IT JUST ISN’T FAIR
April 9, 2008 by ReasonOne
It just isn’t fair.
After watching the hearings with Army General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker this week, I can well imagine the glee that must be coursing through the veins of every recruiter in the United States. After listening to Petraeus and Crocker one gets the idea that Iraq isn’t a war zone. Rather, one gets the idea that Iraq is the Middle Eastern equivalent of a posh vacation resort, replete with guided tours and tourist buses filled with curious spectators with digital cameras. Well, my dear friends, I have news for you. Despite glowing reports from the general and the ambassador, Iraq is still a war zone, and I would advise young men and women who are old enough to serve in this God awful war to remember that the Administration and its acquiescent finger puppets have a very long reputation for twisting and dismissing the facts and a very short record for truth and accuracy, .
Once again the Republicans, the war-mongering Neocons have revealed a proclivity for either ignoring or changing the facts to suit their delusional world view. Yesterday, as General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were painting a pretty picture of the situation in Iraq the situation was in fact devolving into chaos. Shiite Cleric Muqtada Al Sadr threatened to break the cease fire, essentially threatening to unleash his Mahdi Army against US and Iraqi forces. The Republicans would have us believe that this is meaningless, but during the course of his testimony, Petraeus admitted that an armed conflict with Al Sadr’s militia is a nightmare scenario that the United States would prefer to avoid. By the saSme token, we saw militia attacks on the Green Zone, attacks which required intervention from Iran to end that particular form of aggression. (So of course Crocker and Petraeus ruled out direct negotiations with Iran.) Moreover, as Petraeus and Crocker claimed that the number of American soldiers killed had been on the decline, we learned that 13 American soldiers have been killed since Sunday. Translated into modern English, Petraeus and Crocker are deliberately overestimating the success of the surge while underestimating the violence and danger.
Why does this bother me? First and foremost I hate the idea of waste and the Iraq War is just one big waste with a name attached to it. This war has wasted our reputation abroad; t has wasted finances and resources; it has wasted the lives of American troops. it has wasted the lives of American Contractors; and it has wasted the lives of thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.
Additionally, the Iraq War has undermined our Republic. In a Democratic Republic such as ours the people require accurate and precise information to make intelligent decisions. Those decisions can’t be made when the government uses its considerable resources to distort the truth and openly prevaricate. And it isn’t only the political process which is twisted out of shape. God only knows how many young people are going to believe these right wing lies and sign on the proverbial dotted line for the first bloodsucking military recruiter who will undoubtedly pass off Iraq as a kind of Middle Eastern cakewalk. I can hear the recruiters now, underscoring the latest Republican lies of progress in Iraq while they stealthily conceal the facts. And the part that scares me the most is that in addition to Administration lies, the recruiters have direct access to the students’ records.
Between Republican Propaganda and a little face to face manipulation the students don’t stand a chance in hell.
It just isn’t fair.
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I meet newbie recruits all the time and the main reason I hear a lot of them join the ranks is, despite Iraq and Afghanistan, money. Whether it’s money to feed themselves or their new baby or even money for college. I have yet to hear a recruit say that he recently joined the army because of 9/11. Many have told me that they know it’s bullshit, but it’s a paycheck, so what the hell. People look at me like I’m crazy because my son is 18, yet despite his father being an Iraq warrior, that I have not encouraged him to hop on the military bandwagon. I tell them plain and simply, since my husband is not around, I need all the support I can get. Period, end of story. Ok, then I add the part where my son also is aware that this war is bullshit and is not and has never been interested in joining the military, despite a long and storied history of military service in my family.
From what I hear about the hardship of recruiting, it’s families like mine that advice their young sons to avoid the military (for now, at least) that are the biggest pain the Army’s side. The way I see it, you got my husband, you’re not getting my son, too.
Dizzy Dezzi’s last blog post..Dizzy’s Ten Post Round-Up
Ihope you don’t mind an outsider tossing in his two cents, but my name is Trevor, AKA Enlightenment, and I am Praetor’s father, Rachel’s husband. This war was a huge wake up call for me because my kid was 19 when the war started and while I never worried about him serving in combat (he’s a Type 1 Diabetic) we went through a living hell with his brother who came back with both, physical and emotional disorders. In addition I had nightmares for the better part of a year in which I dreamed that my son came home in a flag coffin. I guess what they say about the worst time to have an 18 year old son is during a war.
That said I think both Dizzy Dezzi and Kyle are right. Money and educational/vocational opportunities are indeed powerful motivations. At the same time don’t underestimate these recruiters. They play on masculinity, valor, patriotism, and other factors in a recruits psychological profile, and they aren’t abt to admit that a a war is going badly if it means a dip in their quotas.
Peace
Trevor
Good evening, Trevor. I served a hitch in the mid-70’s, which was a couple of years after ‘Nam, and a coupla years before drug testing! K-town, FRG, I still miss you, baby!
While my experience, what little I recall, was the opposite of today’s brave young men and women, one thing hadn’t changed since before G. Washington was running things; Recruiters. I was wet behind the ears and ignorant as the day is long, but I knew beforehand that the E-5 sitting at that desk would tell me lies. He still sold me on stateside/Japan stations. Nope; Every manjack at the time was shipped out to Germany; Period. Even if that meant gettin’ Shake N Baked; Motor Pool guys could end up pushing enlisted records files if they tested high enough on the entrance exams.
Great post Kyle. The total waste you mentioned is only compounded by the horrors we’ve inflicted, needlessly, on an entire region of the world. I worry about our economy here at home, and wonder what’s it gonna be like for my children, my grandkids. Seeing the few pictures I have of the carnage in Iraq, and reading of the fear, and despair of the displaced, and the orphaned, and my God, what have we done? Where was the empathy enough to stop this train before it took off? The Money. And the Oil, and the necessity for keeping that flow in Pro-US hands, regardless of how the country’s own people felt about any of it. The asset value were what kept us there; Hell, that’s what caused a massive expansion after Saddam was deposed. Once Saddam was neutralized, we had fulfilled the mission. The inspectors now had “unhindered” access, which of course they had before the invasion, to find all the WMDs that the Baath Party handed out like free samples. And then we see the mighty goal posts come out for the real games to begin.
To Dizzy Dezzi, all kinds of good vibes go out to your husband. I wish him well. As for your son, my son was wavering about signing up, but between my pleading, and stories told to him by friends coming back from their tours, he smartened up! I’m glad your’s has done likewise.