Thursday, September 8, 2016

What the Media Really Thinks About Soldiers

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (the reporters who exposed Watergate) once reported that Kissinger had said, "In Haig's presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as "dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy." While Kissinger has not denied this, others have attempted to do so for him.

Here is a question for you, how many of the talking heads in television or Washington news people have children in the military? How many Wall Street executives have children in the military? How many congressmen, governors or state representatives have children in the military? Not to many, in fact almost none. In fact, in 2013 Pew research reported that only 20% of all congressmen had been in the military.

Pew Research Center - Most members of Congress have little direct military experience.

Now as I have said previously, I am a pacifist and I do not believe in the draft. I personally would not tell anyone to join the military. I do not believe that the children of congressmen or any politician need to join the military. I ask the question because it tells us how little skin the media and politicians have in the game when young Americans are sent to fight and die for this country. I personally had five family members in the military serving in multiple theaters at the same time in the last 15 years or so.

If you ever wonder why the Veterans Administration is not fully funded or why military families are not taken better care of or why military pensions are so small, it is because the politicians and their families don't understand nor care about them, they are tools for getting elected. Sure, all politicians say how much they respect the military and the fine young men that protect this country, just apparently not enough to take care of them.

As for the views of the military, well, among  active service personnel Trump is favored 2 to 1 over Hillary if you include people who don't intend to vote and 3 to 1 if you only look at likely voters. Trump also leads by very large numbers with officers.

Military Times - Military Times survey: Troops prefer Trump to Clinton by a huge margin.

Now, in case you don't know, it is practically impossible to become an officer without having a Bachelors degree. In fact, is is very difficult to find any industry where all the managers are required to have college degrees, you don't need a college degree to be a stock trader or even a politician.

So when you read in the media that Trump supporters are all racist and ignorant, remember they are talking about our military personnel to.