Malkin's Mercenaries

mer·ce·nar·y
Pronunciation (mûrs-nr) adj.

1. Motivated solely by a desire for monetary or material gain.
2. Hired for service in a foreign army.

Dearest Michelle,

I would be just as deeply offended as you, Confederate Yankee, HindRocket, and all the rest, at William Arken's insinuation that today's soldiers are mercenaries--if it weren't for this:

A Military Path to Citizenship

             The Washington Post, October 19, 2006

   Michael E. O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies
  Max Boot, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Now is the time to consider a new chapter in the annals of American immigration. By inviting foreigners to join the U.S. armed forces in exchange for a promise of citizenship after a four-year tour of duty, we could continue to attract some of the world's most enterprising, selfless and talented individuals. We could provide a new path toward assimilation for undocumented immigrants who are already here but lack the prerequisite for enlistment -- a green card. And we could solve the No. 1 problem facing the Army and Marine Corps: the fact that these services need to grow to meet current commitments yet cannot easily do so (absent a draft) given the current recruiting environment.

...And I'm not even going to go into the subject of bonuses.

I've found that the vast majority of my fellow soldiers couldn't care less about ideological politics. The sin Arkin committed was to transpose neocon idea's onto the thought processes of those in the military:

I said I was bothered by the notion that "the troops" were somehow becoming hallowed beings above society, that they had an attitude that only they had the means - or the right - to judge the worthiness of the Iraq endeavor.

I was dead wrong in using the word mercenary to describe the American soldier today.

These men and women are not fighting for money with little regard for the nation. The situation might be much worse than that: Evidently, far too many in uniform believe that they are the one true nation. They hide behind the constitution and the flag and then spew an anti-Democrat, anti-liberal, anti-journalism, anti-dissent, and anti-citizen message that reflects a certain contempt for the American people.

He was wrong in saying this, however, if he'd said far too many on the Ideological Right believe that they are the one true nation, that they hide behind those who serve in the military and the flag and then spew an anti-Democrat, anti-liberal, anti-journalism, anti-dissent, and anti-citizen message that reflects a certain contempt for the American people, he'd have been right on the mark.

Yours Truly,

Frederick

Comments

[mark h]

Any NON-DRAFTED soldier is a de facto mercenary. The reason we need to reinstate the draft is so that individuals can react to it.

[actor212]

*polite appluase*

Well-played, sir. Now, please get ready to have your personal information spread across the web.

Those contractors are mercs. Even they admit it after a few beers. Why Malkin is trying to be "politically correct" about it is puzzling, since in other matters, she shoots straight from her hip.

OK, it's from the backside of her hips, but you get my drift.

[busker]

It seems to me this is the way the military's been marketing itself lately. I've seen plenty of recruitment literature in the past few years featuring money as an incentive more prominently than anything else, such as National Guard pamphlets that literally bear pictures of crisp, green bills right under the heading.

So the government seems to be fine with appealing to the mercenary instinct instead of one's sense of "service," anyway.

[actor212]

Busker,

Which is why so many people were so upset with the way this war was run: taking the Guard and Reserve ahead of the regular Army forces means taking kids who enlisted basically for the tuition assistance and possible signing bonus, and throwing them on the front lines with minimal preparation and part-time training, as opposed to fighting this war with troops who train regularly (who get even better pay and benefits, to be honest) and then pretending we had our best forces out there.

And that's without even taking into consideration the myriad other reasons to be against this war.