From what I saw in multiple embedments in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of the frontline troops came from working class backgrounds, often with a long family tradition of military service, weighted towards Southern white and Hispanic. And of course many kids who aren’t line soldiers learn a trade that they take away when they leave.
Yeah, the military needs these kids.
And yeah, the country needs a military.
You’d prefer we didn’t have one?
Or maybe that we return to the Vietnam-era days of a draft?
I won’t deny that we threw a lot of lives away in those theaters, and that both were fiascos in different ways. We owe those families who sacrificed, big time.
But the answer isn’t to take pleasure in not being able to recruit.
From what I saw in multiple embedments in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of the frontline troops came from working class backgrounds, often with a long family tradition of military service, weighted towards Southern white and Hispanic. And of course many kids who aren’t line soldiers learn a trade that they take away when they leave.
Yeah, the military needs these kids.
And yeah, the country needs a military.
You’d prefer we didn’t have one?
Or maybe that we return to the Vietnam-era days of a draft?
I won’t deny that we threw a lot of lives away in those theaters, and that both were fiascos in different ways. We owe those families who sacrificed, big time.
But the answer isn’t to take pleasure in not being able to recruit.
The student loans are a bigger incentive than the video games? I'm skeptical.