State of the Union, or the response... Options

[Hartmann]

The State of the Union was, in my opinion, a wakeup call for the democrats. Either support the troop movement or get the troops out of there, the middle ground is not an option. Also, I thought the President's point about a civilian force of workers was interesting. I do not know if I support it or not, but it's a novel idea...

Jim Webb's "official" Democratic response was even more intriguing, especially this paragraph:

The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

In the same paragraph he contradicts himself...

Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos.

...a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

Then there is this sentence (from the same paragraph), important part emphasized:

The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military.

I'd like to know where he gets his statistics...

[impala454]

well here's the deal... whether you support them staying or want to pull them all out now, it doesn't matter what the american people think. military strategy and troop deployment is not a concern of the general population. we have indirect power as citizens to affect the initial declaration of war, as our elected officials are the ones making the decisions, but once a war is out there, we have absolutely no say in how a war is fought. i wouldn't want it any other way.

the military that's over there say they need more troops, so get them some more fucking troops, i mean shit.. how difficult is that of a request? if they need more ammunition and humvees are we going to come down to a fucking democrat speech against it every fucking time?

[Jim]

well here's the deal... whether you support them staying or want to pull them all out now, it doesn't matter what the american people think. military strategy and troop deployment is not a concern of the general population. we have indirect power as citizens to affect the initial declaration of war, as our elected officials are the ones making the decisions, but once a war is out there, we have absolutely no say in how a war is fought. i wouldn't want it any other way.

the military that's over there say they need more troops, so get them some more fucking troops, i mean shit.. how difficult is that of a request? if they need more ammunition and humvees are we going to come down to a fucking democrat speech against it every fucking time?

ROFLOCTOPUS