Your Duty – Not Ours

This morning – as I customarily do every morning – I browsed through the feed of recent posts by friends and “liked” pages on Facebook and came across a link to Joining Forces on the official US Army Facebook page. The link goes to a video in which Michelle Obama and Jill Biden talk about how they started this unique new program to help citizens connect to our military and military families to support them. (Well, Michelle Obama talked. Jill Biden sort of bobble-headed her consent.)

I can’t help but feel just a little bit insulted by Michelle and Jill’s “Joining Forces” program, because it assumes that regular citizens should be doing more to support the troops and military families. That’s just a little like saying, “Citizens, it’s your duty to support our men and women in uniform … but it’s not the government’s duty to do the same.” For Michelle and Jill to say our troops need support now is a slap in the face – but it makes for a nice kickoff to their husbands’ re-election campaign.

Did not Michelle Obama say, when her husband was elected to office, that she would make the military “her personal project” and ensure that our soldiers and their families were taken care of? When was that? Years ago. Ages, it seems. And what has she done since, outside of this election-year-stunt that Joining Forces is? Has she encouraged her husband to ensure that Soldiers get paid even in the event of a government shutdown? (You know, her husband, who said he’d veto the bill introduced by Republicans that would have ensured our Soldiers get paid until the end of the fiscal year, shutdown or not.)

Let’s talk about this budget and supporting our troops for a little while.

Both sides were using Soldiers’ pay as a pawn to push their agendas. Democrats never want to cut any spending unless it’s cutting away from the military – and if you think they’re not cutting now and haven’t been cutting while we are at war, you need to wake up and smell the unemployment line. Because they are cutting. They’re just doing it in a very sneaky way – by changing retention control points and promoting less promotable Soldiers. (Logic being, I’m sure, that four Privates are cheaper than a Sergeant First Class.)

The basic concept of a retention control point is this – if you’re this rank for x amount of years, you will need to either become promotable (or get promoted), or you will have to leave the military. What they’ve started to do over the last year and some change is that they have promoted less Soldiers who were already in a “promotable” status, and they have begun moving retention control points for others, ensuring that they will not become promotable (or won’t get promoted) before their retention control point. In Brian’s case, he’s had his date of rank adjusted when he went from AGR to Active Duty, and he’s now had his retention control point moved from 2015 to 2013, which gives him much less of a chance of getting promoted before he needs to either be promotable or get out. (Which is a pretty shitty thing to do to someone who has been continuously serving in the Army since he was 17 years old – 24 years ago.)

Of course, Republicans don’t generally have an issue with military spending and military spending tends to go up if the government is controlled by Republicans, but even passing a simple bill that would ensure Soldier pay until the end of this messed-up fiscal year couldn’t have just been proposed without the addition of riders – in this case, there was some fuss about National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood, neither of which have a thing to do with military pay.

But let me digress for a second.

Why, exactly, are our taxes funding National Public Radio? Does anyone actually still listen to it? If I want “the top news stories”, I’ll read them on my smart phone. Or scan the front pages of the newspapers … digital or otherwise. Or maybe I’ll turn on one of many news channels on TV. And if I want to listen to music … well, NPR would be my last choice. I can honestly say that I’ve not, recently, felt the sudden need to listen to World of Opera or Piano Jazz on NPR. Actually, my taste being as eclectic as it is, the only music I do listen to is what’s on my iPod.

And why, exactly, is taxpayer money going to Planned Parenthood? I know that Planned Parenthood does a lot – from providing birth control and pregnancy tests, to vasectomies and abortion, to pap smears and breast cancer screenings. What I don’t know is why my taxes should pay for a third of all those services provided by Planned Parenthood. Especially when it comes to providing free birth control or pregnancy tests. If people need those, send them down to the local Walgreens and have them buy their own, just like I do. If you can’t afford a pregnancy test or a pack of condoms, you probably shouldn’t be having sex. (That would also solve the whole STD thing. And the abortion thing.) If you can’t afford kids (or health care), stop fucking. Really.

Anyway.

At any rate, it seems to me that “Joining Forces” is nothing more than a re-election ploy, using Soldiers (once again) as little pieces on the chess board to garner those votes. Of course, if the comments on the Army’s Facebook page are anything to go by, the average Soldier (and family member) isn’t stupid enough to fall for this sort of crap. Comments like these -

Scott & LeAnne F.
“They can start by supporting our troops financially!! Cutting military spending is a step in the wrong direction.”

Trevor E.
“Politics at it’s worst…..two weeks ago no paycheck, now they want to support the military. What price is your vote?”

Will H.
“I am afraid its a ploy to look good for the cameras just prior to the election year. If they really were to stand behind the troops. They need to tell their husbands to quit cutting the militaries and VA’s budgets and benefits funding.”

Craig M.
“I like the message, and after 25 years of service, it;s been hit or miss with supporting the families. The messengers? They suck and this is a pure political stunt on their part.”

Aside from the fact that people are seeing straight through this for the re-election plot it truly is, the entire “Joining Forces” program seems to just be hot air. Its website gives the option of “sharing your story of support”, “sending a message of thanks”, and “finding an opportunity to support.” That’s it.

How are Michelle and Jill supporting the troops? By having some White House Underling put a bunch of links together on the White House website where people can pat themselves on the back by sharing their stories of supporting the Soldiers … oh, wait … that’s not even on the White House website, that link goes to the USO. Which has been supporting Soldiers and Families for more than fifty years before Michelle and Jill ever thought of putting a link up.

The “send a message” thing also goes through the USO. I know exactly where they go, too – the USO prints them and puts them into the “Operation Care Package” bundles they give to Soldiers as they get on the plane to leave. Those are small pouches with a few travel-size toiletries in them, generally. Or plastic bags with the same, plus maybe a donated book. I’ve seen them – they’re nothing to write home about.

And the “find service opportunities” option? That one goes to another government website, Serve, which allows you to put in your zip code to find opportunities near you, which takes you to a whole different website, All For Good, which will give you a listing of general volunteer opportunities in your area, including ones with the USO and Girl Scouts of America, even if you’re specifically looking for military or veteran-related opportunities. Not even a link to the Army Community Services, which provide most of the on-base volunteers on military installations, from the Exceptional Family Member Program to the Red Cross.

So, basically, this whole new “program” Michelle and Jill are going on about doesn’t exist. It’s just links to other, long-established programs, which you can find listed on plenty of other websites with a simple Google search. And it’s not about “connecting” with military families or veterans, it’s about talking people into volunteering. Volunteering is free labor. Free labor means they don’t actually have to give a shit or spend any money to improve the lives of our Soldiers and their families. It means they don’t do anything at all, except guilt-trip average Americans into thinking they don’t “do enough” to pick up the slack and help our troops.

I would love to see our Government (yes, Michelle and Jill, I’m looking at you!) stop up and actually support our troops. By paying them on time and in full. (Although everyone was supposed to receive their “full mid-month pay”, many received either only half or at any rate less than their full paycheck – our own, though it came in two payments, was still $105 short.) Or by not moving them every year and a half. Or by not cutting funding to essential services like, say, snow plowing at Fort Drum in winter. (Where it’s very much needed and not getting done.)

Fuck your election. Let’s see some support outside of an election year.

Incidentally, there may have been a very good reason I was not selected as Fort Drum’s Installation Volunteer of the Year this year … as said person (someone from one of the FRG’s) and the recipient of this year’s Baird award were both whisked away over the weekend to be on “The View” with Michelle Obama and Jill Biden today. Kinda makes you wonder whether they chose someone who is … er… less politically interested than I am…