Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 01, 2012

Glad she made it back. A little redhead I taught to ski, didn’t make it back from her second tour (medic).

I’m sorry the medic did not make it back. Her story is one of the thousands of tragedies that should tell us to bring everyone home.

You have to love Mel’s toughness.

Doing it for money obviously makes all the difference.

The square peg picked a suitable place to grow and become more…

@RDT64, I am not “a typical two faced, anti-military jerk,” but I also would have interpreted Principal Wilkes’ remark in the same manner as keenanthelibrarian. Is that a problem?

Looks like he’s a jerk!

Kids, lets play nice, we don’t want to start a war, or something!

There will be increasing opportunities in private security as economic conditions deteriorate.

Here in Virginia in 1776 our Founding Fathers declared that “a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and be governed by, the civil power.” In 1776, they thought that the existence of a professional military was an unnecessary evil. If the people themselves were properly prepared to defend their country from invasion, then an efficient and effective force could be organized in time of emergency, and would be unneeded otherwise. They could not envision a free and moral country ever sending its troops into another country unless it were first invaded. Though it was finally acknowledged that a small cadre of trained officers, and a few thousand soldiers to police the Indian tribes and frontiers were necessary, and the Marines were sent to the Shores of Tripoli, the U.S. maintained one of the worlds smallest peacetime militaries from 1776 to 1939, and enlisted men were looked upon with some contempt in peacetime. They were paid a pittance, recruited mostly from recent immigrants and the unemployable. The U.S. Army has a peacetime desertion rate of 25% per annum in the 19th century, and officers stayed on active duty into their dotage as no pensions were granted. Professional soldiers, if not officers, were seen as mercenaries. All this changes somewhat in WWI, and completely in WWII. From 1941 on, we have been on a war footing continually. The Cold War hardly ended (as no one really expected it ever to) before we adopted another perpetual war (the war on terror). If our enemies did not exist, it would be necessary to invent them. The Federal Government has grown gigantically in the last 100 years, chiefly owing to the expansion of its police and defense powers. Once it was understood than wishing for a small weak federal government and wishing for a small weak military logically went hand in hand, as the latter is the instrument of the former. And as for the military being under strict subordination to civil power, we have the confusion that leads people to call the President the Commander in Chief of the United States, rather than the C-in-C of the armed forces. The President is meant to be the C-in-C of the military, but he is also meant to be the SERVANT of the people. It is precisely because our military is no longer made up of the body of the people trained to arms, in which any and all might be called upon to serve, that we are so obsessive about “supporting the troops” and talking about their “patriotic service” out there “defending freedom”. I don’t know, perhaps someone can tell me, what percentage of our armed forces today joined up for selfless reasons of wishing to serve their nation in spite of having more lucrative and safe options, and what percentage joined up because, in spite of the risks, it was just what they wanted to do, or because it seemed the best career option open to them. For how many is it a job, even an attractive job, and for how many is it rather a matter of self-sacrifice? What exactly is the difference now between the patriot soldier and the mercenary soldier? I don’t mean to judge. Just wondering.

remember, the military/ making war is the highest profession that there is in America. and to say anything “bad” about the military equals being a traitor, thanks to John Wayne, St. Ronnie and the MIC.

so remember, keep your mind closed, obey your father and do what you’re told. and worship the military as the God that it is. and you’ll have no trouble with all the alpha males who put you on the spot for questioning the “wisdom” of being ’patriotic". patriotic in the sense of the young dying for the Military victories of the General and other Neo Cons.

TOTALLY different when one is a professional. Not sure why, but…………….

I agree with you 90%. Absolutely, part-time militias failed even during the revolution. Civilians are not made soldiers overnight. This is infinitely more so today, considering the high level of technical expertise the modern soldier requires. The ideals and ideas of the 18th century are irrelevant in more ways than one. Our national defenses are no longer protecting out borders. They are no where near our borders. If we were to stick to the ideas of George Washington, we would not have military bases around the globe. I only partly disagree on one point, and it is trivial: we did not demobilize after WWII. We didn’t bring all the boys home, or return to the kind of military we had in 1940. Not that I am saying we should have! But that, and the elimination of the draft, mean that it is no longer possible to separate the mercenary from the patriot soldier, self-service from public service. A soldier is no longer a citizen called from his private affairs to meet a crisis, only to return to normal life afterward. He is no longer the “Cincinnatus” revered by the men who fought the revolution. The modern soldier is, and must be, a professional. He is an employee of the federal government, and therefore of the people. He has a dangerous and difficult job, but it is a job. He is serving the country, certainly. But so is every federal employee. Is a member of the military who happens not to see combat or go in harm’s way not deserving of respect? Some federal employees don’t earn their pay. Is there not one soldier, sailor, airman, or marine out there who doesn’t earn his pay? And are civilian employees of the government never in harm’s way because they are federal employees? Ask those who work in Oklahoma City. Anyway, I guess my only point is that I am always struck by how poorly our rhetoric and our self-image keeps pace with who we really are now as a nation and a people. We spend all our time looking backward to a idealized world that never really existed while we stumble blindly forward.

It’s Anger Management 101. The military channels those emotions – usually in the direction it wants that individual to go. Problem is, what happens when you have to return to civilian life? Some people adjust easily, others don’t.Personally, it took me many years to overcome my anger issues after I’d left the Army.I’m glad that GT is opening up this line of discussion. Great comments from @doughfoot, @Guy and @mightaswellbe

I did not interpret Wilkes’ comment to mean Mel was a bully. I interpreted it to mean she refused to be bullied.

You all may be over-thinking this. What I got from the comment is that making a profession out of something you love sounds like a great idea, except that then it’s work and you no longer want to do it on your own time.

Like me, Mel is a trained helicopter mechanic, which translates into a lot of jobs in aviation. She also had “attitude” as a kid, not to be pushed around. Training also included the ability to “take people’s head off”, in the figurative as well as literal sense.

On hiring vets and skills. My son is now disabled retired after 13 years. He can run a nuclear reactor, fixe air conditioning on a car, or skyscrapers, fix all kinds of “things”, and yes, take someone’s head off.

Army is basic training to combat. Navy is basic as a firefighter. While infantry is the “take people’s head off”. all sorts of MOSs lead to more than that skill, but it IS the basic. NO civilian opportunities for that though.

Wish I’d said that. As always, you are far more eloquent than I could ever be. Keep up the good fight.

To days solder no matter why he or she has enlisted, To paraphrase Robert Heinlein, "has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.”

And i think this quote captures the essence of why the draft has never worked.

“Social responsibility above the level of family, or at most of tribe, requires imagination— devotion, loyalty, all the higher virtues — which a man must develop himself; if he has them forced down him, he will vomit them out.”― Robert A. Heinlein

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2534973-starship-troopers

Guys, GT Himself reminds us, THIS IS A COMIC STRIP.

Bob Vila changed his name to Wilkes and became a high school principal?

Jack, I have to point out that in iraq, our Number 1 contractor, Halliburton, was put in charge of providing water to the troops, instead of using the units they had in the military. Halliburton POISONED THEM, AND GAVE THEM FILTHY WATER!!! My son had to go over to the Embassy in the green zone to BUY bottled water to survive! GREAT JOB, Rummy, and Dick!!