Rumsfeld's Worst Nightmare: America's Mothers

Under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, the military thrived. Even under Clinton recruitment remained solid. In the handful of years George Bush, Jr. has been in charge, his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has managed to run the military into the ground. The Army and Marines have been missing their recruitment quotas for months now. At the least, this is alarming.

Recruitment efforts are becoming more and more aggressive. This is having an unintended effect: Concerned mothers are becoming proactive in waging a campaign to keep their children away from recruiters who are swarming campuses, blowing smoke up kids butts and providing them with 'cool' violent video games. You can't lie to mom. They know the draft is coming and they intend to do everything in their parental power to keep their kids out of the hands of the death merchants. Rumsfeld has met his match.

The Army's Hard Sell
By Bob Herbert
The New York Times

Monday 27 June 2005

The all-volunteer Army is not working. The problem with such an Army is that there are limited numbers of people who will freely choose to participate in an enterprise in which they may well be shot, blown up, burned to death or suffer some other excruciating fate.

The all-volunteer Army is fine in peacetime, and in military routs like the first gulf war. But when the troops are locked in a prolonged war that yields high casualties, and they look over their shoulders to see if reinforcements are coming from the general population, they find -as they're finding now - that no one is there.

Although it has been lowering standards, raising bonuses and all but begging on its knees, the Army hasn't reached its recruitment quota in months. There are always plenty of hawks in America. But the hawks want their wars fought with other people's children.
www.truthout.org...

I tell you what, when my husband was in the military I was very much in favor of having any of my two children joining and following the tradition that started with my two grandfathers.

But as now I dread the day that one of them will said that they have desires to become a soldier.

I imagine that if the mothers of America knows that our country is invaded or about to be invaded they will not have any doubt into giving their children freely to save America.

But right now our children are been given away to protect big interest and profit margins.

Our soldiers have not chance against these corporate warmongers that want to increased their profits with the blood of our children.

Getting our love ones out of Iraq is "not an option" said Mr. Bush, why? because now big oil corporations are going to get their hands on the spoils of Iraqi conflict and somebody has to protect them while they are doing it.

That is not why we gave birth to our children, our children will defend our country and I imagine that we all Americans would do it in a hart bit.

But not for the reasons in Iraq right now.

Thanks for your thoughts, Marg. As someone who is a family member of military and one who has children, I place a high value on your comments. I hope folks really listen to what you said.