From Dr. Mack:

I'm extremely gratified by the open minded and highly intellectual response to my note. I did not choose to be born in this country (exactly four months before Pearl Harbor) and automatically be the property of the U.S. government. Against my will I was forced to join up or be drafted into the army--I became an Air Force medic for four years of my life instead. I was stationed in England to help defend her against the hated Russians, which eventually collapsed without invading England, so I guess I achieved something after all. Needless to say, England did not force anyone into the military during that whole period so it's never been clear to me why I was there. When I got out there were no GI benefits for me unlike those who served before and after me.
Nobody in the world is going to attack the U.S. The Canadians want to JOIN us, not invade us. And the Mexicans are doing a great job of peacefully taking over the western part of the country. This means that if we were to stop sticking our nose into the business of foreign countries we would have absolutely no need for the Army.
The need for the Air Force is unclear. If we still have ICBM's not past their pull date then they are sufficient as a deterrent to attack. Given the ICBM's it's not clear why we need manned bombers--they are not DEFENSIVE weapons but pre-emptive or retaliatory in nature, and who's going to attack us knowing we have 10,000 ICBM's aimed at them? Fighters are useless for defending the U.S. from air attack because nobody in the world has the ability to mount such an attack on us.
That leaves the Navy. It was created expressly to defend American interests from piracy and that is still a necessity today. It should be (and possibly is with stories of new ships coming online) geared to suppression and elimination of piracy for we really depend on freedom of the seas. But that's it.
As for you "love it or leave it types," why should I love something rotten to the core? And why should I be run off by you guys--I was here first (most likely.) Finally I'll remind you of an old truism--attacking others for holding views different from your own often stems from a lack of confidence in your own views, for why else would you be concerned about what others believe? Only doubt requires unaminity. (Yes, I know it's spelled wrong.) Intellectual strength allows one to accept that others may think differently without endangering you--"love it or leave it" is a sign of intellectual weakness, not strength.

Dr. Mack

Actually, being in the US military today is voluntary and a sucker's bet. Average Joes and Janes in the military are not protecting "American and Americans," they are butting into the affairs of other countries ultimately for the financial benefit of approximately one hundred "God ordained elites" who couldn't care less about the suckers dying around the world protecting the interests of these elites. Only one time in our history has our military fought a foreign invader on our soil, the War of 1812. The Mexican War 1846-48 was to help ourselves to the northern half of Mexico including mostly Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California (give it back!), Nevada, and Colorado. The Spanish American War about 1898 or so gave us Cuba (which we quickly dumped) and the Philippines (which we kept until after WWII.) We were lied into WWI to save Great Britain's ass and Japan was maneuvered into attacking us so we could once more save Great Britain's ass. In reality we don't really know why we were involved in Korea since we had announced that we would not protect Korea in case of attack but would protect Japan. All US troops had left South Korea (some claim there was still an administrative unit of some kind still there with about 445 men) when Truman decided to go back there (we're still there!) We'll probably never truly know what Vietnam was all about but it certainly wasn't about protecting the United States of America from aggression. Nor was Iraq and Afghanistan. The cold hard truth is that except for possibly the War of 1812 absolutely NO guys killed in one of our unnecessary wars died protecting the United States of America from invasion. Therefore I contend that serving in the US armed forces has absolutely nothing to do with protecting the country and any deaths incurred are pointless, unnecessary and wasted. "Joining Up" is a sucker's bet.

Dr. Mack

Liberty,

You ought to check out the Libertarian Party since you can tolerate neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. While the Dems are officially liberal and the Reps officially "conservative," Libertarians take the good from each and blends them into a completely logical stance. Very briefly, Libertarians are economically conservative but socially liberal. Economic position: Define the role of government very narrowly as the Original Constitution did. The Framers saw the government as protecting the nation from foreign aggressors, dealing with other countries, handling domestic matters involving more than one state, providing a system of Federal courts, and guaranteeing rights as provided by the first ten amendments. There were a few more things as well but these are the "core." Libertarians accept the above as pretty much all that the National government should handle. Everything else is left to the states or the "people," the "people" being persons legally in this country.
Socially, Libertarians are "liberal" in the sense that people can do pretty much do what they want as long as they don't intentionally harm others physically or economically, refrain from the use of force against others to the extent possible consistent with protecting themselves, pose involuntary duties (such as taxes or military service) beyond the absolute minimum required for the good of the country. This would include the use of recreational drugs such as alcohol, marijuana, and any activity not intentionally impinging on the rights of others such as prostitution, gambling, viewing pornography by adults but not supplying it to minors, and a host of other activities not impinging of the rights and freedoms of others.
These are the basics. You can go here for the details.
http://governmentandpolitics.net/unanswered

Enjoy,

Dr. Mack