Posted by Dan Ewert : 3/27/2003 01:44:00 AM (Archive Link)
Now I’m not so sure that those on the left would agree with the above assessment about discrimination in the military. It’s an institution they don’t understand, don’t respect, and don’t like. Liberals are also often all aflame about how minorities make up the majority of the army and are always the ones who die, etc. Problem is, it ain’t really so. Ignoring the fact that America’s is a volunteer military and nobody is there who doesn’t want to be, a further investigation of the numbers show that minorities make up a… well… minority in combat units. Their representation, percentage-wise, in these high risk units is below that of the general population and of the army itself. Many minorities choose other non-combat roles in the military. This isn’t a comment on their bravery, it just shows that the government isn’t hurling a bunch of minorities at the enemy as some would have you believe. Even when the draft was in effect during the Vietnam War, minority fatalities kept pace with their representation in the general American population and armed forces.

As stated, though, the military is a foreign thing to most liberals. Compliments are only to be paid to it if it advances your particular cause. This is best illustrated by the folks who had been saying that only those who had served in the military, preferably in combat, had the authority to decide whether or not we should go to war. This was in stark contrast to years of ranting that soldiers and generals were war-mongering Dr. Strangeloves and that the military is to be kept firmly under civilian control. At any rate, the liberal viewpoint is very much on display in this woman's post in an online forum. Maybe not so much in the notion that the Iraqis are swell captors, but in this idea that soldiers have been brainwashed by the army and are incapable of thinking on their own. She thinks that the POW’s removal from the rest of the military will suddenly enable them to think independently. If you’re a Star Trek person, it’s like the army is the Borg and these fortunate souls have been separated from the collective. Soldiers are not automatons. They are capable of thinking and forming opinions and there are many who, while still doing their jobs and upholding their oaths, still disagree with the war. The brave men and women fighting right now will largely move on to be civilian members of society; many will go to college, some will become doctors, lawyers, professors, a few will even be congressmen and senators. When you go into the military, you don’t check your brain at the door.