This statistic 300,000 teachers lost, is something I have read in newspapers and from wire services numerous times. This is a horrible indictment of GOP polices of tax breaks for the wealthy while the public sector gets cut to the bone. I served 20 years on active duty in the U.S. Army seeing action in the Persian Gulf with the 1st Infantry Division. I also served giving direct real time combat information/analytical support to troops in overseas combat missions for six major wars from the two Balkan wars, Afghanistan, Iraq 2003, and numerous other smaller military operations such as the 12 year "no fly zone"/combat operations in Iraq and in other places I can not talk about. I know war very well because I was in it constantly as an analyst who processed reams of information for warfighters in the field whether they be on air, land, or sea. If I and the many other hundreds of enlisted people who worked with me from all the military services made any mistakes, it could mean that our own people in harm's way could get unnecessarily wounded or killed or even massacred by the enemy or worse by our own weapons. You learned to work fast, hard, and to try and do things right the first time. Most of us felt a deep moral responsibility towards getting our job done because you wanted our people to survive and come home. So it was our job to give them every advantage we could give. If you were not a totally mature reliable person you could not do this kind of high pressure work. If we made mistakes lots of the wrong people could die quickly. Unlike video games there is no reset button for a lost life or lives, there is just another funeral. Most of the enlisted men and women who did this work were America's best people at the very point of the military spear using advanced prototype technology that many civilians won't see for many years or even a decade or longer on the commercial market.

I am only interested in the greater needs of the country not in my own irrelevant biography because I am a public servant but I feel compelled to talk about the nature of what I did for 20 years to make a larger point. The one universal constant in an ever changing threat environment is the need to have highly educated soldiers, sailors, airman, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen for our military. The single most important thing that we can do to keep our country safe is to make sure that every boy and girl in America gets a good public education. I also strongly support universal medical care because of the expense of training soldier to do their jobs can be expensive. $1,000,000 for training a technical soldier is not unheard of and linguists cost easily double this figure or more. Trained maintenance specialists also go through long schooling that requires technical competence and a grueling academic schedule. Wimpy and lazy people do not get through this training. It is tough mentally and there are physical requirements as well because we get deployed just like every other military person.

A highly trained soldier who fails to complete his first contractual term due to medical problems is a financial and economic disaster for the U.S taxpayer. Much of these medical chapter actions were caused by soldiers coming from families who were too poor to have regular access to the health care system. The British passed the National Health Service Act on national security ground because too many recruits had too many medical problems from no proper medical care that they were rejected for military service leaving the sons of the middle class and rich to pull more than their fair share of the load in WW II. Conservatives in America don't like this fact very much about Britain. Most of the poor in Britain wanted desperately to serve in combat but were rejected repeatedly because of medical conditions. This British piece of history is not talked about much today, but I wish we were talking about it more here in America right now. We need a Medicare for all public option. If you are opposed to this you are an idiot who does not care about the United States of America or our children's future security, both military and economic.

I get sick to my stomach with worry when I read 300,000 education jobs are cut since 2009. The one thing that we can do to make America a strong country is to have highly educated young people in the military services and the Guard and Reserves. The responsibilities placed on military members is tremendous and the mental challenges in most military jobs are quite high. Teamwork for an Abrams tank crew is critical in routine tasks such as putting on tracks. Any mistake can mean that one of the crew members instantly loses an arm or fingers because the powerful 70 ton tank is unforgiving on human limbs that are holding the tracks with crowbars in place while someone slips the bolts into the track to pin it together. Carrier decks at night for sailors are by far the most dangerous places in the world, making coal mining look like a vacation spa. So mistakes mean instant death for those who are just doing routine tasks around powerful heavy machinery and equipment. After you retire you realize there are no routine tasks in the military during wartime, its an illusion that is there that hides the constant danger everyone faces. High tech equipment requires smart human operators or else all you have is expensive junk that is worthless. The worst outcome are dead or crippled American operators from unnecessary accidents that kill or maim as many service members as enemy bullets or bombs.

So when the Republicans talk about cuts in the public education budget I get angry. We need more college graduates, more engineers, more scientists, more professors, and above all else more technicians, mechanics, and computer operators who can think independently without much supervision. I wonder what world the GOP is living on, especially when they want to cut public education so they can give more tax cuts to the rich. Modern wars are not won by stupid and incompetent operators or stupid soldiers. Everyone has to be able to think, reason, and make decisions on their own because so much work is expected out of each soldier. We need to raise taxes on everyone and start a public education offensive so that we can keep up with the Asian-Pacific rim countries and BRIC countries. Anyone that suggests that cutting 300,000 teachers in public schools is a good thing is a right winged moron who is setting America up to fail in the 21st century of military and increasingly important economic challenges from our commercial competitors who may some day decide they are sick of us and start shooting to kill us instead of trading with us. History has stranger tales to tell.