Money where your mouth is...

The U.S. Armed Forces are facing a dire recruiting situation as of late (gee, I have no idea why?). Anyway, it goes without saying that those of us who have been opposed to this war in Iraq all along aren't exactly beating down the doors of the recruiting office screaming "Sign me up! Sign me up!" But apparently, the usual source of fresh blood, poor inner city youth, are actually becoming reluctant to join the armed forces. Again, I wonder why?

Sarcasm aside, kos has a solution in a series of posts: enlist the wingnuts! First the bloggers, the 101st Fighting Keyboardists:

Enlistment is down because of the War in Iraq -- a war that people like Jonah Goldberg and the rest of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists continue to support and defend. Yet while they continue to pimp a war that has cost us over 1,600 US dead, they themselves refuse to put their words into action and join our heroic (yet undermanned and underequipped) Armed Forces.

You must read the whole post, it's fascinating. I love the arguments that the wingnuts have for not enlisting-- I fully support the war, but I have a daughter. (I'm sure NONE of the soldiers in Iraq have children. I must have been smoking crack when I read the statistic of 1,000 children losing a parent to the war in Iraq.) This is not new, of course. During the Vietnam War, Dick Cheney got five deferments and when asked about it in the late 80's, early 90's, he said it was because he had "other priorities." Like none of the other millions of people who fought in that war did.

Second up for kos is the religious right establishment, and how they should be pushing their flocks to the recruitment office. There's quotes from Jerry Falwell and James Dobson glorifying the Iraq War through the eyes of the bible, but:

So how about these preachers, who think this war is oh-so-just, put their words in action and encourage their flock to enlist? But I couldn't find any such proclamations from these two preachers. Lots of boilerplate about "supporting the troops", but nothing encouraging their followers to put words to deeds.

It's the hallmark of the American Right, whether it's the American Taliban or the 101st Fighting Keyboardists -- cowardice masked by tough words and no action.

And finally, it's the good ol' pundits. You aren't allowed to say anything on TV remotely critical of the war because you're "not supporting the troops! How dare you!" But as kos points out, Hannity and O'Reilly are doing little to get their flock out of their business attire or hunting gear and into the recruiting office.

If anyone is actually still reading ME, I have my own personal story. I was watching highlights of the Republican National Convention and desperately holding back the vomit when they began to interview some Young Republicans who were all "Rah-rah War in Iraq! It's the best war EVER!" So the interviewer actually had the audacity to say, "If you support the war so much, don't you feel a duty to fight for your country?"

His answer? "Well, I believe I can do more for my country here as a political science student. But if we were attacked again, like 9/11, oh yeah, I'm there!"

First of all, what an idiot. Yeah, he's doing us a buttload of good being ANOTHER political science student. We don't have enough of those.

And though I hate to humor the idea that 9/11 and Iraq are somehow related, he's full of shit on his second point. We could have ten 9/11-like attacks next week and he wouldn't make it within a ten mile radius of a recruitment office. And even if he were this big brave man to the rescue, why do we have to be attacked a freaking SECOND time for him to get involved? How many times do we have to get attacked before he is willing to risk HIS life, as opposed to the lives of all the other thousands of military men and women that he and his ilk are so callous about?

But no matter. If another attack came, or a draft, by that time he'd probably have a wife or a baby, so he'd have "better priorities" to do than fight in a war and he'd be able to get out of it.