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Thursday, October 04, 2007 |
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Men Such As These |
I was out to dinner the other night with some friends and one of them, a man twice my age, remarked about the Ken Burns documentary on WWII. He was marveling at the type of men our country produced to fight the war that so desperately needed to be won. Men of honor, men willing to sacrifice everything, and men who believed they could make the world a better place. My friend seemed to lament that we no longer have men of that caliber. As I listened I felt sorry for him that he knows of no such men-I know thousands.
The men and women in the armed services today are no different than those that served in WWII. They are intelligent soldiers who know they are fighting an evil equivalent to that of the Nazis and Japanese during WWII. They know that by sacrificing their lives now they will make the world a better place for tomorrow. I know that sounds cliche but its true. Obviously some soldiers wouldn`t say this, or even agree, but that is okay. Whatever the reason for their joining the military they are still sacrificing in a way so as put others before themselves.
Case in point-at the Vets For Freedom gathering in D.C. that I have previously written about, all of the vets were given a copy of the book written by SSG David Bellavia who is one of the founding members of VFF. His book is entitled House to House and is by far one of the best military memoirs I have ever read. In the book he recounts his time in Iraq in 2004. The book culminates with the role he and his men played in the battle for Fallujah. Not to spoil the story for anyone who hasn`t read the book but SSG Bellavia won the Silver Star and is up for the Medal of Honor. Not only should he be awarded the MOH but everyone should know his story. The fact that the whole country doesn`t know it is a shame. That our country spends so much time on whether or not Britney can take care of herself, or just how good some supremely narcissistic actors and actresses looked walking down the red carpet, goes to show how far down the drain our values have gone. We should hold the men and women who face death day in and day out fighting the great evil of our time with the utmost respect and honor that they deserve.
I am definitely not holding myself in the same category as men like SSG Bellavia as I am no hero. He and men like him need to have books written and movies made about them. Until that day comes I don`t think our country will understand that those fighting in Iraq are the same as those that stormed the beaches during WWII.
Do yourself and those that you know a favor and order SSG Bellavia`s book. Read it and then pass it along to someone who doesn`t think that soldiers understand what they are doing. |
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Friday, October 05, 2007 |
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You can get money just about anywhere, after all. |
That picture in the right column mocks me: why do I have my picture on this site when I don`t write anything? Of course, my own site mocks me in its entirety: stuff I wrote two months ago is still on the front page as of this writing. I wish I could say that I`ve been doing big important things, but the only accomplishment I can boast from the last few weeks is that I finally beat the main campaign to Neverwinter Nights.
I just finished up a length post on SigSpace about some of the new recruiting/enlistment incentives that the Guard has been pimping heavily, including their wacky new Active First recruiting program, which apparently is a weird hybrid deal where you go into the Active component for a few years and then transition automagically to a Guard unit for an as-yet undetermined further period of time. If anyone is interested in my thoughts on the matter, they can be found over here.
One issue I mentioned in passing but didn`t really address was the long-term consequences of emphasizing monetary incentives so heavily in our recruiting. I`ve never been particularly comfortable with this, mostly because I`m good at cost-benefit-analysis. As I have said before (here), you can`t pay me enough to do this--and they don`t.
Current Army marketing seems geared toward benefits: training, personal growth, and money. Especially money. This is fine and dandy--these are legitimate benefits of service. But once you get in, are they enough? I`m told that it gets pretty hot in the summer in Iraq, and rumor has it that people occasionally try to kill you in Afghanistan. College money that you may not ever live to spend is not terribly valuable.
I don`t really want my Humvee crewed by soldiers who are in it for the college money. I want guys who know what`s at stake, know the kind of people we`re up against, and are there because they would rather fight the jihad in their backyard than in ours.
To be fair, once you get in, the Army does its heavyhanded best to brainwash you with deeper values. As my drill sergeant put it, "You only thought you were joining for college money." Sometimes these stick. Sometimes they don`t.
I think we might build a better force if we were trying harder to appeal to people who already buy into those values. Can you fill the ranks of an army at war with altruists? No. But how much would it cost us to add "serve your country" to the message? After all, we`re competing for the same pool of candidates as that other force that slays dragons.
For what it`s worth, I think the new campaign is a step in the right direction. This video makes me want to enlist, and I`m already in.
