I was referring to regimes in Eastern Europe that literally
conscripted, if one can call hauling young men off from their fields
of wheat under absolute threat of death, 'conscription.' I was
thinking of the people of my own family. Our last refugee (from the
work camps in WWII) elder died last week and I gave the eulogy… in
part, about just that, how the innocent people in our families and
many parts of Eu were murdered, maimed and destroyed by
conscription… used by various regimes in WWII who thought of humans
as fodder. There is much more to their stories yet to be told to
those who still revere Churchill and FDR and Stalin. Much more.

Re Shaun's article, I think it still comes back to who is checking
and balancing recruitment in the US. We'll have to inquire.

dr.e

I was referring to regimes in Eastern Europe that literally conscripted, if one can call hauling young men off from their fields of wheat under absolute threat of death, 'conscription.' I was thinking of the people of my own family. Our last refugee (from the work camps in WWII) elder died last week and I gave the eulogy… in part, about just that, how the innocent people in our families and many parts of Eu were murdered, maimed and destroyed by conscription… used by various regimes in WWII who thought of humans as fodder. There is much more to their stories yet to be told to those who still revere Churchill and FDR and Stalin. Much more.

Re Shaun's article, I think it still comes back to who is checking and balancing recruitment in the US. We'll have to inquire.

dr.e

If I believed in a hell other than the one we humans create here on earth, I would say that the fires of hell could not burn hot enough for the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush.

dr.e

dr.e

Army boots autistic recruit
Posted Nov 10 08 4:52pm
CBS News reports that the US Army has released recruit Jared Guinther from his enlistment contract. The reason: Guinther is autistic. According to his mother, who phoned the recruiter to complain, the 18 year old plays with buttons and is afraid of the sounds of lawn mowers and toilets.

” Guinther started talking about joining the military after a recruiter stopped him and offered him a $4,000 signing bonus and $67,000 for college, his parents say. His parents said he didn't know there was a war in Iraq until last fall, shortly after he spoke with a recruiter, and asked them about it.”

I admit, I am of two minds on this one. One less person going to war, attention to recruiting policies that border on coercion, I'm all for that. The problem is in statements like this one:

“To place someone in his condition in a combat role would create a wholly inappropriate and unnecessary risk of harm – not only to him, but all other members of his unit who would have to rely on him,” Blumenauer wrote in his letter to the Pentagon.” (emphasis added)

The implication that a person is unfit for service or for any work solely due to being autistic is troublesome at the least. Yes, I believe that this particular man, if he is afraid of lawn mowers, would not do well in the combat job he enlisted for. He might do well in another capacity; the army has all sorts of jobs.

Or 41 year old grandmothers:

Army accepting older recruits

By Susanne M. Schafer, Associated Press
FORT JACKSON, S.C.

— Margie Black had wanted to enter the military as a teenager, but having her first child at 19 put off her ambitions.

So when she learned the Army raised its enlistment age, Black, now a 41-year-old grandmother from West Columbia, Texas, didn't hesitate to join. The decision took “about 30 seconds,” she said.

On Friday, Pvt. Black worked on her marksmanship skills here, while her 21-year-old daughter was at Army basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

The most paradoxical and difficult to absorb without just writing it all off with a 'Kill him, a waste of humanity,' is that likely both prosecutor and defense arguing regarding sentence, are both telling the truth. Mr Green, pitiable… and the maker of monstrous acts.

Ever since you began writing on this subject quite some time ago, though we have no access to his pre-enlistment mental health eval, I have wondered what the GI shrink could have seen –or not seen– in okaying this man for enlistment at all, let alone deployment.
dr.e