While on the presidential campaign stump, John Edwards was fond of saying that there were two Americas, one in which men attempted to act honorably with respect to those they had promised fidelity, and one in which they were free to act as narcissistic cads.
No, pardon me: That was how he acted, not how he spoke. But you get the notion, the idea that people could occupy the same physical and social space, but perceive it very differently.
Which was brought to mind reading this otherwise unremarkable article about military recruiting:
For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war.
The Pentagon, which made the announcement Tuesday, said the economic downturn and rising joblessness, as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to enlist.
The military has not seen such across-the-board successes since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973, after Congress ended the draft following the Vietnam War. In recent years, the military has often fallen short of some of its recruiting targets.
It’s an old story, recruiting numbers and quality tend to go up in a bad economy. The military offers a clearly lit path to middle class success along with a chance to be a part of something larger than yourself, to contribute to something special in the defense of a great Republic.
But then you go and read the comments section, and you see just how divided and toxic our national discourse has become. Just a sample:
trippin wrote:Heartbreaking news.So in the midst of an economic downturn for the working class while Wall Street breaks compensation records, while the so-called inevitability of “free trade” ships jobs overseas at an accelerating pace, increasingly the only place for young people to turn is to volunteer to be mercenaries for the same multi-national corporate interests who are driving down wages and benefits.So our youth are valued as fodder for the illegal and immoral occupation of other sovereign nations to control their natural resources.
And all the while we’re told they’re fighting for our freedom, while we’re being wiretapped, our mail is being opened, our email being monitored, all without warrant, and the complicit telcos given immunity so as not to dissuade them from further illegal cooperation with the corporate stooges we call government. People are still being tortured, Gitmo still operates, a new generation of crowd control weapons is being fielded, and we find $626B for military pursuits but can’t afford health care like every other industrialized nation on earth.
This is what America has become. It’s a goddamn shame.
It Has Always Been the Soldier
It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.
I’ve never seen the “It Has Always Been the Soldier”. Very true, though “trippin” (which she/he is) would not agree.
From our lady Cassandra. The Marines know how to recruit.
http://our.marines.com/cms_content/showblogvideo/rel_id/1009/id/2814
You gotta at least give people like “trippin” credit for memorizing their talking points.
…mercenaries for the same multi-national corporate interests…
I can’t say that sentence without gagging, but I bet it is trippin’ off the tongues of people like “trippin”.
Which also … makes me gag.
For these kinds of whackjobs it can’t be because the men & women who volunteer with the full knowledge of what is ahead of them – are stronger, braver more honorable people that “trippin” and his/her cohorts could ever hope to be in 100 lifetimes.
Wankers.
Gotta wonder what trippin b trippin on. He/She forgot to complain about Hope & Change, which was supposed to resolve all such injustice. He/She complains about $628B on Defense but totally overlooks the Cheshire Cat in the room, the $750B+ slush fund doled out by Congress; disappeared without a
trace(n) audit.Maybe trippin would like that one way ticket to a land not so far away where, according to the BBC,
Hopenchange HAS eleminated all injustice, unless you are one of those white devil oppressors we keep hearing about. We all know those oppressors don’t deserve anything but injustice.
Why don’t you understand that? Musta been all that mercenary indoctrination you got in Boot Camp. That’s gotta be it.
I was listening to a discussion about the military meeting their recruiting goals on CSPAN this morning. One of the idiots that called in actually had the gall to say that the reason the goals were met was because there are killers throughout the world that are enlisting in our Armed Forces as a quick path to US citizenship. GRRRR!
I like that statement above about the soldier. Was just saying something about that at maggiesfarm, remembering my college years [l946-l950] when I shared lecture room space with these bright, determined, focused young men back from the Second World War. A lot of our most golden years in the 20th century happened because of what these young folks achieved. I’ll never forget. I’ll always be grateful, to them and to you, Lex’s ‘band of brothers,’ for keeping our America green and vigorous and beautiful.
Marianne
MM, My Dad was one of those “bright,determined,focused,.. young men back from the Second World War”(ETO)…throughout his life he maintained a quiet generally unspoken pride in that service… and although he’s been gone for many moons I know he would have appreciated your kind words…as I do…many thanks. Best
Ditto for me Snake Eater.
In my youth I wondered why Dad so enjoyed his weekend mornings at the coffee shop (well, actually a Dunkin’ Donuts) with fellow WWII Combat Vets. Now I kind of understand why they only talked openly among themselves, that they shared a special experience and were part of a select Brotherhood.
