HEY, WHERE'S YOUR FLAG PIN?

With all the carping about patriotism and wearing flag pins, you would think the media - or the Republican Party - would have it in them to call attention to the fact that Americans are NOT patriotic enough to enlist and fight in Iraq or Afghanistan - Wars with ends the Bush administration has tried hard to compare to World War II, the Civil War, and just about anything else that allows them to hype and sell their Blundering Wars Project.

Once again, because the Republican Party thinks draping their rhetoric in the flag makes them men (and absolves them from enlisting), the U.S. Army has to involuntary extend the enlistment terms of our soldiers to prevent them from leaving the military. Unfortunately - and this may come as news to the False Patriots - flag pins can't be taught to fire guns.

While Conservative Chickenhawks continue to call for more war, while cowering behind their flag pins, there appears to be some grumbling about extending tours of duty.

... many soldiers subjected to the stop-loss policy consider it a backdoor draft. Critics argue that once soldiers have completed the enlistment period they agreed to, they should be allowed to return home. The involuntary retention program is so unpopular that it helped inspire a recent movie called "Stop-Loss" ...

This report has the details about stop-loss damage.

You would think that forcing others to "Stand and Die" for the political blunders of the Bush administration might compel President Bush, or John McCain, to support something like the GI Bill working its way through Congress. Think again.

Both Bush and McCain understand if our fighting men and women had more options (like leaving to get an education after serving their country) the "stop-loss" numbers would be far worse than this ...

The number of soldiers held in the Army under the stop-loss program reached a high in March 2005 of 15,758. That number steadily declined through May 2007, when it hit 8,540. But since then, the number of soldiers subjected to stop-loss orders began to increase again, reaching 12,235 in March 2008.

At the end of the day, this is what happens when you combine incompetence, moral cowardice, and false patriotism. And republicans want four more years of this?

Hail Caligula.

- Mark