issues2000

Jesse Ventura on Defense


War isn’t civilized; don’t expect warriors to be

A Navy SEAL will defy death at least twice a week. When you get that kind of familiarity with death, barriers go down, and anything else seems insignificant.

I don’t like what happened in the navy’s Tailhook scandal; I think what those officers did was wrong. But I understand why it happened. When you get a force of that many hundreds of warriors together, there’s bound to be trouble. We’re responsible for making them what they are. You just can’t bring them back into civilization and expect that everything that was drilled into them is going to go away.

When you’re dealing with death face-to-face, there are no rules. It’s all about survival. After that, bad behavior doesn’t affect you all that much.

War isn’t civilized. War is failure. It’s the ultimate result of a breakdown in public policy, and soldiers are the machines that handle that breakdown. In warfare, you’re taught to do whatever you have to, to stay alive. Can you imagine bringing that mind-set into a party?

Source: Ain’t Got Time to Bleed, p.105-6 Jan 1, 1999

Military is stronger if all-volunteer

Even while I was a Navy SEAL, I participated in the 1970s peace movement. I marched at peace rallies. I admit it wasn’t so much because of my great love of peace as it was because of my great love of female companionship. To the women in the movement, I was the poor beleaguered victim of the system, sent off against his will to fight this horrible war [in Vietnam]. They didn’t realize that the navy had no draft!

I loved the braless thing. I’m very heterosexual. I’d see women out burning their bras, and I’d go over with a lighter, “Can I help?” I did participate seriously, though, in the anti-draft movement. To this day, I’m against the draft. I believe the military is much stronger if it’s an all-volunteer organization.

Source: Ain’t Got Time to Bleed, p.109 Jan 1, 1999

Against the draft; for including women except in combat

I’m against the draft. I believe we should have a professional military; it might be smaller, but it would be more effective. The draft is unfair. Rich kids didn’t get drafted [in Vietnam]; they went to college and hid.

If we’re going to draft at all, then we should draft women too, as long as we don’t send them into combat. The problem is men, [not women’s effectiveness in combat]. There’s something protective in men that makes us want to protect women. And that would be disastrous in battle.

Source: Ain’t Got Time To Bleed, p. 34 Jan 1, 1999

Other candidates on Defense: Jesse Ventura on other issues:
Pat Buchanan
George W. Bush
Al Gore
Ralph Nader

Political Leaders:
John Ashcroft
Hillary Clinton
Elizabeth Dole
John McCain
Robert Reich
Janet Reno
Jesse Ventura

Opinion Leaders:
Noam Chomsky
Bill Clinton
Jesse Jackson
Rush Limbaugh
Ross Perot
Ronald Reagan

Party Platforms:
Democratic Platform
Green Platform
Libertarian Platform
Republican Platform
Abortion
Budget/Economy
China
Civil Rights
Crime
Defense
Drugs
Education
Environment
Families
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Immigration
Labor
Principles
School Choice
Social Security
Tax Reform
Technology
War & Peace
Welfare