Draft the Rambos
When the Iraq War busted out of the starting gates of this Neocon administration, the Americans most rabid about “kickin’ those Iraqi butts” were the youngest group of adult Americans. Who would have guessed? Right in front of our blurred vision, a new Rambo generation had grown up. Not long ago Gen X-ers were a pathetic group of slothful, pampered, whiny, boring pests whose martial instincts were limited to fighting for the remote control.
But a strange thing happened on the way to the Iraq War. Rambo was a no show. This precipitated humongous bonuses in our military and the instituting of stop-loss to retain military personnel. Then came a huge expansion of mercenary forces because we didn’t have enough military personnel, followed by the lowering of recruit requirements because we didn’t have enough military personnel. And of course the wholesale activation of Guard and Reserve troops who were trying to pay college tuition and now are paying with lives and limbs because the land of the brave couldn’t beg, buy, or intimidate others to fight this new Vietnam. </i>
Continue reading (and you really should) The Ugly ‘D’ Word
