As our great and unique nation faces arguably its greatest existential crisis during this unprecedented time, perhaps reflecting on our roots can help calibrate our values, wherever our individual paths may lead in the coming times. To be American is not merely about existing on a particular plot of land demarcated on a particular map. To be American is not even necessarily limited to Americans, as brave defiant people from various other places have lately shown.




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O say, can you see
By the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hail'd
At the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd
Were so gallantly streaming.

And the rocket's red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?


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Right now, thousands of miles away, people are fighting for freedom.

Right here at home people are fighting to prevent their freedoms from being taken away.

God Bless America.

And God Bless those people thousands of miles away, who understand that the SPIRIT that gave birth to a free nation is not only limited to Americans alone.

nice

perhaps not historically accurate, but close enough.

As our great and unique nation faces arguably its greatest existential crisis during this unprecedented time, perhaps reflecting on our roots can help calibrate our values, wherever our individual paths may lead in the coming times. To be American is not merely about existing on a particular plot of land demarcated on a particular map. To be American is not even necessarily limited to Americans, as brave defiant people from various other places have lately shown.




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Pretty good.  Too bad Modern USA Democrats don't have a clue.
I'm pretty sure all Men, would agree that "it is better to die a free person on your
feet, than to live as a slave on your knees".
 

I'm pretty sure all Men, would agree that "it is better to die a free person on your
feet, than to live as a slave on your knees".
 

I have a better one: "It is better to have someone else die on their feet, when you can pretend you have bone spurs, and avoid the fight all together."

I have a better one: "It is better to have someone else die on their feet, when you can pretend you have bone spurs, and avoid the fight all together."

Doesn't seem like there are much of these people you speak of in Ukraine, but yeah, I can see a sizable amount of these people in the USA.

I have a better one: "It is better to have someone else die on their feet, when you can pretend you have bone spurs, and avoid the fight all together."

So, hero, what service did you volunteer for?

I have a better one: "It is better to have someone else die on their feet, when you can pretend you have bone spurs, and avoid the fight all together."

I missed that memo where people are being drafted.  Seems like the US and Ukraine (the countries being compared) both have an all-volunteer fighting force.  No need to use any medical problems to avoid active duty AFAIK.

I wonder how many people criticizing others for avoiding the draft would have themselves fled to Canada to do the same?

I guess if you oppose people dodging the draft, you support the reasons the US was fighting in Korea and Vietnam.  Isn't that how Liberal logic works?

I guess if you oppose people dodging the draft, you support the reasons the US was fighting in Korea and Vietnam.

This new liberal sock puppet has yet to say what he volunteered for. 

We know what Clintoon, Øbowel, and Bidet* signed up for.

My uncle drank a quart of shoyu the night b4 his med appointment.

He failed as a teenager with high BP. His classmate whos haole drew a schwastika on his underwear and was denied.


Nam wasnt a popular war and many were looking for reasons not to be drafted. And politicians sons (Bush jr) were kept safe.

So bone spurs, flee to canada, units changed,etc... what ever.

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Nam wasnt a popular war and many were looking for reasons not to be drafted

The point of course is a liberal sock puppet trying to use draft dodging/avoidance as a smear of a hated enemy, when he/she/it apparently did not do anything.   

Draft or not, unless you served, you have less than nothing of a stand to comment on anyone else's service or avoidance.   Liberals should shut up and hide about it, unless they want it crammed down their throat.

How many teens whose parents could afford college tuition and living expenses received a deferment from being drafted?  Seems to have been such a popular path, Vietnam became known as the war which the US sent her poor to fight.  Not sure that's any different than other countries throughout history who sent conscripted peasants into battle while the nobles lead them from atop a hill. 

Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay)

Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition
to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles.
He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction
was overturned in 1971.

William "Bill" Clinton

In 1972, Bill Clinton acquired temporary ROTC or Reserve Officers’ Training Corps status,
which exempted him from the draft; though never actually joining the ROTC, he has been
accused of purposely deceiving the military to avoid service.

There's a long list of now-well-known people who used one excuse, reason or "favor" to evade the draft.  John Wayne, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, ... and even Albert Einstein, who went to Switzerland to avoid being drafted in WWII.

