Sometimes My Comments Grow Too Long

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted anything. Bite me.

This started as a comment fueled by two separate blogs (Link
and http://bakerstreet.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=93566) and it grew too long to make just a comment. It no longer touches on just the two points brought up in the original blogs and has grown to include not only the comments, but also more of my own thoughts. Too bad if what you see here is hardly recognizable as being related to either blog any more. I'm feeling cranky today.

One of the problems that we have in the military is that we have fallen victim to our own slick marketing campaign. As noted elsewhere in the oath of enlistment, you swear to obey orders (in a nutshell). Until those orders are found not to be lawful, it's the deal. The problem is that we lure young people into the military on promises of college education, training, benefits for family and the like. In all honesty, the military delivers on those promises. The argument can be made that it doesn't deliver equally, but we wouldn't have people lining up to enlist or reenlist if it weren't true. Admittedly, we are losing more than we are gaining in many quarters, but we are doing something right for some.

I understand what Bakerstreet is trying to say. He wants to believe that the average joe is in the service for something greater than the pay/benefits/promises. He wants to believe that they serve a higher calling. And he's not willing to say otherwise, knowing that he'd be called out for it. I also understand as each day goes by for my own service that this is not the case with all service members. It may have been at one point. It may be their motivation some time in the future. But it's not always true.

I didn't join the Army just because of a higher calling. I joined to get an education. I reanlisted for job security and additional pays and bonuses. I reenlisted again becaue it was the right thing for me to do for my family. My primary motivation hasn't necessarily been a sense of selfless service. But I would not have joined or reenlisted if that motivation was empty for me, either. It's there. It's just not always the very first thing in my thoughts.

How does all this tie in to Iraq? Well, that's a long explanation. The short form (and easy to pick apart version) is that while some people join the military to get all the stuffs (yeah, stuffs) promised to them, the military really requires people that are willing to sacrifice. They want people that watch Star Trek II and say "Yeah, the needs of the many really do outweigh the needs of the few!" (coincidentally, they do not want people that watched Star Trek III). It is disengenious for anyone to enter the service and expect to not be called to do some carpy work. Really. It is the military. They fight. They die. It's a sad truth, but it is the truth. Sometimes they die in the most useless of situations. Sometimes they live behind desks for their entire careers. It isn't fair. I don't state any of this in an effort to "So there!" anyone or show how callous I can be.

I'm in a position to deal with brand new service members every day. I get asked questions like "Why am I going to Iraq as a freshly graduated Korean linguist?" Because that's the way it is. The Army needs you there. Yeah, it sucks that they just finished 63 weeks of intense training and they're going to spend a year or more away from it. But that's the way it is.

Yeah, I'd love to see everyone come home. I really would. If they all came home next week, I'd be thanking my buddies for their job well done. If it happens five years from now, I'll do the same.

But I also shudder to think what would have happened to Korea if we had pulled out in 1955. Or 1960. Or whenever. Yes, we reduced our footprint there, but the fact that there have been US troops stationed there to serve as nothing more than a sacrifice if North Korea chose to attack has been a large part of keeping the peace there. Here we are more than 50 years later, still debating whether we should leave Korea completly. And no matter what the young college students tell you over there, we are still there at the invitation and request of the Korean government in support of the mutual defense pact we have with them.

Yes, they are two different situations. But there are similarities, too. While the fighting in that region was not motivated so much by religion, it has gone on for thousands of years. And now, outside of the occasional anti US rally where South Korean students throw molatov cocktails at the front gates of the bases, it's a very safe and prosperous nation. Even with the spectre of North Korea looming within easy artillery/rocket range.

The solutions in Korea are different from the solutions of Iraq. But our government has made a commitment, at least for now, to see this through a bit longer. At this time, the military is one of the best tools available to see it through. That doesn't make me happy today, just as it didn't in Haiti. We are the military, not an international police force. But, until Iraq's infrastructure and internal security is in place and effective, which it isn't at this time, the military has to stand in for them. So, to pull this full circle, the President say go here and do this, we do. It's part of that oath.

The good that service members are doing in Iraq is both measurable and immeasurable. Measurable in that you can't count the buildings that have been repaired. Immeasurable in the lives they have touched. Is it wrong to want a loved one to be home, safe and sound within arm's reach? No. But it's also not wrong to have them to do what they do best. Service members make a difference. In the line of duty, in the path of danger, in defense of their country or another one, too weak to protect it's own children.

None of this calms the fears or washes away the tears of a spouse, parent, sibling or child of a service member. I have those words and thoughts in me. I just haven't put them here. That's not the reason for this post.

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