doublegunshop.com - home Forums Bergdahl To Be Charged With Desertion

The problem in USA is that in grade school teachers do not seem to nurture love of things that individual students are good at. Theoretically people should pursue careers for which they're gifted. Military career is very challenging as it requires love of country, sacrifice, perseverance and most importantly realization that person may get killed or have to kill another. This is not for everyone. Lets see.... Well, those who are not particularly gifted should become maybe religious preachers?

Not for nothing are many soldiers from low-income families who see the military as employment, like a job at the post office, not expecting they'll be called to give their lives for it. Another attraction is some see military service as a cushy cocoon where their lives, housing, families are nurtured, disciplined by higher ranks, their responsibility to do only what they are told. There's a difference of combat capacity between volunteer and conscripted armies.

King, you and I can certainly agree on that! If the political class had to justify putting all taxpayer's children under the draft in harms way we'd have less foreign adventures...Geo

You don't know what you're talking about, Kingston. The U.S. Military Code of Conduct, which all inductees swear to, has contained in it this:

Article I
a. I am an American fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.

I remembered that from boot camp. You think underprivileged kids can't, or somehow don't understand it?

SRH

With respect, Stan, my post had nothing to do with underprivileged kids (although I have more than a little experience with them). Nor does it have anything to do with the Military Code of Conduct. Many join the military from low-income families as a last resort of employment in disadvantaged regions. I know of a high school in northern Canada where sons and daughters were told they must complete Grade 12 for the only almost-guaranteed job in the armed forces. Two became friends, both joined and saw service overseas, both now on medication with PTSD, man and wife. Neither dreamed they'd be in action.

With respect King, your post easily has to do with class warfare. No, they did not have to enter the military, as you've mentioned before they could survive off the land and folks you know would look the other way if a deer was taken out of season.

How long were they in. Did either or both have the opportunity to claim pacifism, intentionally fail a drug test, scuffle with a superior all to get out once it became apparent that they'd see action.

No? I'll bet they made 'informed' decision. Heck, the wife could've gotten pregnant. That would've gotten at least her out of combat.

No, your message is clear. The poor do the dirty work and pay the price so that the rich can wiggle their kids out of the distasteful requirements of society. So the ptsd crew deals with their situation. I bet, if they have kids, those kids have much better prospects because their folks saw the sacrifice as worth it.

I hope the kids respond with gratitude and respect, rather than do the lock step, bash the military from their private school and nice suburban neighborhood.

You must've been talking about Canadians, Kingston. All military inductees here learn the "Code of Conduct", and would thus have no reason to be surprised when they found themselves in life threatening action.

And, what's the diff between "low income families in disadvantaged regions" and "underprivileged"? That is what I meant by that. You're mincing words, now.

SRH

I'm sure inductees here as there learn conditions of the deal: we'll give you a job, train you, and you'll go where we tell you and sacrifice your life if necessary in the service of your country. I was commenting on an aspect of motivation of becoming a soldier, why some join as a job opportunity of last resort. Everyone, civilians know soldiers die doing their duty.

No quibble from me as you see a distinction of words, Stan. Most of the people around here are low income but they don't think of themselves as underprivileged, nor do I. They may be disadvantaged by living in a region of meagre opportunities, few markets for their skills, with little interest in school. Many break out and flourish. My distinction is they don't belong to a class, of being born into, not having privileges, the rights and advantages of others. That's what underprivileged means to me.

It's okay if you believe I'm mincing words.

King, you just blather on.

My Grandfather was a sharecropper - in case you don't know what a sharecropper is he farmed land owned by a "rich man" and lived in the house provided on the land. The "rich man" furnished the land, seed and fertilizer and my grandfather provided the labor. He farmed with one mule (I remember when he bought his only tractor, I learned to drive on his new Minneapolis-Moline). My grandfather received 1/2 the crop to sell for his labor and was allowed some of the land for a garden to feed his family. He was always proud that he was a good sharecropper so his "rich man" furnished him a painted house to live in. My father worked hard on the farm and in the small nearby town in a grocery store during his high school years during which he saved enough money to buy 15 acres of red mud and rocks. My father sold this land to my grandfather (the first land he ever owned) to pay for some of his college. He also worked nights in a mattress factory to pay for college. He was drafted in December 1940 and extended for the duration when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The Battle of the Bulge, one purple heart, three bronze stars later he was separated from service, finished college and went to medical school.

From his birth my father was expected to be a sharecropper or, at best, a small land holding farmer. His "disadvantaged" or "underprivileged" childhood did not keep him from his dream of becoming a doctor.

Meager opportunities my ass - make your own opportunities!

Yep, as you can guess in 1968 I dropped out of college and joined the US Army. In the Army's infinite wisdom they sent me to Germany and stationed me 50 miles from my grandmother's house (yes, my father met my mother in 1945 in Mannheim, Germany and brought her to SC in 1947). But from the day I entered the US Army I KNEW that my life was on the line - the military's job is combat - some go, some don't but ALL are available for combat.

Like my father after I completed my military service I went back to college and graduate school but I chose to be a CPA (Chartered Accountant for the Canucks here).

Anyone who joins the military as a "job opportunity of last resort" doesn't have much going for them, not in terms of opportunity, but in terms of capability, determination and desire. One makes of life what one makes of life, which is why socialism is such a dismal failure.

Three of our sons were in the military, two in the Air Force 8 & 10 years, one in the Navy, 20 years. The two in the Air Force both earned Bachelor's Degrees courtesy of the VA, the one in the Navy earned his Bachelor's while enlisted in his spare time while on deployment and his MBA courtesy of the VA after retiring. Both of the Air Force sons were on the ground during Desert Storm, the one in the Navy served from 1986 to 2006 and spent much of his time in the Gulf.

Playing the class warfare and the victim cards as justification for Bergdahl's desertion is a sorry excuse. Many children from low income families better themselves and go on to lead meaningful lives, while others gravitate to a life of crime. We should no more excuse Bergdahl for his crime than we should excuse a bank robber or murderer for his.