Berkely vs USMC

Heard about it and been following it partly, no big deal.

 

No one is being stopped from signing up, its just the recruiting office, big deal, its just Americans protesting, the very thing Marines are supposed to be fighting for. Just curious, what war are we fighting?

 

Click here for the full scoop :ranger:

 

We are at war with Iraq, what did they do to us? News to me, damn, for Congress to declare war, Iraq must have done something really bad to the US to declare war on. Has this been in the news?

 

Funny video, Berkely seems to be a strange place, pretty funny, Stewart is a great show.

 

Well it sounds to me the Marines are a mob of thugs and should be disbanded. Sorry that is just how it comes across. I don't recall seeing anything about marshal law being declared and until it is I believe the people, through their elected representatives are in charge not the marines.

 

Look, I don't agree with Iraq, I think it is the biggest con job ever pulled on the American public, Iraq is an invasion and occupation of an innocent country for the purposes of making a lot of money for corporations at the expense of our military and taxes. Iraq was designed from the beginning as a means of a pretend economy boom, and thats all it is, IT IS NOT A WAR, the people of Iraq never attacked the United States.

Now you can feel anyway you want, and I can feel anyway I want, thats called the American way, the people of Berkley can feel anyway they want, and all of us together should support each other's exercise in freedom and protesting, no one is being harmed, the Marines can still recruit, hell if it was really even a problem, the Marines could rent a mobile home and station it right outside the city limits of Berkley. Its a temporary thing, people in this country are tired of seeing our military being used and killed for corporate greed, and the rage and anger at the crooks in Washington is just being let out right now, Not A Big Deal, if you really believe in this country and what it stands for, I do, do you?

 

I suppose that's Berkely for you. I've known several Marines and served with a few myself in the CO National Guard. By and large good people. They have a very different world view to mine, but so do many people here on PC.

Pat, the USMC is not a band of thugs. They're a very professional outfit who happen to have a very shitty job. Being a soldier, esp an enlisted one, is a difficult, usually thankless, exhausting, shitty job. The stress that some of these guys live under is immense and they don't have the golden parachutes that our CEOs enjoy. When CEOs f*ck up they get "fired" with multi million dollar severance packages. When the joes **** up they lose limbs or worse.

I have always been against invading Iraq. I left the service because I thought it was a reckless, irresponsible thing to do. However, I have never blamed the service for it. The blame lies squarely with plonkers like Rummy, Wolfowitz, and 'W'. I think it's sad that so many lives and so much time and money have been wasted in the whole misguided affair.

 

History will sort it out, but history already has shown what will happen in Iraq, we are just repeating history I'm afraid.

 

I for one, a retired US Navy Reservist, say that if the city government of Berkeley wishes to ban the Marines, or any other branch of the Armed Forces from setting up shop in Berkeley, SO BE IT.

BUT . . . Next time a natural disaster hits Berkeley . . . like it did with the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire (in which Marines and Sailors came to help), or the next big earthquake hits (maybe it will be centered on Berkeley's own Hayward Fault) . . . when the call for help is made, the military's response to Berkeley should be, "Sorry, but we are wanted elsewhere."

If I were the governor of California, I'd let it be known that I would not call up the California National Guard for any disaster response to Berkeley. "You don't want them . . . we won't send them."
See how 'safe' the good citizens of Berkeley feel then.

I also wonder how that would affect their insurance rates????

 

I was making reference to passages like these: -

 

http://www.dailycal.org/article/1000...ry_recruitment

Initiative Targets Military Recruitment
November Ballot Proposal Would Limit Where Centers Could Be Built, Require Public Hearing

In response to a Marine Corps recruiting office established in Berkeley last year, local activists are trying to make it more difficult for future recruiting centers to open in the city.

If passed by a majority of Berkeley voters, a proposed initiative would require military recruiting offices and private military companies in Berkeley to first acquire a special use permit.

To obtain this permit, a business must hold public hearings and a public comment period.

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches.

Currently, a recruiting office is held to the same standards as most other businesses, which do not require a public hearing or have limits on where offices can be established.

The author of the initiative, Berkeley-based lawyer Sharon Adams, modeled the initiative after current zoning law that restricts the location of adult-oriented businesses.

"In the same way that many communities limit the location of pornographic stores, that's the same way we feel about the military recruiting stations," said PhoeBe sorgen, an initiative proponent and a member of the city's Peace and Justice Commission. "Teenagers that really want to find them will be able to seek them out and find them, but we don't want them in our face."

The initiative lists complaints against the military including the invasion of Iraq, abuses at Abu Ghraib, discrimination based on sexual orientation and recruiters who mislead potential recruits about benefits and duties.

Recruiters from the office declined to comment.

The primary purpose of the new zoning law would be to protect young people from undue influence from military recruiters, supporters say.

"We feel that as a community we need to protect the youth," Adams said. "We're trying to level the playing field."

Berkeley Councilmember Dona Spring said she supports the wording of the initiative, but said she would prefer the issue be passed by council so it can be enacted faster rather than waiting for the initiative to be placed on the ballot in November.

"I think we should just go ahead and pass it," she said. "We can't take everything to the voters."

But some proponents are hesitant to pass the ordinance through the council because they feel it might be watered down by other council members.

In addition to making it more difficult for future military recruiting centers to be established, Spring also said she would support action that would remove the current office, which is in her district.

"I do want to do something, whatever we can do, to shut down an agency that � offends our public standards," she said. "It's a detriment, it's a danger to the public."

Code Pink has staged demonstrations against the recruitment center every Wednesday in front of the center on Shattuck Avenue since Sept. 26.

The Marine Recruitment Center, which has been located in Berkeley since mid-2007, is the only military recruitment center in Berkeley.

Proponents hope that this ordinance will become a template for communities around the country to follow.

"We hope this is a model for other places," Adams said. "I have already gotten e-mails from people trying to duplicate this."

 

We've seen it a million times already, where The Good Guys vs. The Military. What's new here?