Monday, July 29, 2013

Who Serves In Our Military?

There are a lot of misconceptions about our military.

John Kerry, our secretary of state embarrassment, provides a perfect example.

Back in 2006, he trashed the members of our military. Although later he claimed he simply had botched a joke, he showed his true colors.




JOHN KERRY: You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.
With all due respect, what a jerk!

Again and again, John "Reporting for duty" Kerry has bashed our military.

Remember this, from Kerry's appearance on Face the Nation, December 2005?

On Sunday's edition of CBS's "Face the Nation", Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) said in an interview with Bob Schieffer that U.S. troops were terrorizing Iraqi women and children.

Here's a blurb from the transcript:

"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."

And then he tells us who needs to be terrorizing the women and children:

"Whether you like it or not... Iraqis should be doing that.
Sick. Kerry is a disgrace.

Power Line points out a study from the Heritage Foundation. It shows what an utter buffoon Kerry is.

1. U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officers who do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous Heritage Foundation research demonstrated that the quality of enlisted troops has increased since the start of the Iraq war. This report demonstrates that the same is true of the officer corps.

2. Members of the all-volunteer military are significantly more likely to come from high-income neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods. Only 11 percent of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25 percent came from the wealthiest quintile. These trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, in which 40 percent of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods-a number that has increased substantially over the past four years.

3. American soldiers are more educated than their peers. A little more than 1 percent of enlisted personnel lack a high school degree, compared to 21 percent of men 18-24 years old, and 95 percent of officer accessions have at least a bachelor's degree.

4. Contrary to conventional wisdom, minorities are not overrepresented in military service. Enlisted troops are somewhat more likely to be white or black than their non-military peers. Whites are proportionately represented in the officer corps, and blacks are overrepresented, but their rate of overrepresentation has declined each year from 2004 to 2007. New recruits are also disproportionately likely to come from the South, which is in line with the history of Southern military tradition.
The facts do not support the belief that many American soldiers volunteer because society offers them few other opportunities. The average enlisted person or officer could have had lucrative career opportunities in the private sector. Those who argue that American soldiers risk their lives because they have no other opportunities belittle the personal sacrifices of those who serve out of love for their country.

The study finds:

[F]olks from Red States are much more inclined to serve in the military than folks from Blue States.

The most over-represented region consists of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The most under-represented region is the Northeast from Pennsylvania upwards.

The Mountain West — Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico — is over-represented. So is Southeast.

The Pacific West and the Midwest are underrepresented. The Midwest’s short-fall in the military surprised me. But the much of that region has been trending Democratic for some time.
Interesting, isn't it?

God bless our troops!







2 comments:

jimspice said...

And Kerry would be example of this, would he not? As he enlisted while so many others (Ahem, Cheney, ahem!) dodged? Have you ever offered a peep about Bush administration dodging?

Mary said...

I never heard Cheney trash our troops. Kerry is a disgrace.

To put Cheney in the same league as Kerry, the great "embellisher" about his own service, is nuts.

Have you ever offered a peep about Bill Clinton's dodging? (I don't mean his dodging regarding his serial philandering. I mean his dodging to keep from serving during the Vietnam era.)