Thanks for the Support

July 16, 2008 at 10:33 pm · Filed under On Military Matters, On Music, Film and FolkArt, On Self-Expression ·Tagged , ,

Roy Zimmerman

2 Comments »

  1. Wes said

    July 18, 2008 @ 5:27 pm

    As the guy hinted at the war is not made for average U.S. citizens but for the poor and desperate. We use a lot of foreigners and as you mentioned criminals to keep the morale from breaking. Unfortunately most people do not know this when they are planning to join the army and morale breaks anyway, which is one of the reasons we have veterans come back who do not support the war just like in Vietnam.

    War sucks! Or as Colonel Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson) famously said in A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth”. This was in reference to the U.S. Military. As we have become wealthier and our standards have living have increased it has become more and more like that. It has gotten to the point where we are contracting part of our military training to Blackwater and perhaps more in the future.

  2. wakemenow said

    July 18, 2008 @ 7:01 pm

    Very well-said, Wesley. I’d venture to say morale is in jeopardy anytime we go into battle, especially for extended periods of time (like 5+ years), regardless of who the recruits happen to be. But yes, absolutely, the poor, naive and desperate are typically the ones targeted for recruitment. They especially like young men like yourself who haven’t yet embarked on life outside of your parent’s home because of being more “easily molded” (so said my drill sergeant). In other words, naive and impressionable. (Not saying you are, just that that’s why they tend to target people your age and younger.)

    And you’re very right…I was actually just reading about that today. As of 2005, we had approximately 1 private contractor for every 1.4 military soldiers, but that’s only including those paid directly by the U.S. government. Other nations, such as Britain, also brings in private contractors on what was then a 1:1 ratio. I’ll have to look to see what the numbers are now. Those numbers are indeed expected to increase, leading some to say that this has become a “privatized war.”

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