[Grovenet] What Value Honesty?

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

I saw a lengthy report about how the Army is literally scraping the bottom
of the barrel because we refuse to allow a draft. Perhaps that's what
triggered the acerbic Mr. Rooney to weigh in. I'll have to check and see if
it's available on the 'net. 

But it's true. In the past the Army was a cross-section of the US population
because the draft threw together Americans from all walks of life. One might
serve alongside a carpenter, mechanic or (gasp!) even a lawyer as I did.
Among my buddies in basic training I recall hanging out with a law student
from Santa Barbara, a turkey farmer from Medford, a student from Anaheim,
and an Eskimo fisherman from Alaska. 

The Army depends upon soldiers learning to trust each other with their
lives. Since the launching of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Army has
begun to allow people in - even recruit them actively - who we wouldn't want
living on the same block with us in town, much less live side-by-side with
them and entrust our lives  to them. 

Smart soldiers get out before they get dead, robbed, raped or whatever else
happens when you sleep alongside such people. 

What's worse, those characters left over are the "face" America shows to the
world. We saw a few of them at Abu Ghraib. But they were just the ones
stupid enough to get caught. I hope no one thinks that was an isolated case
or that something equally bad or worse isn't happening in the name of our
country as your read this.

It's what we created when we citizens refused to support the war with our
blood and sweat as well as with our words. 

Ron D'Eau Claire 



-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Steven
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 10:06 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] What Value Honesty?


You might have caught Andy Rooney's piece last Sunday. He feels the army 
is better when there is a draft.
----
As I read that I thought about the honest people I know. I'm blessed to 
know many of them. And I thought about many who I've never met: soldiers 
who serve in Iraq alongside the morally corrupt who the army now 
actively recruits to keep up its quotas - people the army would never 
consider in the past. 
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