I am currently an Army recruiter and have been since September 20th 2001. I have watched and felt the effects of the constant barrage of media "assumptions" over the past four years. Yes, we are having much more difficulty in bringing qualified individuals into the Army and it is a direct result of a biased media who are undermining U.S. efforts to develop a safer world for our children to grow up in. I want my four year old daughter to be able to grow up in a world where she doesn't have to be afraid to visit other places without being blown up. All the media cares about is developing controversay in order to grab ratings and sell papers.
What are we so afraid of!!! Guess what, if we are too afraid to stand up to the terrorists then they have already won. That is their goal, and the media is giving them exactly what they want...
We can choose to let them continue terrorizing us and keep us afraid, or we can finally say enough is enough and put an end to it. It will not happen overnight, but we could certainly bring it to a close much quicker if this country was truly the UNITED STATES of America. The problem is we have way too many "Americans" who feel they should not have to absorb any of the cost of keeping our nation free. Thank God our country's founders didn't see it that way, or we wouldn't even be able to have this debate today.
As a citizen of the United States we inherit a responsibility to preserve our nation's freedom. Fortunately, and in extreme gratitude to those who have served in previous wars, we have had the luxury of deciding for ourselves whether or not we wanted to serve. We have become spoiled and detached from what set our country apart from the rest of the world. It is OUR responsibility to preserve our freedom now. Some of the most ridiculous answers I have received from potential recruits involved something similar to "My dad served, or my grandfather served, or someone else - thus my family did our part." We are not Christians because dad or granddad was, and we have not done our part for our nation just because someone else in the family did. If you do not want to accept the inherent responsibility of defending our ideals, then maybe you should look elsewhere for a country that suits your beliefs. But guess what? You won't find one. Then you need to ask yourself, what has the United States done differently than all of these other countries, despite our young 200+ year existence. Freedom. But how long will we remain free without the existence of a military? Somehow I don't believe there would be a Utopian world, or a United States for that matter.
So go ahead and keep thinking and "feeling" like military service should be just another option for those who want to do it. I am for an all-voluntary force as much as any else, and would love to see it continue. The quality of an all-volunteer force is much greater than a conscripted force. But, if we allow the propaganda to keeping filtering out of the news networks we will lose that luxury.
How much is the freedom you have in this country worth to you? This is ONLY MY OPINION: If it is not worth giving your life for, then you do not deserve it.