I've often pondered the ethics of the draft, as well as the efforts of people to evade it.  It comes down to this:  in today's battlefield environment, are we still as dependent on sheer numbers of people we can throw at the enemy before they run out of bullets, bombs and soldiers?  Times have changed, and with them, so has the need for large fighting forces that put a strain on training, equipment, gear, transportation and supplies like food, medicine and other basics.

I can see if someone was a conscientious objector how their fitness to be CinC is an issue.  But simply using the system to avoid the draft is not.  Trump used his college deferment to avoid the draft 4 times while in school.  Two years after he graduated, he reported a documented physical problem that classified him 4F.  Was the diagnosis legit?  There's no direct evidence to prove the problem was made up.

David Cortright, a scholar and peace activist, found that more than half of the 27 million
American men eligible to be drafted during the Vietnam era were deferred, exempted, or
disqualified.

https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-avoided-the-military-draft-which-was-common-at-the-time-vietnam-war-2018-12?op=1

Only the draft dodgers know in their heart if their "ailment" is genuine or not.

Well anyway, I hope they are enjoying their free life as Americans.

And God Bless our all volunteer Armed Services.

Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay)
William "Bill" Clinton

There's a long list of now-well-known people who used one excuse, reason or "favor" to evade the draft.  John Wayne, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, ... and even Albert Einstein, who went to Switzerland to avoid being drafted in WWII/

Clay stood up for his principles, did not evade.

Clintoon was issued a draft order and fled to England, a clear draft dodger.

Jimi Hendrix served in the US army as a paratrooper, hardly an evader.

So, where did the liberal sock puppet de jour serve?

Clay stood up for his principles, did not evade.

Clintoon was issued a draft order and fled to England, a clear draft dodger.

Jimi Hendrix served in the US army as a paratrooper, hardly an evader.

So, where did the liberal sock puppet de jour serve?

Technically, I suppose you could say Ali was not a draft dodger, since the conviction was overturned, although the Court ruled on technicalities, not on the substance of Ali's argument that his religion prohibited him from serving.  He converted to Islam in 1964.

He was officially charge with Draft Evasion. 

His application for conscientious objector status was denied by his local draft board, and the
Kentucky State Appeal Board, without explanation. Ali moved to Texas, where his appeal was
again denied. In April of 1967, he was scheduled to be inducted but refused. He was stripped
of his title by the World Boxing Association and of his boxing license by the New York State
Athletic Commission and others. He was convicted in June of a felony of refusing the draft.

Ali continued to appeal, and the case eventually reached the Supreme Court. His conviction
was overturned by a unanimous vote of 8-0, with the Court citing technical errors by the Justice
Department as the reason. 

Muhammad Ali was convicted for draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison in 1967.

The Supreme Court decision came in 1971.

Evasion, or refusing to go, .... same same.

Had to do some more looking into Hendrix.

He didn't volunteer for the Army, nor was he drafted in the literal sense.  He was caught more than once riding in a stolen car.  He was given the choice of jail or enlist in the Army, and he chose the military.

After graduating jump school, he was discharged OFFICIALLY for an injury he received in paratrooper training.  But, there are witnesses and records that show he was forced out for showing "homosexual tendencies."  His biographer says Hendrix was 100% straight, and that the "tendencies" were part of an elaborate ruse to get discharged.

So, I agree -- not a draft dodger.  More like a Corporal Klinger, trying to get an early discharge by faking something that would be grounds.

Had to do some more looking into Hendrix.

He didn't volunteer for the Army, nor was he drafted in the literal sense.  He was caught more than once riding in a stolen car.  He was given the choice of jail or enlist in the Army, and he chose the military.

After graduating jump school, he was discharged OFFICIALLY for an injury he received in paratrooper training.  But, there are witnesses and records that show he was forced out for showing "homosexual tendencies."  His biographer says Hendrix was 100% straight, and that the "tendencies" were part of an elaborate ruse to get discharged.

So, I agree -- not a draft dodger.  More like a Corporal Klinger, trying to get an early discharge by faking something that would be grounds.

Reminds me of In the Army Now.

"Kiss him".

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Reminds me of In the Army Now.

"Kiss him".

Just happened to watch this again yesterday.

so you mean to tell me that all these macho, bad-ass musicians i.e. "The Boss" were afraid to go to war?