Two buzzwords the Obama Administration has latched onto like stink on an ape: “Leave no one behind” and “America is war-weary.” Well, as a retired Marine who managed to survive both the Carter and Clinton Administrations, it sure is nice to see members of the Jackass Party all of a sudden give a tinker’s damn over us lower-life forms that happen to serve in uniform.
I’ve already made note of the hypocritical “leave no one behind” faux war cry that Obama & Friends can’t seem to wail loud enough. This time I’m going to hammer away on this absolute lie of how allegedly war-weary this nation is.
First of all, almost no one in this country is personally affected by our boys slinging lead at bad guys in either Iraq or Afghanistan. If it wasn’t for the internet or radio/television news, most people wouldn’t even know a war was going on.
Active and Reserve, a puny 0.8% of this country is in uniform. That’s right, less than one out of every hundred. Subtracting Facebook friends, Twitter followers and, other varied and sundry internet relationships many of the populous strain to maintain, just how many people in your close personal orbit have a service connection? And, no, dads and granddads who were subject to the draft don’t count. Neither does third cousin Suzie’s step-nephew by her fourth marriage.
Let’s flashback to World War II. Sixteen million out of a population of 150 million were in the armed forces. That’s roughly 11% serving. Almost every family had someone in the military. It just wasn’t that rare to hear everyday people say the following:
- “I have to go to St. Mary’s and light a candle for little Jimmy Rojas. He was just killed on Guam.”
- “Did you hear of Rabbi Stern’s daughter getting killed? Rebecca, you know, the nurse? The Germans shelled her field hospital in Sicily.”
- “Pray for the Johnsons. Poor Mr. Johnson’s ship was torpedoed in the North Atlantic. They didn’t find any survivors.”
No, America isn’t war-weary. America’s just tired of hearing politicians say how war- weary we are. Want to know who’s really war-weary?
- Talk to the 22-year-old generic pay grade E-4 who already has four tours in the ‘Stan under his belt. He wants to stay in, but his wife has already threatened to leave and take the kids if he goes overseas one more time .
- Talk to the 25-year-old Navy FMF Corpsman who wants to stay in for a career, but clearly sees more of an emphasis on social engineering than winning wars. Why stay in?
- Talk to the 18-years-in-service Marine gunny with well over a dozen tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, who was just told he’s been flagged as unqualified for his final re-enlistment that will put him over the 20-year mark. Two years short of retirement, he’s getting the boot because of a DUI when he was a PFC almost two decades ago.
- Talk to the ex-Army former comrades-in-arms of Bowe Bergdahl whom the Obama Administration has publicly labeled as liars.
Eight tenths of one percent of this country has been doing the heavy lifting while the rest of us complain about the high cost of HD televisions and the rising cost of smart phones.
I better stop now before I start cussing and kicking s**t over.
