Kos Calls Out the Chickenhawks: 'Hollow Military,' No Call To Duty

[Hissyspit]

From Daily Kos, in response to this LATimes article: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1491292

Hollow military, yet no call to duty
by kos

We know that recruitment is at crisis levels. We know that deaths and injuries are depleting our ranks. We know that at least 5,000 soldiers have deserted.
And the bad news keeps on coming.

Last year, Army lieutenants and captains left the service at an annual rate of 8.7% -- the highest since 2001. Pentagon officials say they expect the attrition rate to improve slightly this year. Yet interviews with several dozen military officers revealed an undercurrent of discontent within the Army's young officer corps that the Pentagon's statistics do not yet capture.
Young captains in the Army are looking ahead to repeated combat tours, years away from their families and a global war that their commanders tell them could last for decades. Like other college grads in their mid-20s, they are making decisions about what to do with their lives.

And many officers, who until recently had planned to pursue careers in the military, are deciding that it's a future they can't sign up for.

There's a word for what's happening to our military: "hollow army". We experienced it after Vietnam, and Bush is busy recreating that experience.

But despite the personnel crisis faced by our armed forces, the War Preachers, War Politicians, War Pundits, and the 101st Fighting Keyboardists still refuse to call for sacrifice. They refuse to urge their followers and readers to enlist in their cause. They, themselves, refuse to serve.

They'd rather others suffer the consequences of their neocon fantasies.

- snip -

Pringle said telling Walker's children about their father's death has been the most difficult part of the past few days. She said Walker's 2-year-old twins, Antwan Jr., and Antwannaja, are too young to understand, but 4-year-old Antwanette knows her dad isn't coming home.

"She's smart like her dad,'' Pringle said. "That's daddy's little girl.''

They'd rather others suffer the consequences of their neocon fantasies.

We no longer have a volunteer army capable of meeting the requirements of their military adventures. Yet they refuse a call to arms.

How long can they maintain their cowardly silence?

[Roland99]

1. Direct link

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/5/23/24228/2436

[Hissyspit]

2. It's embedded in the title. Had to fix it on edit.

[Roland99]

4. :-)

[bluestateguy]

3. Bush could do this:

go on TV, be straight with the American people and say that there is a personnel crisis in the military, and that we just need more manpower to fight in the new wars that he and his advisors have planned for the future.

Then he could ask any American who supports him and his foreign policy to enlist in the armed forces and do a little more than just plop a yellow sticker on their SUV's. Enlist, or encourage your kids to enlist, or a close acquaintance you know who supports this Administration.

But that would take courage and honesty.

[RobertSeattle]

5. Yep

Bush could have asked Americans to sacrifice almost anything after 9/11 but instead, he goes for tax cuts and invading a country that was no threat to us.

[cap]

6. bush is the prime example...

catted out on Vietnam duty... then wore a military costume ... hopped on an air craft carrier and said , "Mission Accomplished".

The RW blow hards are just taking a page from their fearless leader. They are pro-war and they arent gonna serve.

[fasttense]

9. What about all those robotic people on those fake town hall

meetings? He seemed to get enough people, to tell him he's wonderful, to fill dozens of stadiums. So where are all the brush robots?

[ET Awful]

7. I know it's totally off topic, but what the heck were those parents

thinking? I mean, I can understand Antwan Jr, but Antwannaja and Antwanette?

Okay, that said, I knew this was coming. Those who can get out will. It's to be expected. Only the most ignorant of right-wing apologists would believe otherwise.

[EST]

8. Any such call by the Boosh polish organization

would force the acknowledge the hollowness of the leadership as well as demand an acknowledgment of the one fact that these criminals are constitutionally incapable of making, namely, "We fucked up. We are truly sorry and will go out of our way to correct and repair the damage."