media + army + perception

[orbsycli]

my paranoia rises.

just read an article:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ecruiting_woes

now, this is one of many articles i have seen over the past few months.
in different context in different places sources claim the army is falling short of it's recruitement whatever.

my paranoia rises.

is this the army's way of recruiting?
are they entangling themselves into the media so that some people feel as if they must fill this gap and serve their country?
why else would this be in the news? especially repeatedly for several months.

what do you guys think?

[bumab]

I think you're probably right on about the guilting people into joining. A draft won't happen now, so they've got to increase enrollment the old fashioned way- illusion and coersion.

[UncleAl]

War imposes economic hegemony and deletes excess young males. (Don't place girls amidst your warriors except as entertainment.) WWII was not about freedom or democracy, it was about IG Farben's patents strangling a suddenly industrialized America, and cashing in on Europe with the Marshal Plan as any mother country would exploit its colonies. We were actively if quietly negotiating with Hitler (via Joseph Kennedy) to divide up the world. Either outcome would have been satisfactory to Washington.

Bush the Lesser is the idiot son of a rich man. He paid dad's debts by making the right folks wealthy and more powerful - with war, when nobody checks the account books until afterward. The idiot should have gone in, kicked ass, sucked oil, and departed. Let the UN squeal and squawk, then dangle an unsigned annual contribution check in front of bureaucrats' eyes. It's the money, honey - always.

Bush the Lesser is killing whole towns of young people in front of TV cameras and accomplishing nothing while doing it. Vietnam redux. He has soured folks who would glady don a uniform and eat crap for the opportunity to lawfully hunt humans and flatten whole cties. He has soured honorable folks who would voluntarily place their lives between their country and its enemies, too. That pretty much leaves two alternatives,

1) Forced conscription to feed the bloody maw of goal-free war, or

2) Recruit those who have nothing - slum bunnies, retards, criminals - because risking death in the Army with three meals/day is better than what they have now. Welfare and social advocacies minimize (eliminate) this possibility. Living is free and jails have air conditioning plus Cable TV.

Economic boom follows good war. Economic depression follows bad war. WWI (bad), WWII (real good), Korea (bad), Vietnam (real bad), Reagan (kick ass good!), Persian Gulf I (bad), Persian Gulf II (real bad). Guess what happens when the $trillion bill for Gulf War II arrives due for payment concident with Baby Boomers retiring and demanding their fat free ride from Social Security.

[Biochemist]

Originally Posted by UncleAl

...Economic boom follows good war. Economic depression follows bad war. WWI (bad), WWII (real good), Korea (bad), Vietnam (real bad), Reagan (kick ass good!), Persian Gulf I (bad), Persian Gulf II (real bad). Guess what happens when the $trillion bill for Gulf War II arrives due for payment concident with Baby Boomers retiring and demanding their fat free ride from Social Security.

Gee, UncleAl:

1) This is the first I've heard that Reagan was a war. I could have sworn he was a president. That cut taxes. And spawned the longest economic boom in US history.
2) It seems to me that you have defined "good" and "bad" wars by their economic aftermath. Your hypothesis is a syllogism.
3) Even by that measure, Persian Gulf (1) would have to be a "good" war, since it puncuated the second half of the Reagan boom, including the tech revolution of the 1990's.
4) The World Trade Center attacks cost the US economy over a trillion dollars. You can certainly be concerned about the cost of the war, but it probably makes sense to consider the avoided costs of incremental terrorist attacks. They are certianly not zero.

[niviene]

Originally Posted by UncleAl

(Don't place girls amidst your warriors except as entertainment.)

Nice...

[orbsycli]

Guess what happens when the $trillion bill for Gulf War II arrives due for payment concident with Baby Boomers retiring and demanding their fat free ride from Social Security.

so what do you think will happen?

[orbsycli]

just another mess. just like this, just like all the rest. that's my prediction.

[sanctus]

Originally Posted by UncleAl

(Don't place girls amidst your warriors except as entertainment.)

Aren't here any men/women for equal rights who react to such a statement. But I have to admit I was laughing after reading it, you placed it well uncle al.

[Biochemist]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

so what do you think will happen?

We will make economic choices like we always do. The choices always involve winners and losers.

Any way you look at it, Social Security will not be handled as it is now in 50 years. Neither will Medicare. They have a combined 60 TRILLION dollar deficit. Do keep in mind that GDP is about 10 trillion. The arithmetic is pretty simple: This cannot be funded. But it is anybody's guess what congress will do.

[bumab]

Originally Posted by Biochemist

We will make economic choices like we always do. The choices always involve winners and losers.

There are alternatives to zero-sum game theory. Someone should start a thread on that...