Frameshop offers another take on why recruiting for the Army and Marine Corps is down.
Amidst the noise over issues that mean little, if anything, in comparison to Iraq, nobody seems to be asking this: Why are Americans no longer inspired to serve in the armed forces? What has happened in less than five years of George W. Bush as President that Americans are shying away from service in our military?
The answer is disarmingly simple: politicians lie, soldiers don't.
That's the long and short of it. In the past few months, the truth that soldiers speak upon returning from Iraq has started to outpace the lies that policians tell in their attempts to sell the war to the American people. And that impact will continue to be felt the longer we keep our soldiers in Iraq.
Sure, there are stories of triumph and stories of hope. But mostly, the stories being told at the kitchen tables and water coolers of America's military communities are stories of pain and uncertainty, stories of inspiration lost and dedication to service gone sour. They are stories of violence so brazen that even the most courageous among us are forced to pause and stare silently at our feet. They are stories that are slowly giving rise to the one, powerful force that truly has the potential to stop the war in Iraq: the force of resistance to the war from ordinary, unknown, workaday American citizens.
This is a good post to go read. One Marine describes his first tour, during the invasion, and his second tour after rotating home. The difference is startling.
"People who say it's getting better...I would like them to enlist, and go see how great it is firsthand."
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