Military Intelligence?

The US Army has finally decided that one of the reasons that they are no longer recruiting our young men and women is the never-ending conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. Well, they are recruiting, to be fair, but there has been a short-fall the last couple of months to the tune of 32% of their goal. The US Army spokesman said that "...the army fell 32 percent short of its March recruiting goal of 6,800 recruits for the active duty force, which followed a 27 percent shortfall in February." Now is that not a surprise, boys and girls?

Let's see if we can clarify what is happening here. Every single day there is news about yet another catastrophe in Iraq or Afghanistan where servicemen and women have lost their lives. Every single day the propaganda mill is frantically trying to get the message out that really there is not much going on. Who wins? He goes on to say: " 'The military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused a certain amount of hesitation among potential applicants and their families,' said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the army's recruiting command. 'So our recruiters are having to spend a lot more time talking to applicants and their families about what it means to enlist at this time,' he said."

I like spin doctors. Really, I do admire the chutzpah that it takes to be an effective spin doctor. How does one take something as dramatic as people getting blown to pieces and shot up on a daily basis but with a statement that it has "caused a certain amount of hesitation?"

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Notice something else about the way the spin is placed on this situation: there is hardly any mention of the parents that have spent 18 some odd years trying to raise these men and women from diapers to adulthood. These parents have been watching the news as well, and they do not like the idea either, perhaps even more than the young would-be recruits.

Parents of eligible youngsters are pretty much in the 30's to 40's range, and guess what? We happen to remember the "police action" in Vietnam as being more than a blip in a history text-book. We happen to remember that the thousands of people killed there were all in the 18-20 year old range and that the killing made no difference to the outcome of that conflict. None. The commies won anyway didn't they? The current spin doctors would rather you just ignore us old fogies that resented the draft and the brutality that was shown the protestors of that war. They would have you believe that the current conflict has no resemblance to that ancient UN action and that this "War on Everyone Who is not With US" should be solved with minimum losses. That is when the parents of these young persons say,"What? I think I have heard that line before." They have. They have heard it before when their own relatives were drafted and sent off to the great meat grinder in the east. They heard it before when protestors of that catastrophe of diplomacy were told that they were not American, that they were not patriots at all but only agents against 'American values.' I am not talking about the protestors of the Jane Fonda ilk, as there are idiots in every movement. I am not talking about aiding and abetting the enemy. I am talking about saying that it may be a wrong-headed policy to make war without a clear end to conflict. It may be that a never-ending war in the middle east is not the most we can make out of our diplomatic efforts.

I am not talking about not supporting the troops either. There was a huge disservice paid to the men and women that served in Vietnam. They could not help that they were sent into a hell on earth and they did the best that they could. The fact that people are not volunteering for service in the middle east means that they understand that the military is not the place where you can be all you can be, but rather that you will be exactly in the middle of a huge and confusing conflict with no discernible end. Soldiers have a history of voting with their feet. So does the American public.

Allow my ego this little tid-bit as I offer a prediction: when they run out of voluntary meat to send to the great grinder in the east, they will fix that problem the same way the the government has fixed it in the past. They will make the draft a necessary and patriotic duty of all right-minded Americans. Don't you dare tell people that it is wrong, because once again you will fall into the category of un-American. You will be one of the terrorists, and if you criticize the government's efforts you will one of those "against us."