These tactics won't make good soldiers, but it will make good whores. You can't buy patriotism. If you can't sell a war in this country then there must be something wrong with the war. What's wrong with the war is that it is a political war. Americans have always answered their country's call when they thought the war was legitimate. But beginning with the Vietnam War that changed. All our wars have been political since Vietnam. That's why it's so hard to get American kids to join. They aren't as stupid as the military thinks. But, they may have been brainwashed enough to fall for the economic trap. What's more American than 'easy money'.
Hoa binh

"Lang: "I believe the educational well-being of Americans is the key to America's defense."

We're doomed.

It is very commendable to want to protect your country,but most of these young men and women are sophomoric. Once they realize the #1 priority of the military is to protect the international,financial, elite and has nothing to do with actually protecting the average American, most of them will have a different attitude!

And the democratically controlled congress is complicit. If they would cut the funding, maybe the administration / pentagon might have to resort to what they want LEAST - a draft. (No more money to pay the mercenaries, no more money to pay students.) The draft would bring ALL of the bad memories of Vietnam and the end of the Iraq invasion / occupation would quickly come to an end.

But as long as the military can buy their cannon fodder instead of getting it for 'free' via a draft, the horror of war will remain hidden, courtesy of the media-military-congressional-industrial complex.

Imagine this:
A high school senior (a good student, a good boy) is called at home by an Army recruiter. The recruiter has been trained well to pester, prod, cajole, and coerce, using any means necessary. The recruiter belittles the senior's seeming lack of plans for after graduation. The senior gets sick and tired of the banter--let's just say he's had enough of this insulting prick--and wants to get rid of him. So, the final pointed, accusatory, sarcastic question of "Well, what are you going to do with your life after high school?!?" receives an equally mean response: "Oh, I dunno, maybe I'll go kill the president."

Any sane, rational human being would realize that this is just talk, just the senior's way of telling the recruiter to piss off. But bear in mind, Army recruiters are little people in little jobs with a lot of power.

And so, two hours later, a couple of gents in dark suits, black sunglasses and earpieces show up at the high school senior's door. Fingerprints, interviews, invasion of privacy, the whole family gets this treatment. A permanent record with the SS (Secret Service, but I know what you're thinking, too) and I'm sure the recruiter got plenty of kudos for thwarting a genuine threat to the president.

This was a real event. But then get this: it was 20 years ago. The recruiters are back, and they mean business. If this doesn't classify as child predation, then we've really lost our humanity as a nation. To which nation is this more similar, Sparta, or Liberia?

The kids are smart enough to tell the recruiters to fuck off. As the economy sinks to even lower levels many kids won't have that luxury.

Find work for kids; and, keep them away from the politicians that don't live up to the contract with the kids that are recruited.

since1492; I like what you say, but to call service in any military 'easy money' is a hell of a stretch.

I'm reminded of an old soviet era joke. Way back when the USSR still had a military, they had conscription you could join the army for 2 years or the navy for 3 years. When asking kids in which branch they wanted to serve most would ask for the navy. After all Afghanistan has no ports.

But don't worry, Iraq only has one port; too bad it's at the wrong end of the Persian Gulf.

At first I thought the author was going to say, Uncle Sam's Fishing for Senior Citizens. That might have been nice. Instead of shooting people, grandma's could teach them how to play bridge and grandpa's could tell them stories. It would only cost us some Preparation H, some Depends and maybe a little ... I forgot.

Extreme sarcasm alert.

That's a great idea eze, recruit the seniors and solve two problems at once, the seniors who die will save big bucks in social security, and the demented ones who survive won't suffer from ptsd.

sarcasm off.
really shouldn't post this, really really shouldn't hit the submit button, fuck it

haha skippy. No worries mate!

Yeah I thought the same thing that this would be an article on social security and senior citizens when I clicked on the title! Haha

The Battlefield provides an education all its own.

Locke {quote}: "The Battlefield provides an education all its own."

I haven't seen an active battlefield and hope I never will. I think I understand your meaning. Every moment of our lives provides an education, and every person will apply the lessons in their own uniquely individual way.

Like the military-type-looking guy I saw today - big burly dude walking with a strut, with his chest puffed out and his arms crossed in front of him and an attitude that said, 'Don't even think about f&$#ing with me."

