Genuflection Rejection

Last week, I heard some local morning radio show personalities interviewing a U.S. Army official about the U.S. Army’s 233^th birthday. Interjected into the discussion about the ongoing local celebratory events was the usual stream of military propaganda painting the U.S.military as the world’s savior. Mr. Army Official bragged about the 170,000 new recruits that voluntarily signed up despite the general public’s disapproval for the war in Iraq as some sort of sorry attempt to sweeten our sour image of the world-class fakin ongoing fiasco since the illegal invasion many years and many senseless casualties ago.

He proudly commented that, despite public disapproval for Operation Ongoing Clusterfak, the volume of voluntary enlistments indicates there are still lots of suckers out there willing to sign on the dotted line to ‘serve their country’ and for that, we should thank them or any of the other members of our armed forces if we happen upon them in public. He actually suggested that if you spot a soldier in public that you should stop what you’re doing, approach this individual and thank them for all they sacrifice for us to protect our freedom. In other words, he was suggesting that we should genuflect to members of the armed services. Perhaps licking their boots would be a nice touch. If it happens to be a male soldier and you’re a female, while you’relicking their boots, you can truly show appreciation in another way if you’re willing to go the extra mile to say thanks.

I love how this guy talked of new recruits as if they signed up to fulfill their lifelong dream: the send-off to Iraq, Afghanistan or some other fak-forsaken place to die or suffer life-changing injury or be forced to stay there much longer than you originally agreed to because they need more soldiers to replace those dying every day. Yes, I can see how this would be an appealing prospect for young men and women and indeed the same feeling shared by the astronaut who dreamed of going to space from childhood, studied and trained for a duration that felt like a lifetime all while dreaming of the possibility of participation in an actual space mission. And then it actually happens finally. Same feeling I’m sure.

Ok, yes there are some in the armed forces that are gung-ho and have dreamed of being a soldier all of their lives. Usually these people are the products of military families where they’re just as likely to join and become a jarhead because they come from a long line of jarheads, almost genetically destined. Jarhead begets jarhead.

Some nobly do enlist out of ignorance because they truly believe they’re sacrificing their own desires for the good of their country but those are few and far in between. Those tend to be the people who get the fakout as soon as they can if they realize what they’re actually part of.

Ah, but what Mr. Army Official failed to mention during his radio brag-fest were the methods utilized to score those numbers or hit those quotas as is said of military recruiters who have more in common with used car sales people than most would think. They must find a way to sell an old lemon as if it’s a Maserati which is not an easy task so enter creativity and the fine art of bullshit peddling with a little law breaking to get the job done. What’s a little illegality if it’s for the good of our nation, right?

Mr. Army Official must’ve forgotten that part during his radio interview or he didn’t want to spoil the birthday celebration with the truth. What he failed to share with his audience were the details of recruitment these days when this Iraqi misadventure is costing us troops faster than we can churn out new ones.