iirc, actual mercenary mercenaries make more money.

You've got to be kidding me? Fuck her.

Well, fine. Then that means Casey Sheehan was a mercenary and you know what the left thinks about mercernaries: Fuck them.

Quick, somebody notify Saint Cindy that she and her son's usefulness to the left has ended and as far they are concerned: Fuck them.

Uh-huh. We joined up for all that PHAT CAY$H Uncle Sam throws at servicemembers. Right.

'People' (and i use the term loosely) like Clift don't understand why anyone would willingly join the military. It's much more convenient to their marxist world-view to believe that only the ill-educated poor and disadvantaged join up. I guess since she doesn't really believe in anything, she assumes no one else does, either.

Huh, the word "salary" comes from the salt the Romans used to compensate their soldiers. Pretty long tradition of paying your soldiers to fight. Perhaps she wants an all-amateur armed forces that could fight in the Olympics, or perhaps we should go back to the times when part of the compensation was the opportunity to rape and pillage citizens of the opposing country.

Eleanor Clift has always been one of the fuzziest thinkers in the media, but even she should have access to a decent dictionary.

Seems like about once a week, I see some lefty say something so vile and over the top, I'm sure somebody on that side of the aisle will rein her in or kick her out or something. And it keeps not happening. (See Rangel, Charles).

How does this parse? We Support the Mercenaries?

Got a quote on my hard drive somewhere, where she was all rah-rah about Clinton taking a hard line against Saddam and bombing the shit out of Baghdad.

Funny how attitudes change.

Eleanor who now?

Eleanor Clift is not a fuzzy thinker. That would, if I am correct, imply that she thought. About. Anything. Clearly she is incapable of actually thinking.

Almost makes me want to question her patriotism.

Ah, yes; another on the Left side calling for the draft!
By my count that is 22 (prominent?) Libs that have directly or inderctly called for reinstating the draft. Apparantly having an all volunteer military deprives them of having enough to bitch about.

Ah, yes. Those poor dumb suckers are whoring in war for a buck. Kinda like I whore in drafting for a buck, Rangel whores in politics for a lot of bucks, and Clift whores for a buck, too. Only she calls it journalism? Get serious.

Bitterman wrote: "Uh-huh. We joined up for all that PHAT CAY$H Uncle Sam throws at servicemembers. Right."

Exactly. We joined for the money. Sure.

Oh yes, and don't forget the benefits: free inefficient socialized medicine, routine 80-100 hour work weeks, and the ever increasing possibility of death or dismemberment.

Come on you guys, you're making me all weepy eyed for the good old days.

I did it for the uniform. Chicks dig the uniform.

USAF '88-'92

Oh, yeah. Can't forget the fashionable BDU's and polyester class A's. And the horn-rimmed BCG's, ray-bans had nothing on those.

When I'm feeling really nostalgic I go find a hole with a few inches of water in it, throw a few rocks down for comfort and eat ham loaf and crackers with peanut paste on 'em.

NEWSFLASH: US mercinaries viciously slaughter courageous al-Reuters journalist in Iraq

Developing...

...media frenzy and scathing Krugman columns expected shortly.

Seriously - its too bad the dude got zapped, but these things sometimes happen when you drive into a firefight.

FC, don't forget the immortal words of Sam Damon in Once an Eagle: "It was the food. I stayed in for the food."

Oh sure whine about the food. - but what about all the bennies:

1) Never have to decide what to wear to work.

2) Free ammo.

3) Permitted, nay encouraged, to shoot people at your place of work.

4) A chance to drive the ultimate off-road vehicles.

5) Free ammo.

6) Free funeral and flag.

7) Did I mention free ammo?

3) Permitted, nay encouraged, to shoot people at your place of work.

Loved that one.

Jesus, I am so sick of these people.

Assuming it is a "mercenary" army -- so what? Where's the relevance? Is she saying we ought to bring back the draft? Disband the army altogether? What?

A total non-fucking-sequitor. It just doesn't matter to these people whether or not Iraq becomes a stable democracy. Doesn't matter at all. If they did they wouldn't incessantly pull this third-grader, name-calling shit.

So, does Ms. Clift gripe that Milosevic was ousted through the actions of a mercenary air force?

Or was Bubba's blessing all that was needed to make her a convert. Geez, what a tool she is.

Cordially...

Oh, yeah, I sure did it (US Army 6th Infantry) for the money. In particular this monthly military disability check I've been getting. Woo hoo! I am rolling in the dough for life now!

Hell, I guess I must STILL be a mercenary ... since I'm still getting monthly Benjamins ... though I've been out of the service for 16 years. What a racket!

SGT Mark "I love the smell of Eleanor Clift burning in the morning"

But I'm sure Ms Clift supports the troops.

My last year in the Air Force I made $16,000 base pay. That was after 6 years in. Never thought of myself as a mercenary, but I'd be willing to take 5 bucks to bitch smack the elitist trash.

Clift's Greatest Hit was a gushing comment about either the Sandinistas, or Kim Il Sung, can't remember which. Either way it was pathetic. Mona Charen got the goods.

Its all about the M.O.N.E.Y. - conscripts doesn't need to be paid as much as AVF.

Therefore, you have more M.O.N.E.Y to waste on worthless social programs...

Therefore, the AVF "mercinaries" are EVIL.

I did it for the uniform. Chicks dig the uniform.

Well, we do. But really, Digital, if you wanted THE uniform, the Marines have the hottest.

But I dig the flight suits' easy access. (They're a pain in the tail to sew velcro patches onto, though. I just did that to 3 of them last night.)

As for Eleanor: I am loving the comments about her here. I'd be willing to pay way more than 5 bucks to watch her get *itch slapped. She's one of those people who reminds me why I'm not on THAT side.

Later,
bbeck

There is a line somewhere between "mercenary" and "professional". I cynically hope I stay on the right side of it, after all, "mercenaries" don't have as good a dental plan generally.

Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth's foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling,
And took their wages, and are dead.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.

-A. E. Housman

Yeah well screw her and that yellow rag she rode in on. Who the hell is reading Newsweek anyomre anyway? They have ADMITTED their bias, and have made no claim to changing.

Eleanor called it "an un-winnable war" and just about called for surrender. That's when I simultaneously started cursing, looking for things to throw, and changed the channel.
Just another traitor.

Fought for money? Is she serious? I suppose she works for free? Elanor doesn't have kids and mortgages and car payments to take care of, she works because she believes in the cause of what she'd doing and does it for free. How many soldiers has she interviewed? Apparently her psychic hotline into the motives of our soldiers is nothing short of amazing.

But this is good news, the more shrill they become the more people can see that Liberals are mentally unbalalced.

So we're up past 5 bucks. I can get friends to help for anything above 20.

And chicks do dig the flight suits. I am a contractor and still fly as part of a joint Air Force/Army flight test crew.