West Point cadet drops out to protest influence of fundamentalist Christianity

[TheMadMonk]

82. "Once proud"? "Becomes"? I think one can safely argue...

...that the US is already 90-95% of the way there. Right now it is really only a matter of degree, not kind.

The Founding Fathers as you say tried to constitutionally guard against it, and instead got a gun culture full of yahoos convinced they need enough guns to hold off a platoon or two on hand at all times, just in case the government ever turns on them.

You allowed your standing army to grow larger and larger until it outmuscles the entire world; allowed it to consume a larger and larger proportion of the budget; you increasingly poke your nose into the business of other nations and relatively routinely topple foreign governments; military spending is pretty much whatever the vendor chooses to charge, for everyone else it's: How cheaply can it be done? Who can do without?

Simplistic? Yes. Without factual basis? No.

I'm not trying to rag, I didn't even realise who I was talking to for quite some time, but I recalled your military background as soon as you reminded me of it. Please believe me when I say I hadn't considered who you were or your background at all when I offered my 2 cents worth.

Adding draftees to that mix I think is a recipe for disaster. They'd be forever second class citizens and relatively powerless to do anything about it. It would be yet one more bi-polarity that is so definitive of American culture. In nearly every comparison of significance, it's one side vs. another, there's no middle ground. No third way. Indeed, third ways tend to be looked upon with great disdain and even independents are barely tollerated evils to many.