The American Spectator

p>It is time for the conservative media to stop the partisan spinning and pressure the White House to go all out to win the war in Iraq. Only then will the enlistment rate rebound. br> — Lou Venticinque br> Jamison, Pennsylvania /p> p> Thanks again, Ben. As a veteran who served during Vietnam, I can see the “media” hasn’t changed all that much. However, today, we have a counter to them called the blogosphere. Also, I think another answer to your concern lies in the fact that those people in the college town were out skateboarding, eating pizza and drinking beer, not burning the town down in anti-war protests, etc. Recruitment is probably down because we have an all volunteer armed force, coupled with a decent economy, not because of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Your argument about pay increases coupled with tax increases is alright but maybe a little more fiscal responsibility on the part of Congress could redirect some wasted money to the defense budget, thus saving the taxpayers from shelling out more. (I have a son-in-law in the navy, and a nephew in Iraq, so of course a pay increase for them would make me a little happy, especially since I have a son thinking about joining up.) All in all, compared to the '60s and early '70s, I’m not overly concerned about the “negative” impact of the media because the only fools who listen to them aren’t going to help us anyway, no matter. Keep up your excellent commentary. br> — Pete Chagnon /p>

As always you have hit the nail on the head regarding military recruitments being short due to incredible coverage by the media. I do believe you need enhancement on that statement by my adding, as a military mother and former officer’s wife, the observation that the media is conspiring to cause this country to lose the war. This is for certain. Missing the glory days of the '60s and heyday of the '70s which brought down President Nixon, they now furtively and carefully seek to cause this country to lose again another war.

Most telling is that re-enlistments are not down. This in particular implies that once in the military life a person looks at what the media is saying and rejects their description and the real truth of the matter sets them free to choose.

I would also say that military pay, while not astronomical, is sufficient, as is teacher’s pay, in most states. Notice, I said sufficient. My father always told me that some professions needed to be presented as a calling and not as a lure. Teaching is certainly one and I speak from personal experience. The military life is another. We both lived on military pay once and now retired pay and it was first a chosen life and secondly this country does not want to make the pay so attractive as to draw mercenaries, just patriots. Part of the service of both professions is sacrifice.

Lastly, I worry that we may not win this war. When I see the course of life taking place around me I realize that if the war is to produce resounding desire by the entire country to both win and end its course, then sacrifice by all concerned with freedom’s victory must be involved. Otherwise the war becomes a luxury to those who would enjoy such and a temptation by those who do not understand the preciousness of freedom’s gift. When this happens you see people in liberal factions beating hollow and perverse drums loudly to the cacophony of drawing crowd’s. Never is the sacrifice of more soldiers given less meaning that when it is given for the continued wallowing in freedom’s excess.

I watched the press cause us to lose the Vietnam War by snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I was a young girl in my late teens sitting on a ranch in Texas. The war was too far away. Then a teacher, a retired colonel, wrote on the blackboard of my Algebra class, “Somewhere out there a young man died for me today, and I must ask and answer, ‘Am I worth dying for’?” It was a riveting moment in my life. Then a few years later, I married a young handsome captain, a helicopter pilot returning from Vietnam with a broken back suffered when his Cobra Helicopter was shot down. I watched in horror one day as someone called this most honorable man a baby killer.

p>As a mother and mother-in-law of two Air Force officers, I pray daily for their safety and for that of our other soldiers. I ask God to protect those who sacrifice for us so we may live free. And I ask Him to change the hearts of those who wallow in freedoms that no other nation in this world has been so privileged to share.