Baghdad Is A Great Place To Be!

[devarsi]

No shit, I heard an army recruiter telling a student this yesterday. The student mentioned that his cousin was in Baghdad, and the recruiter beamed, and made his comment.

I was walking down the hall, and overheard the exchange, which stopped me in my tracks.

I turned around, approached the recruiter, and asked him this -

"Great for who? Dead Iraqis or dead US Soldiers?"

I asked the student if he was happy that his cousin was in Iraq. He said that he was not.

The recruiter sarcastically asked if I didn't support our troops. I said that my support was directed in bringing our sons and daughters home.

I asked him if he ever did any combat duty. He snapped back "Have you?"

I said no, but it wasn't my job to sell college students into combat, either. This disgusted the recruiter, who turned his back on me and went off to find more fertile grounds. The student had long since made himself scarce.

I thought about following the recruiter, andpressing my original question - for exactly whom is it "great to be in Baghdad?"

But I knew I would never get an honest answer from the man, and I realized that I already knew the answer.

Its great for oil executives, arms manufacturers, and armed forces recruiters, all of whom stay far from the daily doses of death and destruction that are served up in Baghdad, and watch their respective businesses boom as a result.

I can't remember feeling more sickened.

The only thing that salvaged my day was that I discovered that two of the Poli Sci professors at the college (Utah Valley State College), are hard core anti-Bush, paper their offices with lefty articles, and read MoveOn.org.

I'm thankful that I recently changed my major from Comp Sci to an Integrated Studies (Philosophy and Poli Sci). If I hadn't, I might have left that encounter with the recruiter thinking that the college was just a training center for the neo-cons.

But, there is hope, springing eternally. :-)

(On Edit - In the 1st draft I left out "dead" when referring to Iraqis and US soldiers. Makes a bit of difference...)

[ewagner]

1. Congratulations

It took courage to do that. I would hope my son would have the same courage of his convictions.

I was in the military and I can tell you that the thing that makes our military so good is also the thing that disturbs us the most. They are instilled with a sense of invincibility and taught that, when you are trained in the combat arts, there is no greater reward in life than utilizing those arts. Hence, a war zone is a place for you to prove your skills and, worse yet, your manhood.

There are young people on every campus in the United States who want to prove themselves in one way or another. Many of them find comfort in the military's message.

Again, good for you and a :toast:

[diamond14]

3. and they are so good, that we would love to see the military put

their efforts into something other that KILLING and destroying whole cities and nations and stealing their natural resources....

time for the SAME sort of effort directed toward PEACE...we could have PEACE monuments, glory for those who make PEACE, parades for PEACE, statues of PEACE-makers...

we need a social degradation for those who take us to WAR and great honors for those who choose PEACE....we need people who are proud to lead us to PEACE...people who really are leaders...people who know in their souls that PEACE is the correct way...

BOOT bush* in 2004
http://www.democrats.org

[diamond14]

2. Congratulations on STANDING UP !!!! if more potential draftees

would STAND UP, pretty soon these 'recruiters' would be run off our college campuses.....

when I was young, at the U of Michigan...students burned the ROTC building right to the ground...and cheered !!!! at least for a while, it got rid of these pesky varmints who prey on vulnerable minds...

[devarsi]

4. Thanks for the congrats, BUT...

I don't think that what I did was at all courageous. In fact, I struggled with myself over whether I should confront the guy, and eventually did so only out of extreme contempt.

I didn't feel brave, just very pissed off.