Saturday, January 29, 2005

Soldier for a day

Historically it hasn't been difficult to enter the military. Waddaya mean, join - armies would be raised by any means necessary, and anybody who didn't work out could be executed.

I have several older relatives who served in WWII, and they noted that physical requirements for the armed services were relaxed during the war. One claimed that the physical boiled down to two questions - could you see lightning and could you hear thunder? Or for the visual exam they'd tell you to read from a chart. You'd look and say "what chart?", and they'd say "you're right, there isn't any chart - you're 1A".

Of course our all-volunteer military is beyond this. They can be selective now, and I mean no disrespect to our armed service personnel when I point out that it hasn't always been so.

But we're about to lower the standards again in Iraq. No boot camp, no career interruptions, no long-term obligations. All they have to do is show up to vote.

IMO the Iraqis know this and will show up in huge numbers. Why not? - the "insurgents" are killing them at random daily anyway, so what's a trip to a polls? This might be the only way most Iraqis can ever fight back, especially the women.

Let's hope that they know that, and deliver.

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