In case you missed it Richard Belzer made some comments about our miltary basically stating that all they are are kids who couldn't find or get a job. He also said that he knew more about what was going on in Iraq than the troops in Iraq knew because he read 20 newspapers a day. So here is my message to Richard Belzer just in case the Washington Post doesn't print it.
quote:
This is for Richard Belzer who I'm sure will see this as he read 20 newspapers a day.
Mr. Belzer,
As someone who had a military career who now works as a civilian on a military installation and has a nephew who is a U.S. Air Force recruiter I can confidently tell you that you are clueless. First of all, ALL of our military are volunteers. Yes some are fresh out of High School, some are fresh out of College and most fall somewhere in between. A great many of our military have College Degrees including enlisted, some before they enter some obtain them after they get in. Some enter for that College education. A great many of these young folks enter because their father, grandfather, mother, brother, sister aunt or uncle was military. They believe in serving their country and YES even in time of war. All you have to do is look a Pat Tillman who left a high paying career in the NFL to serve for his country. This is surely a concept that you don't understand.
In order to volunteer each person must pass a test, if they do not score well enough on that test they do not enter the military. Some branches must score higher than others but they all have a minimum passing score that one must achieve. That being said, you stated that the majority of folks in our military are there because they didn't have or couldn't find a job. That couldn't be further from the truth. In fact the majority of our military that went into Baghdad were Reservist and National Guard. These folks actually left good paying jobs in order to fight for their country. Some of which had very high paying jobs like Doctors and Lawyers. So in reality the majority of our young soldiers are their because they want to be there not because they have to be there. NOBODY IS TWISTING THEIR ARM!
Something else that you are clueless about is our media. I'm sure you don't understand that the majority of the newspapers that you read are obtaining their stories from the same sources like AP, UPI and Knight Ridder. So when they have the same sources they tend to all report the same thing. Bottom line here is if nothing is happening then it isn't news. Feel good stories don't make headlines. Imagine the headline, "Nothing happened it Fallujah today". Not much of an attention getter is it? Also the news sources tend to make is sound worse than it actually is. Like now when they report that civil war in immanent when in fact the violence is isolated to one or two cities. It would be like saying that there were 10 murders in California between the Crips and Bloods yesterday, "civil war is immanent".
Realize this, we took out the Taliban and took over Afghanistan in days, we took out the elite Republican Guard and took over Iraq in days. Both Afghanistan and Iraq have new governments where they have held elections. In those elections they had more people vote percentage wise then we have had in the U.S. for any election with over 80% in each country. People voting with the threat of being killed. Iraqi's are happy that Saddam is out, more Iraqi's are working and making more money now than under Saddam. Power is above pre war levels in fact about everything is above pre war levels. There are more schools open than ever before. In Afghanistan women are no longer second class citizens. The Iraq Army is leading the fight against secular violence not the coalition.
Our war against Iraq started in 1991 and ended in 2003. What we are doing in Iraq now is fighting terrorism side by side with those that we were at war against in 2003.
Let me make a suggestion to you, hook up with the U.S.O. or with a Senator or Congressman and take a trip to Iraq to visit our troops. At the very least visit a couple of military installations talk to the troops, they'll tell you like it is. What better way to get your news than from the source not filtered by our media. I think "If you choose to believe them" that you'll see a complete different picture. Try getting out of your isolated Hollywood cocoon.
Edward Teach (Hee I really didn't use this name)
North Carolina
It's the truth though, many people in the military are there because they're not the brightest, so they don't exactly have scholarships lined up to go to college. It's a reason why many of them join, they get some money for school later on. I know about 10 people that have joined the military and only one joined because he wanted to be in the military, the others did it for the education opportunity (i.e., scholarship money despite the fact that the military continuously disturbs your study) and/or financial reasons.
The next thing is, a lot of them are just focused on the mission at hand. For my cousin, she and many of her comrades saw it as a war for oil, but the only thing that mattered was getting supplies from point A to point B. Perhaps Belzer should have explained himself more clearly, but he's not far off the mark.
And what positive stories are there? For every positive story, there is something worse in contrast. You want people to have stories about the school that was built or the power plant brought back online, but when more schools are burnt down than opened, or infrastructure is at a lower level than when they began, you've got to be kidding yourself. Focusing on those "positive" stories is just lying to the public.
Sure people join for the college it doesn 't mean that they are dumb or can't get a job. Just remember back when you were in school. How many received scholarships. Not many.
What positive storys? Exactly what I'm talking about, there are a ton of good things going on in Iraq. You don't see them because it's not news.
Yes perhaps he should explain better but he is way far off.
