of legislation came down the pipe that would have benefited both parties been shot down by one side or the other, just out of spite. Is this anyway to run a country and have it prosper? Obviously it isn’t because at times it seems like the walls are coming down around us.
Of course there will always be division and that division is what keeps the whole thing going. However there isn’t any reason that both sides can’t come together and work hand in hand on truly important issues instead of becoming the weekly highlight reel on Fox News or CNN. Hopefully we will see some change soon before it’s too late.

The Real Problem With Afghanistan

I read a very interesting article on the real problem with the war in Afghanistan by Fox News contributing Editor Wendell Goler. The problem that he speaks of is their government. The Afghani people just had a very pivotal election which unfortunately was riddled with allegations of fraud. So while everyone is trying to figure out how the election actually went down, President Obama has to wait see what happens before he can decide to send more troops over or not. This, in my mind is totally unacceptable. There are soldiers losing their lives over there every day do to the fact that they are spread so then and don’t have the back up they need. It really doesn’t help when Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brother happens to be a local drug lord.
It’s extremely hard to get a country back on its feet while the top levels of its government keep kicking them out from under you. One thing I believe is that we will eventually whittle away the insurgency in Afghanistan. To make this easier though we need a local government that can handle itself and more U.S. boots on the ground. Without either of these we will be stuck in that part of the world for a very extended amount of time.

A Devided House Will Fall...

I recently read an opinion piece on Fox News that caught my attention. "10 Thoughts on Incivility in America", by Bill Shuler a pastor at a church in Arlington, brings up a problem that we run into every day in politics. I am not an overly religious person but this man of the cloth brings up some things that politicians and everyone for that matter, should remember. All too often especially of late, there is name calling and mud slinging across the political dividing line. I feel that this common practice takes up time and energy that could be focused on the problem at hand. Not to mention the fact it is human nature to jump on the defensive and fire back once a person is verbally attacked. In a world where 95% of what we hear and see in main stream media is negative in some way shape or form, the last place we need incivility is in our elected officials who are going to shape national policy that not only effect us but the world around us. It seems at times that our government has turned into the high school lunch room where name calling and finger pointing run wild. Instead of everyone duking it out over who caused the problem why can't they hold a conversation like an adult and fix it. It's easy for me to sit here and say everyone should just get along and be nice. Lets be real it's not going to happen we are human, but we should at least give it our best shot to reduce the madness and concentrate on the issues at hand.

Is there an end in sight...

The following article describes how even though folks are saying the worst recession since the 1930's is over we are still seeing unemployment rise and jobs lost. With the statistics being about 42 states losing jobs with Texas being a leader, as well as 27 states having rising unmployment rates. The good thing is that the whole thing seems to be slowing a bit. So hopefully with in the next fiscal year with billions of stimulus dollars being pumped into the economy we should see significant improvements in these areas. This is an interesting article worth reading because it throws the numbers at you, so you can definitely get an idea of what's going on. There seems to be a light a the end of the tunnel unfortunately the tunnel is really long.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/18/states-jobless-claims-august-month-earlier/?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a16:g2:r3:c0.028826:b27796150:z0