[politics] Depressing news
You know that Zogby poll of the military that lots of folks have already picked up on, right? The one where 72% of the soldiers surveyed favor getting the hell out of Dodge within a year? I finally got around to actually checking out the blurb on Zogby's site, and there are some depressing tidbits in there that have been missing from the coverage of the survey.
First, 90% of the soldiers surveyed feel that the Iraq War was retaliation for Saddam Hussein's involvement in the 9/11 attacks.
Oh, and almost 40% of them think that the Americans who favor a quick withdrawal do so because they are unpatriotic.
Discuss...
posted by protected static at 3/02/2006 09:55:00 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
At least they know what their CO's want to hear...
See, here's the thing - I don't think it's just "what their CO's want to hear". Take my brother-in-law, for instance - he's an LTC in the Air Force, and while I don't think he'd be in the 37% that sees anti-war Americans as 'unpatriotic', I think he would be in the 90% that believes that this is payback for 9/11. Even the ones that know that there was no Iraqi involvement in 9/11 have it rationalized as part of 'dealing with terror states in the Middle East' - the link between Saddam and 9/11 is drummed into them continuously...
As a for-instance, the family newsletter that my sister sent out with their Christmas card showed her husband in full battle gear standing in front of sign that was a "Why We Fight"-type of deal, listing every terror attack on US troops or Americans since the 1983 bombing of the USMC in Beruit.
Almost none of those incidents were perpetrated by the same group more than once... Yet the official line is that they're all related.
Karen, I don't know how many service members you know but most of the Marines I served with had no trouble speaking their mind and telling people what they thought.
F*ck a lot of what the CO wants to hear. Most troopers and Marines are not there to be Lifers. They are there to fulfill an obligation, do their four (or eight in my case) and get out. The service is ran by lifers and career Marines but it's staffed by, and gets it tone from citizens who do not have a career to worry about.
No offense meant of course.
No offense taken, certainly.
I think my perspective is skewed because of the folks I do know who are currently/formerly serving. There are 4 in my husband's family, all were career guys (in one case, he recently retired after 30 years at Ft. Bragg, training paratroopers). Every conversation we had about the military and war has been interesting, to say the least. Not what you might expect, especially my father-in-law. He's retired Air Force and vehemently anti-war. Certainly when it comes to Iraq.
So yeah, I think it's different from the average soldier over there. Keith's uncle in particular - the guy who was at Bragg - feels much freer to say what he thinks. Most of the time it's certainly not what I want to hear, if that's what you're wondering, but it's not the same as an active soldier's opinion either. Which is why I made the comment in the first place; there's less privacy and anonymity in the military than anywhere else on earth, even if you're responding to an "anonymous poll".
there's less privacy and anonymity in the military than anywhere else on earth
Certainly. But that never kept me from voicing my opinion, which was my point. I don't (or didn't) care that the CO knew what my politics were or how I felt about X, Y and Z - you ask and you'll get an earful.
Things might be differnet now - it's been fifteen years since I seperated - but I don't see how.
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