It's certainly a difficult situation, what with an all-volunteer military. I mean, really, there aren't many benefits for anyone to join. The job experience one might gain while serving, and any financial assistance provided for college, is generally very limited. On the other hand, civilian government employees, after attaining a certain "G" level, are compensated fairly well, with benefits, etc. I only know this because my mother has worked for the IRS most of her adult life and does very well. Nobody gets (legitimately!) rich by working for the government, but before 9/11, many people decided to serve because of education or job incentives or, as you stated above, a family connection. But now with the war going so badly, with our fuzzy objectives, trying to fight a war the "old-fashioned" way, does anybody enlist because a sense of patriotism or feelings that they are fighting for democracy? The video upset me, not so much because of the hypocrisy, but for the lack of critical thinking, which is indicative of our government as a whole. I understand that many of the subjects interviewed are just kids, naively parroting statements made by the Republican leaders they may admire, all slogans and soundbites. That's the point, I think. Have these kids REALLY given serious thought to the issues they're discussing in the video? The same could be said about the people who DO enlist. Can you truly say that an 18-yr old kid knows what the hell he or she is doing, especially in this age of prolonged adolescence? Maybe we need to institue some sort of compulsory service for ALL citizens at a certain age. Dunno...all so confusing...head starting to throb...
2 comments:
I saw something that stated how most people that join come from families that also served.
Short of another 9.11, I don't see a great increase in people rushing to join for deep felt gut level causes.
It's certainly a difficult situation, what with an all-volunteer military. I mean, really, there aren't many benefits for anyone to join. The job experience one might gain while serving, and any financial assistance provided for college, is generally very limited. On the other hand, civilian government employees, after attaining a certain "G" level, are compensated fairly well, with benefits, etc. I only know this because my mother has worked for the IRS most of her adult life and does very well. Nobody gets (legitimately!) rich by working for the government, but before 9/11, many people decided to serve because of education or job incentives or, as you stated above, a family connection. But now with the war going so badly, with our fuzzy objectives, trying to fight a war the "old-fashioned" way, does anybody enlist because a sense of patriotism or feelings that they are fighting for democracy? The video upset me, not so much because of the hypocrisy, but for the lack of critical thinking, which is indicative of our government as a whole. I understand that many of the subjects interviewed are just kids, naively parroting statements made by the Republican leaders they may admire, all slogans and soundbites. That's the point, I think. Have these kids REALLY given serious thought to the issues they're discussing in the video? The same could be said about the people who DO enlist. Can you truly say that an 18-yr old kid knows what the hell he or she is doing, especially in this age of prolonged adolescence? Maybe we need to institue some sort of compulsory service for ALL citizens at a certain age. Dunno...all so confusing...head starting to throb...
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