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Date: Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 11:52 AM
Subject: Our Population has served in the Global War on Terror-CMH
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I remember the day I found out I got into West Point . My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity.
That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: Nick, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead. I could easily write a tome defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't. What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing. In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years. In Vietnam , 4.3% served in 12 years. Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror. These are unbelievable statistics. Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand. Then you come home to a nation that doesn't understand. They don't understand suffering. They don't understand sacrifice. They don’t understand why we fight for them. They don't understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you're a machine - like something is wrong with you. You are the misguided one - not them. When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias. You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more. But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them. Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 -YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group. "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." – Winston Churchill Thank you to the 0.45% who have and continue to serve our Nation. |
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8 comments:
So, is this guy arguing in favor on conscription?
In any event, he doesn't seem to understand the difference between enlisting and joining West Point.
I'm calling bullshit. This guy says that he was accepted to West Point, but two of his teachers urged him not to go, saying he should attend college instead?
He, and his teachers, are apparently unaware that attending West Point is attending college.
Uh....OK.
Just a mashup of a bunch of Right Wing crap, with a mix of pro-draft arguments thrown in, despite the fact that the Republicans want nothing to do with the draft now because one of their kids might end up actually having to serve.
More of the same old drivel, though less comprehensible than most.
Conservatives think our armed forces are little toy soldiers that they can put in harm's way and then cast aside when they are wounded.
Heartless doesn't begin to describe it.
Maybe if our armed forces were actually used to make our homeland better and not to defend Exxon’s next drilling site, people will be more aped and willing to join up. As it stands now it seems most of the military are those too poor to afford collage and join up for the GI bill.
This article does glance off an important point. If the war is noble, people are willing to enlist, be drafted and commit sacrifices for the “greater good”. Too bad the war on terror went from “We have to find Bin Laden” to “Saddam is evil”.
Smug chickenhawks will still feel righteous when they forward this.
Paul Ryan just proposed and the "bipartisans" in HOuse & Senate passed another austerity budget that included a 1% pay raise for the troops, plus reductions (unsure by how much) in Veteran Pension Benefits.
Yet much of the budget is a giveway to the 1% who run the MIC - to the tune of billion$ for all that military hardware that rarely works and costs a ginormous fortune.
Patty Murray (D-Lockhead Martin) said that so much money had to be given away to the MIC bc it allegedly "provides jobs" to the 99%. I wonder how much of that money actually ends up the pockets of the 99%? And how much makes into off-shore accounts of the rich fat cats running the MIC.
Cry me a river about the "glory" of serving in the US Military. The 1% sees the troops as slaves & cannon fodder.
This crap is poorly written & makes almost no sense but has colorful, "patriotic-y" fonts.
What "Global War on Terror" are "we" fighting? Who, exactly, is the "enemy." Why is the USA supposed to do this "fighting"? Who, exactly, is the big "threat" to the USA?
Information came out just recently that Saudi Arabia - BFF of the Bush Crime Syndicate - were involved in the "terrorists" who flew some planes into the Twin Towers on 9/11. Who, exactly, was the "terrorist" back then?
GW Bush LIED about WMD in Iraq & falsely claimed that Saddam Hussein instigated 9/11 and was funding Al Qaeda. Who, exactly, is the terrorist in this picture?
And so on...
This is a bunch of twaddle sent out by a bunch of old white Vets, whose benefits - lucky for them - won't be cut. Will they bother to actually protest the cutting of benefits for those younger than them?? Doubtful. Who, then, is the real "terrorist"?
What a bunch of rank & foolish idiots.
Nauseating tripe to be sure, but much attention to the usual RWF details and consistancy:
Faux patriotic flag-waving: Check
Glassy eyed military worship: Check
Hysterical tone: Check
Loud gaudy multicolored font: Check
Barking up the wrong tree: Check
Conflating a historical figure's words from a truly besieged country with today's gunboat diplomacy run by chickenhawks: Check-A-Roony!
Rightwing, confusing propoganda supposedly supporting the troops or ... something?
Well I hope the troops get something out of this because they sure as hell aren't going to get paid well, either when they're active or retired. And good luck getting the medical attention you need when come back broken and bloody from fighting for the 1%'s greedy needs.
This is about all those serving in the Military can expect to get these days as thanks from the rich and powerful who are running the Military and creating conflicts, rather than seeking to negotiate peaceful resolutions.
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