Monday, October 30, 2006
"Call of Duty"
The United States Army has produced a sort of propaganda masterpiece -- an inspiring 12-minute video that at once brings home the harshness and misery of war and the extraordinary contribution that American soldiers -- the "boots on the ground" -- make every day. It reminds us why for the first time since the American Revolution we have been able to fight an extended war without resorting to a draft. People who claim that the Army is "broken" or "stretched" surely miss the point -- there are now hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who have known combat. That alone makes them massively more powerful than they were in 2001, when very few of them had ever been in genuine jeopardy. Yes, we are "stretched" in the sense that having committed to two wars we could not easily fight a third, but that's far from the whole story. Soldier-for-soldier, I doubt the American military has ever been this experienced. "Call of Duty" shows us why this must be true.
CWCID: Instapundit, Edward McNamara (via email) and others.
2 Comments:
By 
Cassandra, at
Mon Oct 30, 12:20:00 PM:
Psssssst...Go Marines!
See post above... heh.
By 
, at
Fri Apr 13, 05:52:00 PM:
....Sigh... As a Soldier, when I read the newspapers and see blog comments, I can't help but get the feeling that Americans in general, believe that the Marines seem to be the only ones fighting the war.
This aint an easy job, the Marines (god love them) get plenty of press, and plenty of admirers. Please take the time to learn about your Army and it's infantrymen. Those riflemen in the squads of the 101st, the 82nd, the 4th ID, 3rd ID, the various National Guard riflemen in their many infantry brigades. Heck those guys often times are from your own home towns - the people you see every day. You walk in the midst of Heroes, do you take the time to find out what they've done for you? There are more guys kicking in doors while bullets are flying out the doorway than just the Marines.
God bless the Marines, but there are MANY others doing the very same things that I think public perception is that only the Marines do.
