Army Missed it's Recruitment Goals - Again.

From what I read in the paper, The army has lowered it's recruiting goals, and then missed 'em. They've been missing their goals for months. It looks like they'll miss the whole-year goal as well as the monthly goals. They are having trouble talking young men and women into joining the army.

Well, duh.

Let's see if I've got the 'deal' the army offers right. The army will train, clothe, feed, and house you for the duration of your enlistment. They will also pay you, but the salary is so low that some soldiers go on food stamp. That hardly counts. In return all they want is to fly you half way around the world, where random people will try to kill you.

Yes, I can hear the strains of "Over There" in the background. I know that 'the tree of liberty must, from time to time, be watered with the blood of patriots'. I've read all the books and seen all the John Wayne movies I can stand. This war isn't about freedom. It isn't about 'doing the right thing' or 'liberating Iran' or 'liberating Afghanistan. It's about liberating hundreds of billions of tax dollars and funneling them into private hands. Our Brave Boys in Blue(tm) aren't fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way this time. They're fighting for cheap gasoline. And it's not working. We're still paying 2 bucks a gallon for it.

I'm sorry folks, I'm so mad about this one, I'm almost incoherent.

It's not bad enough that they want to waste lives in pursuit of oil and/or money. It's not bad enough that they rob the treasury and tell us it's patriotism. No, they want us to VOLUNTEER to go get killed for their profits. AND THEY ARE SURPRISED WHEN WE DON'T VOLUNTEER.

I've been offended by this war from day one. Now I'm insulted, too.

So, how long before the draft is reinstated? If I were an 18-22-year-old-male, I'd be checking out job prospects in Canada.

Good Luck, boys. See you when the war is over.

The word is 'Honor'

You don't hear that word much anymore. It seems to be out-of-date, old-fashioned, even archaic. If someone does the 'right thing' and says 'honor demanded it' we'd think he was some kind of nut.

Ask around: do young people today think honor is an outmoded idea only fit for late movies and knights-in-shining-armor, or is honor an inner strength? From what I read in the papers, it seems honor has been superceeded by profit or expedience. We no longer do the right thing, we do the easier, profitable thing.

OK, show of hands: how many of you are now surprised when it turns out some CEO was robbing the stockholders/employees of his company? How many are surprised when they find out he stole a hundred million dollars but now will have to pay a five million dollar fine. AND spend six months in jail(*).

Yep, that's what I thought. We don't expect our leaders to be honorable. We don't expect them to do the right thing, because it's the right thing.

If politicians and CEOs are assumed to be self-serving slime, how do you look a kid in the eye and tell him 'honesty is the best policy'?

Good night, and thanks for listening.

(*) Jail for multi-millionairs looks more like a country club with bars than the steel cages you see in the movies. I'm sure it's still not fun, but it isn't bread-and-water-and-solitary-confinment. It may even be a higher standard of living than the people they stole from.