Asked what he would tell gay war veterans returning from Iraq, “Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested that gay veterans unhappy with the proposed anti-gay constitutional amendment should move elsewhere,” reports the Washington Blade.
Brilliant. That’ll alienate not only gay veterans but gay recruits, kind of stupid considering a few military recruiters are now kidnapping and brainwashing potential recruits and the Army is forced to retain GIs “it usually kicks out,” Keith Olbermann noted last night. “The guys, as the [Wall St. Journal] quoted one battalion commander, quote, ‘on weight control, school no-shows, drug users, etc.’”
By the way, Olbermann nailed the entire recruitment crisis on Countdown last night … below …
OLBERMANN: OK, we started with slight misses on the recruiting quotas, then big misses, then a moratorium, a one-day moratorium to remind recruiters what was legal and what wasn‘t. Now they were delaying the numbers, hiding the numbers. Besides the obvious, that people are not signing up, is there something wrong with the system that we‘re not recognizing?
JACOBS: Well, I think probably so. But that‘s the least of our worries. Our biggest worry is that we just can‘t recruit the numbers that we need. Even the Marine Corps, who typically has no problem recruiting people, has had difficulty the last few months or so.
Not only that, we rely so heavily on Guard, National Guard, and Reserve troops, because they provide us with the military occupational specialties that are in short supply in active duty ranks, and we require them there for the Guard and the Reserve people to perform extended duty in Southwest Asia.
If we rely so heavily on them, and their recruitment goals are not being met, we‘re going to have a very big problem a couple of years down the road.
OLBERMANN: To speculate about that time, Army recruiting down 42 percent in April, they lower the quota by 18 percent for May, still miss the quota by a quarter. Can you do the rough math here? At what point do we run out of the personnel required just for the commitments we already have?
JACOBS: Well, I think we‘re probably at the limit now. I think we may have if—another six months or so before things really get dire, and something significant is going to have to be done.
It‘s difficult, I think, for the Defense Department to come up with solutions, however. They‘re going to have to do things like you suggested earlier, keeping people we would otherwise throw out, lower the standards for people we do bring in.
You know, we‘ve had an all-volunteer army. We‘ve had nothing but high school graduates, fairly high standards, for the duration of the all-volunteer Army. And now we‘re at a point where we‘re going to have to lower the standards if we want to make the numbers, and it‘s going to be extremely difficult to do so without turning the Army into what it was in the ‘70s, after the war in the Vietnam, a really ineffective fighting force.
And that‘s unfortunate, for two reasons. First of all, I don‘t like to see my Army denigrated like that. And secondly, we have enormous worldwide commitments that we will not able to satisfy with that kind of force.
OLBERMANN: Yes, and additionally, we might wind up with Lee Martin and the Dirty Dozen, the way they‘re talking this way.
JACOBS: Well, we had that. When I was in the Army in the ‘70s, after Vietnam, after we came back from Vietnam, we had an Army that was greatly reduced in size, and not very good at what it did. We had an Army of Dirty Dozen people.
OLBERMANN: Last question, during the presidential campaign last year, the Republicans insisted, no draft, never, no draft. Let‘s take them at their word. But if there‘s no draft, what is there? Where does the military find the personnel it needs? Or what changes need to be done regarding those commitments?
JACOBS: Well, we‘ve already raised the sign-on bonus to as much as $20,000. I guess we could raise it more. We do have some active duty people who could be used in commitments that we have in Southwest Asia, in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have 37,000 troops still in Korea. Ostensibly, they‘re there only as a tripwire. All we really need is one American soldier there to die if the North Koreans decide to come across the DMZ again.
So we could deploy, oh, I guess the better part of a division, maybe two-thirds to a complete division, from Korea to Southwest Asia, and make it part of the rotation. We have some people in Europe still who could be moved, maybe 100,000 or so, and we could rotate some of them through. We ostensibly don‘t need them in Europe any more. The Russians are not coming across the Fulda Gap. And we have some units in the United States that haven‘t rotated through.
But at the end of the day, we‘re probably about six months away before we have a situation that‘s something of a crisis, and we‘re going to have to think up novel solutions right now if we‘re going to avoid that six months from now.
