Military Recruiting Woes

1- Many American high schoolers are usually a little fatter than required and more unfit than before.
2- There's still the issue of military sexual trauma and toxic leadership that affects the services' reputation.
3- TikTok and social media affect people's perception, with the current conflict and genocide in Gaza...and other overseas issues.
4- Just having big names like the Rock is just b.s. Not everyone is relating to big names and "influencers". They're throwing darts all over the place. Instead of focusing on values and beliefs, they're playing the celebrity b.s game!

 

There used to be a certain common understanding that young men, especially, owed the country their service. I still think so but Vietnam really soured the public on military adventurism. There was an uptick after 9/11 but Bush II lied about everything and that ended that.

 

I'm ashamed to admit it but, I believed Bush's lies about weapons of mass destruction and all that. My friends all thought I was being stupid. They turned out to be right.

 

No. You weren't stupid. Congress believed Bush for the same reasons you did. You assumed he had information not available to you and you didn't understand the depth of self dealing that permeated his oil business family. You were entitled to believe him but he and Cheney and Rumsfeld and McCrystal betrayed our trust. That's why I believe so strongly that these people should die in prison if not at the end of a rope.

 

I believed as well.
I still think there was plenty of time to smuggle it to Syria.
There were reports of civilian planes converted to carry cargo.
And familiar with reports that nothing was found.

 

I have never heard of any evidence or reporting that Saddam Hussein shipped any WMDs out of the country. There was some later claims that Saddam lied about having WMDs, when he didn't really have any. The best reporting after the fact I've seen is that Bush really just wanted to get his hands on the oil and didn't really care about the small possibility of WMDs. I think this is a good example of where reliable sources are valuable and that guessing and conspiracy theories should just be completely ignored.

Anyway, I didn't really trust very much of what Bush or Dick Cheney said but I believed Secretary of State Colin Powell.

 

I didn't. Flag officers are as much political animals as any member of Congress or the Administration. Powell lied and he knew he was lying when he lied. Or he was totally, completely, scandalously incompetent.

 

Here's an article from History Today. They have an excellent rating from MBFC.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/history-today-bias/

Basically it says all evidence is that Saddam destroyed all of his WMDs in 1991.
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/what-did-happen-saddams-wmd

___________________________________
quote:
In a 2005 interview, Powell stated that he did not lie because he did not know the information was false. "There were some people in the intelligence community who knew at that time that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon, and they didn't speak up. That devastated me."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell%27s_presentation_to_the_United_Nations_Security_Council#:~:text=In%20a%202005%20interview%2C%20Powell,That%20devastated%20me.%22

 

Indeed interesting from History today.

Here is one I read from USNI

https://blog.usni.org/posts/2012/07/20/iraq-chemical-weapons-moved-to-syria-before-2003-invasion

It mentions the converted planes etc.

 

That article was not at all convincing to me. They just took some statements from a few politicians and stuck a few words around them. If WMD were shipped into Syria 20 years ago or so, we would have seen some evidence by now, I believe. Meaning that someone in Syria would have used some by now.

 

The reports that I read in the early 2000s talked about materials that can be used in WMDs and dismantled WMDs. There was fear that if a plane crashes in Iraq or Syria, it will destroy a huge population.

 

As the WMD lie was unraveling there was all kinds of things flying around. I guess I flushed most of that shit out of my brain because I have no recollection of it now.

 

He knew. And yes, flag officers are very much political animals, just as career members of the SES are on the civilian side.

 

There were a LOT of people in this country convinced Bush was invading the WRONG country, that it was all about his dad.

 

That's because it was.

 

To be honest, I supported the Iraq operation/war.
Not only because I believed all the WMD reason but also
every since Sadam shot rockets at Israel,
and Israel didn't respond at the time, based on US and EU presure.
I knew that every state that attacks Israel, eventually will get punished.
Iraq, Syria etc.
This another, secondary reason I thought the right thing was happening.
I was wrong, Iraq as the counter balance to Iran would have posibly reduced Iran's influance in the region.
And all the lives los, ISIS formation would have been prevented.

 

Al Queda and ISIS would have happened regardless. Remember the first WTC attack happened in '93 irrespective of Saddam. So did the attack on the Cole, the Moscow attacks, and a host of others. The money and people came from Saudi. The religious fevor from Yemen, and the weapons were left over from the USSR. But the training was Quds Force, even then.

The B'ath party as a counterweight to Iran yes. Iraq as a lid to Iran, never.

 

Those who join military academies and or choose military higher education, get in shape really fast.
Saying that, I personally failed when tried to join NAF reserve due to BMI and by the time BMI was in check, my age no longer qualified.
But a nice % of graduates of our children high school, joined military higher education, choose military careers, some joined US Marines, Army, USAF, and Navy.