The coalition of the uniformed and idealistic

(3/10/05)

I've heard just about as much as I can take from these lefties on campus protesting any and everything that they deem to be unjust. I am reasonably certain they would protest themselves if they ran out of other things to cry about. The other night I sat down with my Southern News and a snifter of brandy and casually browsed the front page only to find the latest proclamation of liberal bias staring me right in the face, entitled 'SCSU coalition takes aim at National Guard' (3/2/05). While well written and informative, the article by Mr. Kropp was yet another affirmation to these poor fools that what they're doing is being noticed.
As best as I can recall, no one is dragging any of the 'working class young men and women to join up and go fight an unjust and illegal war.' I thank Mr. Todd Dewey for that insightful nugget of rebellious oration. I've seen recruiters on campus in the past and simply nodded my head or tipped my cap to these individuals and have gone on my way. Unless it happened during one of my blackouts, I do not recall being lassoed and dragged in to a smoky room and being forced to sign up for military service. I know Todd Dewey has a problem with the war, but we forgive him, he's a Socialist, and after all, the bullshit pushers and whiny freaks need something to rail against, even if it does spotlight their hypocrisy.
One would imagine that it would be the right of anyone to sign up for military service if it is what they, indeed, want to do.
Now it is entirely possible that the SCSU Anti-War Coalition has some privileged information that a mere peon like myself doesn't have access to concerning the recruitment practices of the armed forces, but I'm willing to bet that this prestigious and politically influential group is a bunch of bleeding heart kids with their collective heads up their ass when it comes to the reality of life. I would hate to be the one that informs them of their detachment to real life because I can be short and a little too blunt for certain people or made-up coalitions to handle.
The fact of the situation is that the armed forces have the right to recruit almost anywhere they choose, they have university permission and, Southern being a state school, we shouldn't be surprised by their presence.
Furthermore, the individuals doing the recruiting are not the policy makers for the United States armed forces, so you're qualms should not be taken out on these people who are simply following orders and doing their job.
If you concerned citizens have a problem, take it up with your representatives in government.
Now I'm sure they will certainly heed the cries of a few pathetically idealistic students so take your protests and bring them somewhere where you'll actually have a remote possibility of being heard. I find it fascinating that these individuals protesting actually think they have an effect on the culture of the university by raising their signs and whining about the US military and the political decisions to send the military to war. Again, these decisions are not made in the student center of SCSU, they are made in Washington, D.C.
Regardless of what it means for the world, very few students really give a damn about a few protesters, so if they are the intended targets of these demonstrations then there is no other course of action than to fail miserably. The protests certainly aren't going to faze the recruiters, they have a job to do and a few sandal clad dreamers are not going to matter.
My apologies for being so abrasive in my comments, but I would find the desperation of these individuals funny if they weren't so meddlesome and if they didn't operate under the assumption that their actions and words mattered to anyone. These people are to be stepped over and ignored, there are proper channels to work through if you have a problem with government, and harassing the employees of said government is a childish and poorly planned way of getting your message heard. If you have a problem with the prices at your local grocery store, you don?t crucify the cashier, if you have a problem with traffic on campus, you don't take it out on the attendants, and if you have a problem with the government, you don't take it out on a few people doing their job at the bottom of the political food chain. It is in poor taste to assume that because the majority of college students are politically uniformed, that the SCSU anti-war whiners are the voice of the student body.
Mr. Dewey's assumptions and the assumptions of his cohorts are reprehensible, not only due to their idealism, but due to their arrogance and subversive motives. I do not see how it is 'wrong to inundate college students with the possibility of joining the armed forces.' It is the right of anyone, college student or otherwise to sign up for the military if that is what he or she chooses to do.
College isn't for everyone and some people see the military as a way of saving money or (gasp) even as a way to serve a country they love. When seeing the photograph that accompanied the article last week asking if the picture on the sign was liberation, I ask if the individual holding the sign knows what it takes to liberate.
War is not pretty and say what you will, but Iraq is a better place now that Saddam Hussein is out and our presence is a good thing because regardless of politically driven nonsense, we are making a positive impact on people's lives within the country. The majority of Iraqis are glad we're there.
The insurgents operating within Iraq do not have the interest of the population in mind; they are in a religiously driven frenzy to take over a country on the edge of democracy in order to establish their brand of fundamentalist nonsense as dominant power. These insurgents are on a crusade to establish the Sunni sect as a ruling power in Iraq and the insurgents are there to try and fight America.
Due to a religious fervor that does not allow for secular government or the understanding of a post-Westphalian application to governing, these insurgents and extremists have used Iraq as a battlefield to fight an ideological war with the United States.
I ask the Socialists to properly think out their actions before deceiving students in to waving their signs or spitting their foolish slogans. The Socialists and I have had our run-ins in the past and I'm sure this won't be the last of them either, but what I lack in respect for these people, they lack in common sense.
Make the students aware that the National Guardsmen and women have a right to be at a university and don't dare get in the way of anyone who has an interest in joining. Let people make up their own minds and stay out of the private lives of the students on this campus.
I am aware that some of the recruiters have been abrasive towards students, the incident between Southern News Editor- in-Chief Kevin Miner and a recruiter was entirely the result of a foolish recruiter who was hopefully reprimanded for his actions was a black mark on an institution that still has the right to be here. And if you don't like the recruiters on campus you can send the strongest message possible: ignore them, after all, no one comes to your job and holds signs in front of you hoping to make you leave because they think your bosses are assholes. Get over it and move on. Mr. Dewey and his coalition of the uninformed can quote me on that.