On the back of his black leather jacket was an Operation Iraqi Freedom decal - on the inside of the circle was a picture of a devilish-looking face with a head scarf worn by middle-eastern Muslim men. Around the outside was the phrase, "God will judge our enemies. We'll set up the meeting."

Yes, all of life is an education. And we each learn different things.

iowairish: Indeed, yet I'm still always amazed at the ones (like your leather-jacket wearing Bohunk) that seem to miss the lesson.

My quote was a paraphrase from a 1971 movie called
Johnny Got His Gun: "Death has a dignity all its own."

Maybe this is how the war can be stopped. If the troops took a cue from their Commander-in-Cheif, who deserted from the Air National Guard unit he had joined to dodge service in the Vietnam war, which he and his family supported, and left the military en masse there would be no option but to withdraw from this illegal, prodigiously wasteful (in lives and money) war. Congress could grant them the same sort of immunity they have granted to torturers and war criminals and Paul Bremer has given to mercenaries.

thewonderingyou points out the typical pattern of behavior of military recruiters. it is exactly the same thing that happened to me as a senior.

"A high school senior (a good student, a good boy) is called at home by an Army recruiter. The recruiter has been trained well to pester, prod, cajole, and coerce, using any means necessary. The recruiter belittles the senior's seeming lack of plans for after graduation. The senior gets sick and tired of the banter–let's just say he's had enough of this insulting prick–and wants to get rid of him."

in my case, i came home from school and the recruiter was at the kitchen counter with my mom's boyfriend waiting for me. they were both drinking beer!!

i told them i had to put my backpack in my room and that i'd be right out. i climbed out my bedroom window with my skateboard and went skating...

i often wonder how long they sat there.

my mom's significant other was none the pleased, but i didn't hear from the recruitor's again.

Hello darling, what a cool tactic. A lot of people join the military for honorable reasons, but all recruiters are scum. Too bad your mom's boyfriend is brain dead. If a recruiter showed up at my house, I'd water board him or her in an unflushed toilet. The recruiters have to present emotional, misleading propaganda to get anyone to sign up. They are trained to hit every note from patriotism, to adventure, honor and duty and camraderie, choice of job training, discipline and financial security, free education, protecting democracy around the world, and even enticing kids with the coolest computer war games ever invented. But the truth is they are absolutely frantic to get anyone to sign on the dotted line, and then they own your body and soul. Recruiters prey on children because they know they get almost nobody to sign up passed the age of 24. That is when the prefrontal cortex of the brain is fully developed. The prefrontal cortex is where risk assessment decisions are made.

Bribing recruits is a balancing act. On the one hand, the more we bribe them the more bucks churn through the economy and the more better off everbody is, especially the Pentagon which collects 17 cents for each buck passed from one node to another.

On the other hand, the more we bribe them the more uppity they get, thinking they deserve more. They have to be starved, to keep them hungry. Check the psych ops manuals for details.

I am like several other's reading this article. I thought as a Senior Citizen I and my husband were going to be asked to join the Army. That's why I started reading it. But I am certain they wouldn't want either one of us. We were opposed to the war before it ever started. Because like one guy here pointed out it was more 'political' than it was 'patriotic'! The people involved were no threat to us as a nation. Bush gives this rag tag bunch of insurgents more credit than most of them deserve. He seems to imagine they are going to invade us we don't stay in Iraq and fight them. Someone needs to give Bush some potent mind altering meds for his frequent delusions!

My son, a high school senior, receives at least one phone call at home every day from a military recruiter. The phone calls always come at the same time - after school is out but before we (parents) get home from work. If I answer the phone and the person on the other end asks for my son and I say "he's not home", the other end hangs up.

These recruiters are used car salesmen in the business of death. Thanks to No Child Left Behind, high schools are required by law to provide recruiters with names and contact information for graduating seniors. Did you know that?

If you have a high school senior, watch him/her very carefully. If your kid wants to join the armed services, fine. But if not, you need to look out for him/her.

I too thought the article was referring to drafting senior citizens. But what with the crazy way the administration has been acting these past 7 years, I wouldn't be surprised. Drafing seniors would be one way to cut out medicare, and social security for good. And the chances of any returning from the war would be nil. Maybe a hint of such a plan would be what's needed so seniors can stand up and be counted and urge the youth to the true realities of the war and how joining up would not bring $ten thousand, but more likely a body bag. And there's no honor in that.