I had the exact same experience in basic. I wasn't sure what I was more shocked by, 1. the very obvious tactics employed to manipulate homesick kids ("you're going to war, don't you want your family to know your soul is safe???"), or 2. How readily all the trainees ate it up.
I felt better making hospital corners in the dorms for those few Sunday hours the rest of bmt.
Hah, I forgot about hospital corners! I do remember folding t-shirts into 6” squares. I hear that’s been phased out, though...
But jokes aside... I guess the part that bothers me is that The War is being sold via an emotional appeal, not a rational argument. If “They” could explain why the war is necessary, why it’s in America’s vital national interests that we go abroad and risk death--I could reconcile myself with that. But the fact that they resort to whipping us into a patriotic fervor strongly suggests that this rational argument doesn’t exist. That in fact, The War serves someone else’s interests, not our Nation’s.
I had the exact same experience in basic. I wasn't sure what I was more shocked by, 1. the very obvious tactics employed to manipulate homesick kids ("you're going to war, don't you want your family to know your soul is safe???"), or 2. How readily all the trainees ate it up.
I felt better making hospital corners in the dorms for those few Sunday hours the rest of bmt.
Hah, I forgot about hospital corners! I do remember folding t-shirts into 6” squares. I hear that’s been phased out, though...
But jokes aside... I guess the part that bothers me is that The War is being sold via an emotional appeal, not a rational argument. If “They” could explain why the war is necessary, why it’s in America’s vital national interests that we go abroad and risk death--I could reconcile myself with that. But the fact that they resort to whipping us into a patriotic fervor strongly suggests that this rational argument doesn’t exist. That in fact, The War serves someone else’s interests, not our Nation’s.