I read things like this and I wonder how someone can go through life so educated and yet be so blind.
The Massachusetts Democrat apologized for his statement yesterday, but he needn't have, because he said nothing to offend soldiers or veterans. In the speech to a group of California college students on Monday, Kerry said, "Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
On Wednesday, Kerry said that he erred by changing the prepared text, which said, "I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."
The sad fact is, young men and women without a college degree usually earn less, as much as $23,000 a year less, according to a recent U.S. Census report. And many of those have-nots, lured into the military by enlistment bonuses, find themselves in Iraq. Then, in many cases, their tours of duty have been extended, because the U.S. military is currently overextended with troops needed on numerous fronts.
"Stuck in Iraq" says it pretty well.
I read things like the table below and know the author of the above, for all his education, is ignorant of the facts.
This also says nothing about the troops who go on to college after they leave the service. I read things like this:
Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure Sept. 29 when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, said four SEALs who spoke to The Associated Press this week on condition of anonymity because their work requires their identities to remain secret.
"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," said a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs' lives, and we owe him."
Monsoor, a 25-year-old gunner, was killed in the explosion in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. He was only the second SEAL to die in Iraq since the war began.
Two SEALs next to Monsoor were injured; another who was 10 to 15 feet from the blast was unhurt. The four had been working with Iraqi soldiers providing sniper security while U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted missions in the area.
And that makes me wonder at one more thing. In light of the blatant and obvious contempt that the "elite" hold those who protect their elite, little worlds, how lucky the rest of us all are. Because despite that overbearing condescension and contempt, men like Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor continue to volunteer to protect even those who regard them this way.
I prefer the company of such men and women to that of the author of the editorial in the Tennessean. They are the real elite, not the self-appointed, self-anointed and self congratulatory false elite. They are the honest and the honorable and the worthy. They even protect those who are not.
Despite your contempt.
UPDATE: Or ABC's contempt.
The author is probably the type to say, “How could anyone think of joining the military? No one I know is in the military!”
It’s appalling. My son has a 4.0 GPA and will be going back to finsih his studies to be a teacher when he gets back.
“it rains on the just and the unjust…”
And American troops protect their supporters and those who would denigrate them.
Come to think of it, so does a good president.
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I read things like this and I wonder how someone can go through life so educated and yet be so blind.
That has got to be the most tempting straight line I have read, ever.
This won’t hurt Kerry because Bush and Boehner came to Kerry’s aid to
reduce the affect on the goofed up joke. Bush has lowered the bar to bad joke affects for the past 6 years with his mangling of the english language.
Boehner, this week, turns right around and blames the generals in Iraq for the war failure, not Rumsfeld. Boehner needs to apologize; Kerry just a joke that flopped.
And the reason folks are talking about Iraq today is not of success, but of blunders Bush has committed.
For the record; I joined Mr. Carter’s Army and resigned from Mr. Clinton’s.
Quite frankly the Army was, more often than not, a place where the debris from society washed up. Then it began to change. It got smarter.
It continued this path, particularly when it became clear that Clinton was going to drastically redue the size of the military. If we were to have a much smaller Army it would have to comprised of the best. And that is the direction that the recruiters went.
So now, as oppossed to where we were when Reagan became Commander in Cheif, the number of Catagory 4 troops…the lowest testing level…is very small.
The wise and cultured intellect who wrote that op-ed is probably one of those wise and cultured intellects who spat on my uniform a couple of decades ago.
The brave and honorable SEAL who sacrificed himself to save his comrades and to protect this nation, well he gave me the right to spit back next time I see that first fella.
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I do not subscribe to the Tennessean any more, and I don’t miss it at all., The only time I go to the Tennessean website is to check the obits. The rest isn’t worth the paper on which it’s printed, and I now get all my news from other sources. By the way, they also strongly endorsed Harold Ford Jr., who, if elected, will gladly line up with the likes of John Kerry, even if he “sort of” condemned what Kerry said earlier this week.