Tulsi Gabbard to report for duty in Indonesia for two weeks

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...onesia-for-2-weeks/ar-AAFHdcb?ocid=spartandhp

It probably won't make a difference one way or the other in her presidential campaign but it is a refreshing change of pace and tone for a presidential candidate to interrupt their campaign to fulfill a service commitment. Perhaps it might inspire others with national political aspirations to do the same in the future.

There is something "right" about it in my opinion.

Meh.

Good for her.

This will play well with knuckle-draggers like Dayton, but whatever.

Not Dayton - he doesn't want women in the military.

Gabbard's in my top three picks for president, and I salute her service.

I didn't know she was in the National Guard. What is her rank/grade? What is her MOS/branch? Regardless yep - when a mission comes up you have to go. Bet she had to get a lot of vaccinations for that place! My Navy son-in-law went to India and he felt like a pin cushion getting ready for that place.

Now this bit (from an article I read about her upcoming mission) totally blew me away. Kuwait has an army? All I saw when I was there in 2003 were US military members.

"She served a second deployment in Kuwait in 2008 and 2009, working with the Kuwaiti Army."

From Wiki. Which, y'know, is totally a thing you could use.

In April 2003, while serving in the State Legislature, Gabbard enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard.[13] In July 2004 she volunteered for a 12-month tour in Iraq, serving as a medical operations specialist and a military police officer[14] with the 29th Support Battalion medical company.[15] Gabbard served at Logistical Support Area Anaconda in Iraq, completing her tour in 2005.[16][17] Anaconda had the nickname "Mortaritaville" because of the high frequency of Iraqi insurgent mortars targeting it.[18]

In 2006 Gabbard began serving as a legislative aide for U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka in Washington, D.C.,[19] and in March 2007 she graduated from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy. Gabbard was the first woman to finish as the distinguished honor graduate in the Academy's 50-year history.[20][19][21][22] This award, signifying distinguished leadership and academic ability, is given to one top candidate per state in each OCS class and presented by the authority of the Department of the Army and the Air Force, National Guard Bureau. The accelerated program is the most physically and mentally demanding program.[23] She was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned again to the 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion of the Hawaii Army National Guard, this time to serve as an Army Military Police officer.[24][25][26] She was deployed to Kuwait from 2008 to 2009. There, as a primary trainer for the Kuwait National Guard, she was the first woman to ever set foot inside a Kuwait military facility. She was also the first woman to be honored for outstanding work in its training program.[27][28][17][29]

On October 12, 2015, Gabbard was promoted from captain to major at a ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Akaka administered the oath of office to the new major.[30][31] She continues to serve as a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard.[32]

Hey @Marso, why do you hate the military?

yes Matthunter I am aware of Wikipedia - but I just read an abbreviated article from a different source before I posted.
Cool she was at Anaconda! I was there too but before it was nicknamed "Mortaritaville" and the very first mortars that landed in 2003 hit a couple of blocks from my AO. I used to run right past the area they hit when I did PT.

Seems to me it's probably a good PR move, but no big thing.

I don't think she had anything to do with it herself.

She didn't have a choice in the matter.

She's a member of Congress, she could probably pull a few strings if she wanted in regards to her military commitments.

That probably wouldn't look good.

Not saying she did, but throwing herself very publicly and enthusiastically into it is clearly better from a political standpoint than using backdoor means to avoid what ultimately a small commitment in terms of time.

Can someone clarify for me though, I thought the National Guard was a voluntary occupation?

You volunteer to join. You voluntarily sign up for future reenlistments. But in the normal course of events you can't simply "leave" whenever you choose to do so. My college roommate was called to active duty so many times from 1991 to 2003 that he eventually just said the hell with it and transferred to the regular army.

That doesn't seem to fit well with the ideals of freedom and serving some higher ideal. You make a decision and can't back out of it years later? You can be forced to fight even if you no longer wish to or believe in the war being fought?

Sounds kinda dictatorial to me.

It is no different than signing a contract. In fact IIRC that is what it is called. Besides no one is forced to fight. They can always go to prison.

That's not freedom.

You're too smart to not know that freedom is not an up/down, left/right, black/white concept. There are a number of degrees to it.

Indeed, which is something I wish a lot of people would learn, but the idea of forced military service outside of an existential emergency doesn't sit well with the idea of being at the desired end of that spectrum.

It’s the freedom to enter contracts, it’s a cornerstone of liberty.

a person enlisting does have no small degree of responsibility of their own to know that they might well be told to go and fight somewhere they don't want to go against someone they don't want to fight.

I just cannot be sympathetic with someone who signs up for military service and is quite happy to take the pay and benefits. Sometimes for years or even decades on end but then suddenly decide "I don't want to fight".

Or the freedom to leave them. The freedom to be a human being whose fundamental purpose and existence is not tied inextricably to the demands of a government agenda.

But staying with the scenario I described, someone who wishes to leave that contract during peacetime and forego said pay and benefits?

You have to be willing to fulfill your commitment to a contract. Otherwise the results are chaos. People tend to not like chaos.

Again, if one party wishes to terminate that contract? I'm not talking about reneging, I'm talking about leaving the agreement.

Any party is free to leave a contract when it comes up for renewal.