OLBERMANN: And those have been in scarce supply recently.
Jack Jacobs, colonel, U.S. Army, retired. Great thanks, Jack.
JACOBS: Good to be here.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann airs weeknights, 8 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV. E-mail Keith at KOlbermann@MSNBC.com.
“And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them.” Arlo Guthrie “Alice’s Restaurant”
Let my try to project some of these trends into the future…
Are they more afraid of dying in Iraq or being called faggots?
Just askin’
if the texas governor doesn’t want gays in his state, he probably doesn’t want gays elsewhere to come to his state to visit and spend money there, or those non-gays who support the gay folks in their lives. I don’t think true Americans want to have anything to do with a State that actively discriminates.
Wow. This is really sad, especially considering that, sexuality aside, none of the veterans are being treated well anyway. Hell, the soldiers aren’t even getting what they need, and they’re on the front lines. And now this…it just keeps piling on.
I don’t remember who said it first, but a country that can’t take care of the veterans it has, shouldn’t be creating more.
What bizarro land are we living in? Recruiting down in the great “freedom and democracy” wars and official returning veteran policy “you have no rights here, love it or leave it”?
Common sense would dictate that these idiots keeps their pie holes shut about gay soldiers since they’re so desperate now for good troops and — I’d venture a guess — the gays in the military are probably among the very best and the very brightest.
Aside from the homophobic Christian fundamentalist bent of the military, I honestly cannot understand why sexual orientation would preclude anyone from serving. I was exremely disappointed with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” wink-wink, nudge-nudge bullshit not only because it is utterly hypocritical and harmful, but because it is utterly stupid.
Can you imagine any other so-called civilized country putting a sexual litmus test on citizens who want to serve and then after serving, denying basic rights? We’re not re-inventing the wheel, we’re re-inventing the block.
Rep. Charles Rangel has re-introduced his Universal National Service Act of 2005.
For some reason known only to him, Charlie Rangel insists on talking about reinstituting the “Military Draft”. The bill is about service for everyone, in any capacity – military or civilian.
There are definitely provisions that are in serious need of a re-write (including those granting the President authority to determine where people serve, and a too-short 15-month term of service), but those issues may be dealt with if the bill gains enough support to move. Last year a companion bill was submitted in the Senate by Hollings, but no such bill exists this year.
The administration won’t be around that long, but this country will. Properly constructed, a universal service program could provide paid training; full benefits; and the basics of food, clothing and shelter for everyone 18 – 26 in exchange for two years of service.
At this point it’s patently obvious that the “all-volunteer” military is failing. I think we need an alternative.
for the Dubinator to roll out, “It’s your Patriotic Duty” redux…
Were I a “mainstream reporter” at the next real press conference, I would attempt to facilitate matters with a Gannon Softballer like… “Mr President… given the decrease in available resources for the Armed Services and shortfalls in recruitment, wouldn’t you say, as you have done so before, that it is the duty of every American to either enlist or volunteer their services to promote the cause of democracy in Iraq…?”
Hee, hee, hee…. squirm baby, squirm!
Perhaps the good governor means to say states with more “tolerant” views. No, I don’t think so. He’s smart enough to bandy vocabulary, but any fool knows this guy is blatantly discriminating against gays when he says “there’s the door”.
I’d say to him, while you’re at it governor, why don’t you show the door to everybody who isn’t like you, ostensibly anyone- and to play on the theme of the week- who isn’t a white Christian. My oh my, here we are… back to pre-1960s segregation. Next year or two the state of Texas will be busing gay children to gay schools. That is, until the school is fire-bombed.
This white Christian tribal mentality cannot stand. I find it unlikely that the governor is asked to stand down, but if there’s anyway we can start a drum beat for this I’d like to know how I can help achieve that goal.
Solutions that they think they might come up with for dealing with troop numbers. It is becoming more and more obvious this morning just exactly why I had that family assessment shoved down my throat. Well, I shove back so we’ll see. 78% of military officers are divorced now and they have been running everything so swell that the families have exploded and now they think that I can do two surgeries with my husband in Iraq just fine! I ought to just run with their assessment then because they have such a fine record running things so far! Running everything into the ground!
