Not Really A Huge Surprise

When asked how they feel about President-elect Barack Obama as commander in chief, six out of 10 active-duty service members say they are uncertain or pessimistic, according to a Military Times survey.

In follow-up interviews, respondents expressed concerns about Obama’s lack of military service and experience leading men and women in uniform.

Underlying much of the uncertainty is Obama’s stated 16-month timetable for pulling combat troops out of Iraq, as well as his calls to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to allow gays to serve openly in the military, according to survey responses and interviews.

“How are you going to safely pull combat troops out of Iraq?” said Air Force 1st Lt. Rachel Kleinpeter, an intelligence officer with the 100th Operations Support Squadron at RAF Mildenhall, England. “And if you’re pulling out combat troops, who are you leaving to help support what’s left? What happens if Iraq falls back into chaos? Are we going to be there in five years doing the same thing over again?”

1st Lt Rachel Kleinpeter is now one of my heroes… not only because she had the brains to ask the right questions but because her name in German means “Little Peter” and I can really identify with that.

Feel free to read the rest of the article at ArmyTimes Online… the rest of the data won’t surprise you a bit either but I’ll let you read it yourself and cringe at some of the more obvious socially based biases on your own.

The people have spoken... well, at leat the people who will be eating the sand, pulling the triggers, and dodging the bad guys have spoken

Comments

[salvage]

U.S. soldiers have donated more presidential campaign money to Democrat Barack Obama than to Republican John McCain, a reversal of previous campaigns in which military donations tended to favor GOP White House hopefuls, a nonpartisan group reported Thursday.

Troops serving abroad have given nearly six times as much money to Obama's presidential campaign as they have to McCain's, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-14-military-donations_N.htm

[Mike St.Jacques]

Uh-huh. And just which "nonpartisan group" came up with those numbers? Sorry, I'll take the data from the Military Times survey over that of a supposedly un-named "nonpartisan group" that just happens to support your argument, yet is left undisclosed.

[Uncle Mike]

From the article in question: "The responses are not representative of the opinions of the military as a whole. The survey group overall under-represents minorities, women and junior enlisted service members, and over-represents soldiers."

[Mike St. jacques]

From the paragraphs right after that in that same article:

"But as a snapshot of the professional corps, the responses highlight the challenges Obama faces as he prepares to take command of military careerists with different political and cultural attitudes.

In keeping with previous surveys, nearly half of the respondents described their political views as conservative or very conservative. Slightly more than half said they consider themselves Republicans, 22 percent independents and 13 percent Democrats."

And perhaps it over-represents soldiers because soldiers make up the majority of the armed forces... or did you bother to think of that?

And in order to equally represent minorities and women, it would actually unfairly skew the data because there are far fewer minorities and women in the military... or did you think of that too?

And quit giving slivers of articles to try to prove your point when the overwheliming evidence presented in the article points to you being wrong.

Typical leftist tripe.