We were standing around on the sidewalk today in 97214, reminding ourselves of some history.
My generation became eligible for military service right when people were tired of loser wars, were thinking about a Peace Dividend, had no use for registration. I was never asked to register for any draft.
The military panicked shortly thereafter and instated a registration process. Those protesting the imposition of this government requirement would be ineligible for unemployment, government loans.
In other words, those with a principled stand against such actions as the pre-emptive occupation of a foreign country, even while the UN was certifying it harmless from a WMD standpoint, would be overtly discriminated against.
Schools would have these intelligent thinkers weeded out, diverted to an underclass or underground, by force of government policy.
Yet even a few of the best and brightest in Congress voted against this ill-advised operation. One of them is currently serving as president. But as a citizen, you're expected to signify your support of cruel barbarity, or Uncle Sam can't help you get an education.
The stories from Afghanistan sound much the same -- mercenaries gone wild, with a Ministry of Shame for a State Department. This after Abu Ghraib. When do these folks ever get it that their battle for hearts and minds isn't working? How thick skulled could they be?
I've been explaining the "LAWCAP puppet" mythos to some eager youths in my circle, as it resonates with their experience. The real USA would never be such a monster. Friends on our sidewalk agreed.
The author of the "LAWCAP puppet" mythos is a Medal of Freedom winner, so it's not that far fetched to identify as a member of his party and yet call oneself patriotic. I do it all the time.
In the bar behind us, the juke box screen kept dissolving into US Army commercials. Competing civilian services don't get any bandwidth. More evidence of tyranny, in case anyone needed any.