Two surgeries? Oh dear, Tracy. Share more if you’d like.
And how is your husband doing?
The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story today about a planned protest of a high school graduation in Tracy, California by members of the Westboro Baptist Church. This is all kinds of icky. First off, why do a bunch of people in Kansas care what happens in a small town in California?
The target of the protest is Merrill F. West High School, where a student resurrected the school’s Straight-Gay Alliance and worked to get the administration to address issues of discrimination and harassment of gays that was happening at the school. The school has been cooperative and supportive, and students have embraced Justin Daley as a role model and positive force for change at their school. The students, the school, and the town of Tracy seem to be perfectly happy. So it sort of begs the question of why anyone cares about this issue since the people involved don’t even think there’s an issue. I mean, a bunch of kids are graduating from high school. Period. BFD. Some of them happen to be gay. This is cause for protest?!
The frothing at the mouth of the Baptists from Kansas seems to have its genesis in the resignation of one of the teachers. One of Justin’s new friends, a straight freshman, said a math teacher had pulled him aside after class and told him that “hanging out with homosexuals is just as bad as being one.” This was one of a number of anti-gay incidents that Justin Daley brought to the school administration’s attention. District officials said the teacher “offered his opinion on gay issues to students” but would not confirm what he said. When the teacher accused of making the remarks announced his resignation, the Westboro Baptist Church members made their picketing plans. Many members of the community, including representatives from Tracy-area churches, are prepared to counter protest. “We can’t just let these people come to town and say these things,” said one resident.
Not just anyone is allowed to join the protest. Said Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of Westboro founder Fred Phelps, “We don’t want anyone else to join us who may not be true believers.” But the money quote is this one:
WTF? Excuse me while I go vomit.
Heck of a story. Hope you’ll diary it + keep us posted on developments.
Does anyone know if a student has less legal standing to sue in areas of discrimination than when out of school. Maybe DebraZ knows?
That’s the Fred Phelps group that’s been around for years doing the most awful things. They picket funerals of gay men, for one thing, with big signs that say things like, “God Hates Fags” and “Die, Fags.” They picket visiting speakers who are known to be sympathetic to gays and lesbians. When an editoral writer for the KC Star wrote a piece that excoriated them, they picketed his church, which is also my mother’s church.
In my state where it is possible to walk around feeling embarrassed all day long, they are the biggest source of mortification.
You may be, understandably, thinking, “Well, why the hell don’t you do something about those morons in your own state?!” Would that we could. They seem to be untouchable legally. When opposed, they just get worse. When treated sympathetically, they just get worse. When ignored, they just get worse.
I have heard of only one technique that seems to work with them, or at least turn rotten apples into mulch (I don’t want to slander good healthy lemons). Every now and then when the Phelps people picket a town where a gay man (I’m pretty sure they pay more attention to gay men than they do to lesbians)has died, some local gay bar, or other group, will run a fund raiser, so that when Phelps shows up the money pours in for HIV/Aids research, or other good causes.
If anybody’s got any better ideas, a whole lot of Kansas–not all of them Democrats– would be grateful to hear them.
“I’m going to say Texas has made a decision on marriage and if there’s a state with more lenient views than Texas, then maybe that’s where they should live,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Perry said Sunday.
So, if there are other countries with even more lenient policy I guess that it would be Rick’s position to have our gay/lesbian vets go to those places. It would take care of the problem. Idiot.
My friend’s son joined the Army prior to 9/11, and then re-enlisted when he fell in love with a woman in Germany. He got sent to Iraq once, got sent back to Germany after 10 months because of kidney stones–thanks to not enough water at the front.
Because of his kidney stones and a cyst they found, the Army told him he wasn’t deployable to a desert environment. So, his company went back to Iraq without him.
A few more months down the road, and guess what? Kidney stones don’t keep you from being deployable anymore. He’s slated to go back in October. So, even though his enlistment is up in February, he’ll have to stay there for a year. And if he doesn’t re-enlist before going, he’ll get paid a lot less. If he tries for a medical discharge, he loses his pension, money for school, etc.
Nice, huh?