Originally Posted by Tom Odom
The poor support for the war on our home front and the difficulty that we have in recruiting an adequate number of qualified individuals is, in my opinion, a symptom of cultural decay. That is not an indictment of those who choose other ways to improve society. It is an assessment of the low number of people desiring to serve in the military, relative to the population of our nation, and the large number of people who actively seek to undermine our efforts.
There are many ways to serve society other than through military service. Unfortunately, many choose to avoid all of these options and go so far as to undermine our society. My impression is that the majority of those who are capable of service to society, but who choose not to serve, are physically weaker, mentally softer, more selfish, less educated, and increasingly see civil society as an obstacle to their goals of instant personal gratification, rather than as something that they are a part of and that they desire to serve. There is nothing for them to defend other than their own lot in life. I suspect that the detachment that many feel from civil society is a symptom of being less educated. Though more people today have more years of formal educational experience than at any time in our history, they are not receiving a liberal education that equips them with the knowledge and reasoning skills to make sense of the world around them. They either do not understand the benefits of our society or they see those benefits as an entitlement that they need not repay. Our culture, in general, also does little to instill a desire to serve. Fewer Americans are asking what they can do for their country because they are more focused on what their government will do for them.
In a time of war, one would expect that threats to our nation would preoccupy the citizenry more than usual and that more recruits would seek out the military services, rather than vice versa. Instead, recruitment has become more difficult and we have seen a large, shrill, anti-war network emerge and have its fringe views absorbed into the mainstream. Rather than recognizing a significant threat to our nation, they perceive our nation as an emerging threat to others. They lack the education to discern the moral difference between hijackers slamming a plane into the Twin Towers and an American aircraft accidentally bombing the wrong target and killing civilians.
Even among those who want us to prevail in Iraq, many buy into the well-crafted emotional arguments presented by the anti-war nuts. The rising toll of Americans killed in Iraq is seen as the measure of failure, rather than an unfortunate cost of war that tells nothing of the progress made in theater. Service members have been effectively portrayed in the media as incapable and helpless pawns, forced into service by dire economic circumstances and lack of opportunity, being mentally destroyed by the immorality of any war, but especially this one. Supporting the troops now means demanding our return because the assumption is that we are helpless fools being sent to our certain death for no reason. Mere ignorance is not a sufficient explanation for how a nation can be so thoroughly duped by such bankrupt arguments. That nation must also be morally corrupt to be able to view mortal combat as a simple numbers game lacking any context.
We have a cultural problem in America. That is why we are exerting so much thought and effort to treat its symptoms with larger bonuses, more benefits, fancier uniforms, more awards, and addressing the public outcry over demands placed upon our service members.
Perhaps my isolation from society after years of deployments and field problems, with the media being my conduit to American culture, has made me cynical. I hope that is the case.
Sorry if I rambled.
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