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Thursday, Aug 2, 2007
I would serve if...
by Jason Leisey
I would serve if… my
country asked me to, but I’m in college, my job is really important
and they need me there, you can basically insert anything here. I have
heard them all, and as a veteran of the Iraq war, I will tell you that
there is nothing more infuriating than hearing these so called
patriots talk tough about the war on terror, yet not being able to
walk the walk.
I would serve if my
country asked me to. This has to be the most absurd statement I have
ever heard. Our military is serving everywhere from Afghanistan, Iraq,
The Philippines, The Horn of Africa, The Balkans, I could go on and
on, but you get the point. So I have to ask the question, what will it
actually take to get them to enlist if they won’t right now?
WAKE UP!
If this is that important
to you that we should be risking American lives, then you should do
your part and get your gun in the fight. If you are worried about
Islamic Fascists/Extremists attacking us here, then YOU need to fight
them over there.
These wars have had such a
small percentage of the American population serving in them in
comparison to all other wars in our history. Yet I had a female high
school classmate say to me, “So what if you served in Iraq? Everybody
has been there, it’s to the point of who hasn’t served there now.” I
was shocked, how terribly misinformed she is to think that “everyone”
has been there, when in fact it has been about 1.5 million of our
countries 300 million citizens, less than 1% of our population. How
naïve I was to think that people were really informed about the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan. The sheer ignorance to what is going on with
our troops is astonishing to me considering all of the Yellow Ribbon
“Support Our Troops” Magnets that I used to see on the road.
Retired Army Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who was one of the top
commanders in the first Gulf War, said has said that the U.S. military
is "in a race against time" to train Iraqi replacements before running
short of Soldiers and Marines next summer.
“The wheels start falling
off the Army and Marine Corps next summer," McCaffrey said. "We can't
sustain the current deployment cycle beyond that without changing the
law."
What is it going to take?
Could there be any more
pleas for help?
At a time when our
military is stretched so thin that people are on their third, fourth,
or fifth tour we still have people saying, “I would serve, but I’m in
college.” Guess what? That is not an excuse. Many people have given up
a lot more than that to serve their country. I gave up college, Paul
Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America gave up a six-figure salary on Wall Street to go to Baghdad,
and there are many other stories just like these.
Service to your country requires you to give up a part of yourself for
a greater cause. It just seems that most of these “patriots” want
everyone else to do the sacrificing while they sit in a college
classroom talking about Islamic facism, and how WE need to be fighting
them over there. I say to them, WE means each and everyone of us, so
get down to your local recruiting station, and sign up to do your
part.
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