Some Clarification For the Navy Recuiter Who Just Phoned Me
An open letter from the parent of 2 potential inductees
by Bruce F. Cole
Dear Petty Officer "Doe":
I won't use your real name because I can't remember it. I do remember our conversation however, and after I hung up I realized that I didn't explain myself very well when I declined to give you the name of the college my son is attending. I hope you didn't take my refusal personally. You certainly responded well enough, and I appreciate that. You have a tough job these days. But please let me be clear about why I didn't want to help you contact Pat.
It isn't because I think he (or his sister, for that matter) would not benefit from performing some sort of national service. The problem is that "national service" isn't what your current commander-in-chief is interested in getting out of my son. What he is interested in, from all appearances and from the text of various documents, is global domination...and, secondarily, exploiting whomever he needs to for that to happen. What's more, he appears more and more "certifiable" as the days go on. Watch his debates with Kerry, with the sound off, if you don't believe me (then listen to the sound without the video). I will not enable my son to fall under that dangerous fool's command.
This President has lied profusely to the personnel in the Armed Services and served them plastic turkey at Thanksgiving (along with alligator tears when necessary), while he ignores the advice of the most prominent and experienced of your commanders - performed with about the same disdain that he's bestowed on the rest of us. Has he made your Recruiter's job any easier? Are we, as a nation, safer for his leadership? Why doesn't it feel that way?
As it happens, I have been exchanging emails with some of your comrades, military, civilian defense workers and veterans, who have been writing letters to the editor of "Stars and Stripes," the Armed Forces newpaper. They contacted me after reading an online essay I wrote a couple years ago about the early stages of an anti-Bush letter-to-the-editor phenomenon in "Stripes", a phenomenon which continues apace, even now. Here is an excerpt from one of just a few days ago: "When the smoke clears and the mirrors lay shattered, these facts will remain: Kerry volunteered while Bush vanished; Kerry supports the middle class while Bush supports the ultra-wealthy; and Kerry is a statesman while Bush plays one, badly, on TV." A Vietnam vet signed that one.
The level of distrust for and anger toward this administration from our soldiers and sailors is, in itself, a condemnation of Bush's ability as a "War President" (as if an illegal war isn't enough condemnation already). This level of disgruntlement is reason, in itself, to want my son to be spared the experience of soldiering. Unfortunately that is only one of a dozen such reasons (all of which would be moot if only the cause were just. And establishing a neocon imperial pipe-dream, brand-named the "New American Century," does not suffice as a just cause, Officer.)
If you do get through to my son, he is an adult and he can speak for himself; I can't tell him what to think, but I will tell him that you called. All I ask, if you do contact him, is that you don't sugar-coat it, or to put it plainly: lay it out straight. Tell him what he really can expect if he were to sign up, what he is likely to be ordered to do, and where he is most likely to be deployed. Tell him that he might not get to separate from the service when he wants to, even after he has served his contract time. I don't expect you to show him pictures of mangled soldiers and civilians (sights, after all, which he could well become familiar with if he were to enlist), but how about a little honesty? Don't tell him that you can get him on a career path in the music industry or any of that other bullshit.
How about this: how about not promising anything beyond what you know for sure will happen to him, and then giving him a worst-case scenario to consider as well? If your pitch is good enough, who knows, you might have a chance at him. You may have a harder time making your quotas, but I bet you'll sleep better at night if you do that for all your potential recruits, Officer "Doe".
Sincerely,
Bruce F. Cole Camden, Maine
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