War Notes

The Independent reports that incidents of soldiers going AWOL are becoming increasingly common, with calls to a volunteer hotline for soldiers desperate to get out of the military having increased by 50% since 9/11.

The people calling the hotline range from veterans such as Sgt Benderman to recruits such as Jeremiah Adler, an idealistic 18-year-old from Portland, Oregon, who joined the Army believing he could help change its culture. Within days of arriving for his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, he realised he had made a mistake and said the Army simply wanted to turn him into a "ruthless, cold-blooded killer".

Mr Adler begged to be sent home and even pretended to be gay to be discharged. Eventually, he and another recruit fled in the night and rang the hotline, which advised him to turn himself in to avoid court-martial. He will now be given an "other than honourable discharge".

From southern Germany where he is on holiday before starting college in the autumn, Mr Adler told The Independent: "It was obviously a horrible experience but now I'm glad I went through it. I was expecting to meet a whole lot of different types of people; some had noble reasons. I also met a lot of people who [wanted] to kill Arabs." In one letter home to his family, Mr Adler wrote that when he arrived he was horrified by the things he heard other recruits talking about, things that in civilian life would result in someone being treated as an outcast. In another letter he said he could hear other recruits crying at night. "You can hear people trying to make sure no one hears them cry under their covers," he wrote.

One might laugh at Adler’s youthful romanticism of his ability to effect change, or his naïveté about the realities of the military, but we’ve all met (or been) an 18 year old like Adler, ready and willing to take on the world—and unable to shut the hell up about it. Something tells me his master plan to change the culture of the military wasn’t something he kept secret from his recruitment officer, who was undoubtedly content to ignore the idealistic folly of youth before him, seeing instead some much-needed cannon fodder for the neverending war on terra.

The military’s recruitment woes thusly continue unabated, even with unprecedented enlistment bonuses and promises (no really, we swear) of shorter tours of active duty. Meanwhile, the soldiers already there, or still there after long and endless months compelled to remain under stop-loss orders, are choosing in ever greater numbers to pull the military equivalent of “fuck this job” and head for the hills.

Considering the unwavering support of Bush’s Iraq venture from his red state political foot soldiers, one might think that upon hearing the enlistment and AWOL problems the military is facing, they’d line up to sign up. But the thing is, being a political foot soldier is one thing; actually picking up a gun and putting your fatigues where your mouth is, it turns out, is quite another. Not only are they not signing up—they’re shitting their breeks at the thought of a draft and (shock of shocks!) blaming this whole mess on liberals. They’ve also got the splendid idea of sending over “the feminists” who have been arguing for “equal rights” all these years. Pam’s got the goods on the Freepers:

"Well, I will just say that the dems and the MSM have a lot to do with this---Why would young people want to join the military to go to an "illegal war" and "kill innocent people"? They are filled in with so much anti-America propaganda in high school and college nowdays that it would seem almost impossible to get a "patriotic" emotion from a lot of them these days....I would think that if they could see the pride of what American troops have accomplished in Afghanistan and Iraq, it might help, but where would they see that---even Fox isn't showing it as much as they used to..."

"And this time around it is time for women to step up to the plate and be required to register with the SS since they want equality. Fem groups argued for years about women on ships and combat areas. There is no reason for them to be exempt from national service or the draft. A guy years ago was more to the point. He would go all out for women and equality WHEN he saw them join in mass protests for the right to be drafted. The wusses in Congress after years of hand wringing finally allowed them to participate in current realities."

"Great incentives..but I KNOW what the Libs will say… ‘What good are incentives like that when you won't be ALIVE to use them??’ Anyone have a counter to that lilly-livered argument?"

Uh, no. Because it’s less “lily-livered” than “accurate” and “a good point.”

But then again, I’m just a feminist liberal who never supported this war and didn’t want our troops sent in the first place…what the hell do I know?