Current music:

Circle- "Teraskylpy"

we support our troops when they shoot their officers

"The reason to have a military is to be prepared to fight and win wars... it's not a jobs program."- Dick Cheney

My cousin Tim is getting shipped to Iraq.  Baghdad.  In the army for combat technology.

I don't even know how I'm supposed to feel.  On one hand, he's family, so I should be compassionate and hope for a safe return.  And of course I do.

But at the same time... He's enlisting into a murderous institution, with a very vague idea of what he's actually getting into.  My dad aptly described the military situation in Iraq as a "big playground fight with no adults around." 

Tim seems like a perfect recruit... A not-too-bright, apolitical Missouri farm boy with little clue of what to do after high school.  And, like so many other young people in this country, he bought into the UTTER FUCKING LIES of the recruiters.  Tim wanted to go to Australia, and the slick-ass recruiters made it seem like the Army would station him in Australia.  There are just so many questions that are NOT being asked of military recruiters.  Questions such as:

-Why do veterans earn less than similar non-veterans? Why are veterans imprisoned more often? Why are 1/3 of all homeless people veterans?
-How does getting yelled at and ordered around provide self-discipline?
-Why do 65% of recruits who pay the required $1200 into the Montgomery GI Bill never get a dime in return?
-Why do only 12% of male veterans and 6% of female veterans make any use of skills learned in the military in their civilian jobs?

Let this be said:  There is very little difference between "supporting the troops" and "supporting the war."  The only troops I support are the ones who refuse to fight.  The heart of the war machine is right here at home, in recruitment centers and high schools (shit, what's the difference anymore?) all across the country.  As long as we continue to educate kids about the pure falsehoods that the recruiters are feeding them, there's still some hope.