Join The Army

[Burma Jones]

I work for the Defense Department. I was at a briefing yesterday and the guy being briefed, a three star General, said, and I paraphrase, "There's been a real separation in the country and we've been getting almost exclusively people from the right wing of the political spectrum. This is pretty good when it comes to things like indoctrination and patriotism, but they're not very open to change and they're hard to teach. They don't have the most open of minds" Basically, he was saying that the freepers that are making up the military are increasingly too stupid to adapt to the fast changing technology and were not particularly imaginative. THIS WAS FROM A BIG SHOT GENERAL, not just any run of the mill General.

This got me to thinking, we of the left sure seem to avoid the military. It was not always thus. Does this give us a far too politicized military?

[Qanisqineq]

1. my husband's in the army

he's a liberal. A lot of the lefties he knows don't want to speak up. But yeah, there are an awful lot of right-wingers.

[Failure]

2. But he's a patriot...the freepers wanna kill...n/t

[Burma Jones]

6. Thank your husband for us.......

And tell him that we're glad he's one of us.

[FlemingsGhost]

3. Thin the herd.

"There's been a real separation in the country and we've been getting almost exclusively people from the right wing of the political spectrum."

Where's the problem?

[Burma Jones]

4. There are still Generals that are NOT rabid Right Wing nuts

Some day, they will retire............

[FlemingsGhost]

7. Thin the herd, redux.

Gung-ho generals slaughtering their own ideological "sons and daughters."

At least they're all walking the walk...

[demnan]

5. During WWII everyone was in the military

My Dad was a Captain in the Army. The "regular Army" was always distained by the draftees/signups as stupid and not willing to be flexible to military situations.

A vestige of this seems to remain with the "regular Army" being those who are right wing and then the rest of the ordinary people, who made the largest sacrifices and saw the most action.

At least that was what my Dad thought. I'm not trying to disparage or insult any regular military here, but merely trying to explain the culture the General may have alluded to.

[Catch22Dem]

8. I served

I was just as liberal then as I am now. My 8 years ran parallel to Clinton's 8 years, and the Air Force was great. LOTS of people like me. I was, however, in a highly technical field. A lot of our ENLISTED guys had degrees. I was a SSgt with a BS. So, all is not lost for the military. I think most of the grunts and Marines have always been of the same ideology, though not all of them.

[fearnobush]

9. My Nephew, Fought with Task Force Tarawa, Aided in the

Jessica Lynch rescue, and he is a Kerry supporter. Yes, he is safe at home, but is under employed. Only Bu$h jobs out there, He cannot find a real job anymore. He works a 6 Bu$h bucks an hour job and sells coupons on top of that, believe it, fucking coupons. he is struggling. But thats not why he's a Kerry supporter. He supports Kerry for his loyalty to the men he fought with and for his courage to speak out when few would do otherwise.

[nonconformist]

10. My husband was in the Army

1993-1999 on active duty.

One couple, basically our best friends during that time, were right wing (or so they thought). I did a pretty good job of making them see the light, but I can't help but wonder where they stand now. I haven't spoke to them since before 9/11.

Anyway, we had some progressive friends as well. I think that liberals in the military pretty much keep to themselves to avoid arguments - I know we did that quite a bit. We weren't nearly as political then as we are now, but we were very much Democrats then and voted for Clinton both terms.

[bemildred]

11. Someone needs to explain to the General that the problem

is the sort of wars being fought. Us lefties will show
amazing enthusiasm for protecting the USA from attack, but
we are not going to get our ass shot off in these stupid
colonial wars making the World safe for Exxon-Mobil and such.

[Burma Jones]

14. I agree

I wonder sometimes whether he does too.

[haele]

12. It gives us a dead military as well as a politicized one.

In my Navy experience, the wing-nuts were, as the general indicated, severely lacking in both common sense and imagination and tended to be balkier and more argumentative than the proverbial mule whenever faced with anything outside their immediate understanding.
When something needed to be done quickly and correctly, the wing-nut was usually the last person any Chief would pick to do the job - the wingnut would inevitably find some reason to fail and blame someone else for the failure. In combat or high stress work situations, the wingnut has been known to be the cause of equipment malfunction, injuries, and death.

Even though the US military tends to be disciplined and hierarchal, it also has a strong tradition of requiring the ability to act independently of a unit, evaluate unfolding situations and modify actions "on the fly" if necessary to insure the survival of both the unit and the mission - ours is one of the few militaries is set up to allow the lower enlisted a leadership role should the chain of command be disrupted. And for this tradition to survive, it requires that the average sailor or soldier that makes a Non-Commissioned Officer be someone that can be educated and is far more than just a flag wavin' "good ol' mindless drone" with a gun on his or her back.
(Mind you, a "good ol' mindless drone" is not a good ol' boy or gal...the good ol' boys were often some of the most canny, common sensical, patient - and the most liberal sailors I ever met.

And here's another strange tidbit of military reality in the old days - several Commanding Officers of my acquaintance have told me that if they wanted anything done right in admin, legal, or medical - they'd look to the lesbian or gay guy to take the CO's assistant or administrator positions. In fact - early in my career, a few old time officers had automatically assumed I was a lesbian when they gave me supervisory positions and informed me that I didn't have to worry if someone accused me of being homosexual.
And from what my husband, a former Air Farce...err...Air Force serviceman says, at least in his comm center, the gay guys were usually the best operators and supervisors.

As for jingoistic wing-nut freeper types - most of the time, after a couple months observation and attempt at training period, I generally only let them get around armed with a mop or paint brush. I usually couldn't trust them around the equipment with anything as complicated as a tech manual and a power tool.

Haele

[corporatewhore]

13. Yes i want to sign up to further U.S.'s imperialistic goals

:D