I don`t think we`re in danger of becoming a mercenary army, as some
critics have charged. But who is more likely to stay in uniform,
keeping their experience and training in the force--someone who joined
for the GI Bill, or someone who joined to serve?
Sig
[Full disclosure: I joined for the security clearance and the chance to beat down rioting college students. I stayed for the MREs.]
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Sunday, October 28, 2007 |
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Voinovich Article |
I recently submitted this article to the main paper in my city and am hoping they publish it so we can continue to put pressure on our weak-kneed politicians. I`ll find out this week wether they do or not. Here it is:
"As a two-time Iraq war veteran and lifelong Columbus resident I have been closely watching how my Ohio representatives have talked and voted in regards to the wars in the Middle East. As a member of the nonpartisan nationwide veterans group Vets for Freedom (vetsforfreedom.org), I, along with several other Ohio veterans, have become involved in the political process by meeting directly with Ohio congressmen to share our first hand experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Vets for Freedom openly advocates support for General Petraeus and his plans for victory in Iraq. Since the beginning of the “Surge” the numbers show that the plan has worked. The numbers of both military and civilian deaths are down, as are IEDs and car bombs and only days ago the Iraqi Interior Ministry said that violence had fallen by 70% since June. We feel that if the houses of Congress would stand firm behind General Petraeus and the military, America would show a united front that would most assuredly be devastating to our enemies operating in Iraq. They have lost the battle in Iraq, and the only battleground left is the United States Congress and for American public opinion.
Just last week I, and one other Ohio member of VFF, again had the privilege to meet with Senator Voinovich in order to explain why we believe in America’s mission in Iraq. Between the two of us we have a combined three years boots on ground time in Iraq. We performed various duties while overseas including working hand in hand with the Iraqi population. To say the least we feel that we have a much better understanding of the situation as it is on the ground in Iraq than many politicians.
Our elected leaders, however, are making rash decisions concerning our involvement in the Middle East when they are not fully apprised of all that is going on. Senator Voinovich for example has only spent one day in Iraq and has no one on his staff that has been there as part of the military. His very own military affairs liaison hasn’t even been in the military.
During the meeting we mainly discussed the senator’s co-sponsorship of a resolution drafted by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Mark Pryor (D-AK), and Ken Salazar (D-CO). It is an attempt for our congressmen to reassure themselves that they are actually doing something besides watching their approval rate drop through the basement of the Capitol building.
We told Senator Voinovich how the resolution will contribute to the deaths of American and Iraqi soldiers by emboldening the terrorists to keep fighting until we tuck tail and hightail it out of country, but he seemed to not hear the facts from Iraq that we were describing. The senator talked to us about the sacrifice that the military has had to make and how it is time to bring them home so not one more person will die. He told us how the Iraqi people need to contribute to their own security and take some responsibility for their future. While both points sound good on paper upon closer inspection they only show the complete ignorance of the senator concerning Iraq.
No one agrees more with the idea that our troops need to come home than the troops themselves. The difference with the troops, however, is that we don’t want to come home until the job is complete. That is why we have been volunteering to go back again and again as I did with my second deployment.
The senator’s contention that the Iraqis need to step up to the plate to secure their country is one that we have been addressing, and one that the Iraqis have been doing for some time. During my time in Iraq I worked intimately at times with the local population and saw firsthand how the Iraqi army and police risked their lives day in and day out to secure their country. That the senator said the Iraqis aren’t doing enough shows that he has only been in country for one day. Iraqis are fighting and dying each and every day for their country.
What the senator desperately needs to do is to think things through with more than just his heart. If he allows the daily body count from Iraq to be the deciding factor in the rightness of this war then he has abdicated his responsibility as a Senator. This is about more than body counts – this conflict is about fighting terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, so we do not have to fight it here in Columbus. We are making slow, but steady progress in both places. Senator Voinovich knows that the men and women who continue to sacrifice so much in support of Iraq and Afghanistan have a far deeper and more complex understanding of what the United States has at stake than most Members of Congress.
Please Senator Voinovich do the right thing, listen to those who know. Give your full support to General Petraeus and show a united American front: one that doesn’t give up in the face of trouble, but rather, will stand strong as a nation to utterly defeat an enemy that has openly declared war on America. Don’t hold us back with unnecessary legislation that will only tie our hands even further than they already are."
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