I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.
We can still turn to Rudy Kipling for the truth, can’t we?
While I am of course pleased that recruiting goals have been met, I’ve never forgot what my recruiting battalion commander once told us:
“Never be happy making mission on the back of a weak economy. The nation is not there to support the services. The services are there to support the nation.”
Heard this stat this morning on the drive in, then I heard Sam Donaldson (a guest on the radio program) slamming the military, and lamenting what a shame it was that our youth had no real opportunities save for the military (it’s my own darn fault for trying to get traffic updates on a SF Bay Area Radio Station… but I digress). So. Can we get two tickets? One for Trippin, and one for Sam? My vote for a destination is for McMurdo Station. I hear it’s lovely there this time of year.
Far as I’m concerned, they’re both knuckleheads.
Lee, what have you got against the scientists at McMurdo to inflict those two twits on them?
No. Draft them, ship them to Afghanistan. For EOD. No sense risking a valuable robot when you can use an idiot to disarm a bomb.
MOjo beat me to part of it, but the most important stanzas, IMHO, are,
Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.
We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.
You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
As Jerry Pournelle has often said, “beware the wrath of the Legions.” Yeah, we saw when ‘nam was going on, and shortly after. I won’t forget those who have betrayed their country, or the Legions. Cowards all.
Greetings:
While it is certainly good news that recruiting goals are being met, the success of a bad policy doesn’t warn the cockles of my cold, cold heart. The “volunteer” military, however effective, reinforces the idea that the responsibility to defend our country is not that of every manjack afoot in the land. That we can be fighting wars in two theaters and across the globe without any serious discussion about re-instating the military draft is a tribute to just how far up our collective ass our collective head has travelled. And, please, don’t get me started on the 15% females currently in our military.
Every, and I mean every, able bodied male should be required to serve. It’s a duty of citizenship. I can also guarantee that we wouldn’t be so quick to commit troops when the prez realizes his little Johnny may be in front of the group.
No deferments, and if you are honestly a CO then we need medics. If you are just steadfastly unwilling to place your one and only precious body on the line, then resign your citizenship and become a resident alien, no voting, no finaicial aid for school, nothing that coems with that citizenship. No more freeloading.
I recall reading of an incident at a recruiting office where a Lakota Indian man wished to join to defeat the Nazi hordes. He was told he was unacceptable to the Army because his teeth were bad. His response was, “I don’t want to eat them, I want to kill them.”
The problem with your solution is you equate willingness with suitability. As we’ve all learned, even high motivation doesn’t overcome certain intrinsic problems one might have.
I fear making military service mandatory would create more problems that it would solve.
Albert Einstein did more for this country as a contractor than he did as a government worker.
We might do well to take that into account.
– Max
You make a splendid point, and it grieves me every day to see how the cowards have managed to get themselves the highest positions in the land. Are we now that much of a country of the ignorant, or have we become one of fools, who will vote for anyone who will blatently lie about delivering things of value for free, by maiking someone else pay for what you want? I sometimes dread that our day in the sun, as a nation is over.
Scott, I don’t dread our day in the sun is past. Frankly, I know it has. Historically, no country has pulled back from where we are. Most fell from higher points than we are at presently. It took Rome over 200 years to fall because it was so large and such strong momentum relative to her surroundings. The US won’t last much longer simply because of the acceleration of technology, combined with the substandard population we are allowing the left to import. Add an increasingly substandard education system, and it’s a formula for disaster, and it’s on the horizon.
BZ to the recruiters- one of the hardest military jobs short of being in combat.
I am sure that not a single recruit walked in and said “I want to enlist for the pleasure of serving under Obama as my Commander in Chief.”
Not sure that the retention guys are hearing that as a reason to remain, either.
May God bless and protect all of our recruits, regardless of their reason for stepping forward to shoulder the burden of defending our freedom.
Well, at least trippin didn’t differentiate between Bush and ‘bama. And he/she can only discharge such utterances as
“volunteer to be mercenaries for the same multi-national corporate interests who are driving down wages and benefits.” if they have absolutely zero investments, mutual funds, money market funds, live without electricity or utilities, don’t frequent any major pharmacy/hospital/grocery store/clothing stores, and don’t drive or fly commercial.
trippin twit indeed. Oh, and I’d wager he/she cheats on their taxes as well. “Don’t wanna pay my fair share, ya know. optional and un-democratic”.