I am not an average Joe. Sometimes I wish I was, so I'd be free to just worry about work and stuff. No, I'm cursed with above average intelligence which means, at least for me, that I pay attention to big picture politics. And alot of my interests are driven by 21 years active duty in the US Navy. I am NOT a rabid lockstep Conservative Republican. In fact, I think many people would be surprised at how many of us in the Military are NOT rabid lockstep Conservative Republicans. I think many people would be surprised at how much and how often we disagree with The President, SECDEF, and the Republican Party.
I read in this week's Navy Times (we like to call it the Navy Enquirer) an opinion piece by a retired Air Force Colonel which was so right on that it put me in mind to write here. He basically said 'Mr President you need to re-calibrate and get with the program and live up to promises made and live up to your word, or I (and this is implied I think) and others will not support you for re-election'.
This is the beginning of the Dragon Stirring. What or who is the Dragon and who cares anyway? Well, I used the term Dragon deliberately because of the connotations associated in my mind with the Dragon. Wisdom, contemplation and tremendous strength when provoked. I use the term Dragon to refer to Active Duty, Reserve and Retired Military. And this is a group that the pols in DC and elsewhere have ignored for years. And you know, mostly that wasn't so bad. There were some inequities but collectively they weren't enough to inflame us or even get much more attention than bitching at the smoke break. What inequities? Well the biggest, at least to me, are a) Disability offest and prohibition against political activity.
Disability offset was a nifty little way to not pay us our due. If you retire, and you are disabled as a result of your military service, any disability payments you get are offset by deducting that same amount from your retirement pay. We are the only federal group that this happens to. Also, if you retire from the military and go to work for civil service your pension is reduced by a percentage of the amount of your civil service pay. Same thing with your civil service retired pay.
The prohibition against political activity I actually agree with...sort of. Basically, we are prohibited by law by engaging in ANY partisian political activity...the most we are allowed to do is 1) have a bumper sticker on the car, 2) have a small sign on the lawn 3) give dontations and 4) attend rallies. We cannot campaign in any way shape or form. Cannot go door to door or stuff like that. Again, we are THE ONLY GROUP IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THAT THIS APPIES TO. I personally agree with it...to a point. But when we add that to what the Dragon is perceiving is going on, well, these things cumulatively add up to irritation which may well wake the dragon.
What other things? A lot of these things are particular to the military. But some are relevent to the country as whole. Some may seem like non-issues, but in our society, the military, there are things and then there are things. We have our own culture and mores and history, our own lifestyle and traditions that make us unique.
The Administration is refusing to create a campaign medal for Operation Iraqi Freedom. This may seem small to you not of the military. But remember for us it is part of our gestalt our collective history. It is a war which is what we are here for. It is a place where a lot of us have died, have lost friends, have seen things which forever alter us. Whether or not we (the US) should have gone in there is not the issue here. We (The military) did what we were called on to do and did it pretty damn well. I was over there. All things considered we did damn good. I am, as a Navy Man, proud as hell of our Army and Air Force . I am ALWAYS proud of the Navy and Marines. But the Soldiers and Airmen did a damn fine job. As usual, they exceeded what was asked of them. And if you have never served you are just plain NOT qualified to comment on their performance...you have no idea what you are talking about. You, the American Public, have a group of people you should be very proud to call your own. Whether you agree with why they were there, do not denegrate them...they did their job, carried out the missions and did it all damn well. We catch a lot of grief from people who think we have some say about when we go off and do our thing - mostly from people who just plain don't know and make no attempt to understand how and why a military must function.
Sorry, got off on a rant. Why is the campaign medal a big deal? We as I said, Iraq is now part of our history. OUR blood is IN that country now. The campaign medal is a symbol, to each other and to self, a recognition of BEING THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED; of BEING A PART OF IT! It is difficult to explain that concept. I guess that it would be analogous to a vietnam protester being proud of being at or a part of a significant demonstration. I dunno. But the administration doesn't want to create the medal and cannot give a COHERANT and REASONABLE explanation of why. They instead created the two GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) medals one for service in the US (Homeland Defense operations) and one for operations outside the US (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc) and you cannot get but one award of each. Again, this may not be a big deal to you, but it goes to the core of our (the military) society...it is a part of who we are, our identity. Why the administration, an administration that SAYS it 'values us' that says it 'cares' for us, cannot do this (the medals) is beyond me. The ONLY explanation that I can figure out is that they want to make sure that Iraq and Afghanistan and other places are all lumped togehter under GWOT. Well no problem (except I personally think it's a bullshit concept). Give out the GWOT AND a campain medal. Violates rule #1 - Makes too much sense.
Well, it is late and I have to get up too damn early and do navy stuff. I will write more on all this later. But I will leave you with two thoughts about The Dragon.
1. The Dragon (Active, Reserve and Retired Military) is the ONLY group (that I have found anyway) that crosses ALL voter demographics: Male/Female; White/Black/Hispanic/Asian/Native American; all religions (I even know a Quaker on active duty); all socio-economic backgrounds; ethnic; creeds; and even political affiliations. We even have the Handicapped in our ranks. Lets look at that fact and some numbers (some numbers totally out of my ass)
Active Duty ~3 Million
Reserve ~1.5 Million
Retired ~ 5 Million
Total so far 9.5 Million (by the way, all eligable voters)
Assume that 75% of the above are married (I think that's reasonable figure)
Fellow Travelers
Spouses of the Dragon 7.125 Million
Government Civil Service 2 Million (Probably higher, maybe)
Non Retired Veterans 15 Million? (Unsure of this number...)
Total So Far 33.625 Million
Assume each one of the above can influence only one person who is not in the above groups
Total So Far 67.25 Million
Assume that only 50% of that number will vote along a unified line
You get 33.625 MILLION VOTES
2000 Election - A bit over 100,000,000 votes cast.
Tell me a politician that wouldn't drool over having THOSE numbers in his pocket.
33 Million votes will determine not only the presidential election but could determine every congressional election as well.

2. The people that make up the Dragon have some interesting backgrounds and jobs. One thing they mostly all have in common is living to plan and execute the mission. That's what we do. We have planned hundreds of thousands of operations. We have executed thousands of operations. We know how to plan, how to figure the odds, how to game it all out. Do you know how complex a war is? Makes a presidential election look like childs play. Know how many global wars we have planned in the past 30 years? We know how to plan and more importantly we know how to execute a plan as a team effort. Look at the democrats right now. Team effort? I don't think so. That crap isn't tolerated with us.

So what does that all mean? Well, I'd say that the candidate the talks to us (The dragon) and motivates us will have a lot of backing. But more importantly, the guy that treats us like crap will find the other guy getting our vote....or maybe we run our OWN guy!

This is not partesean political writing. The author is merely musing about things. If it makes you uncomfortable, good. THAT means maybe you are actually USING that grey crap between your ears....Make up your own mind...NEVER accept what Anyone tells you (even me) at face value...check it out for yourself...if a politician tells you something....verify it more than once...if they promise you something, don't believe it.

Love America, think for yourself. Never base your opinions on what ANY political party says.
Thank a vet, send some cookies and love to those troops in the desert...it sucks over there.

More will be written later on......