Reply #6: Interesting that you would bring up that topic of 18 y.o. options [View All]

Not wishing to run into the aggression I had encountered w/the WWII vet again, I went to an espresso bar down the road the next day. It was run by 18/19 y.o.s, talking with the 19 y.o. town security guard, whose job it was to bust under 18 y.o smokers. All of them were gossiping about who liked whom, who was dating whom, etc. One young woman walked in crying to her friends because her father wouldn't allow her apply for a driver's license right now...all real innocent topics were paramount to these kids, as with all youth.

Two of the women told me a bunch of them had decided awhile back, over a drink, to join the Coast Guard. They wanted to help society by keeping drugs out of the country. They said they hadn't heard yet from the CG, but that the selection process was just that: select.

I wished them luck, and said if the CG didn't work out, that they shouldn't join the other branches of the military, because then they were likely to be guaranteed an immediate one year stint pounding sand in 120 degree Iraq. I suggested considering continuing education at the local junior college instead.

The thought of these unworldly women, girls, really, being sent off, like Lynch was, to tote a machine gun in one of the harshest environments in the world is disgusting to me. But the timber is all cut down around here, jobs are few, and the $25,000 recruiting fee too tempting an offer for minimum wage workers to pass up.

They told me one of their girlfriends is almost finished with army training camp and is, in fact, being sent to Iraq, for a year. I feel for her, and the horrible situation Bush has put our youth. He has bled the economy dry in order to guarantee himself an ever-replenished supply of our youth to fight for his oil. He and his ilk are contemptable.