This isn't breaking news, but the left is such a bunch of pukes, and our fellow Americans who are, and have, defended the best nation on earth, deserve to be know for who they are, and are not. Naturally, the article goes for the rich poor angle. Nothing is made of the lack of Democrates. And when did being a bricklayer, or a tradesmen make you "poor"?

"And when did being a bricklayer, or a tradesmen make you "poor"?"

lol

I make more money in my "blue-collar" work doing home remodeling for my dad than I do in my "artsy" career in computers and music.

My neat time-signature changes, key modulations and moving polygons don't pay the bills near as well as my installation of thermal windows. (;

Oh, and thank (insert God-of-your-choice) for our brave men and women who fight for our freedom.

American don't go for the rich/poor angle it's crap, and lies. the military isn't about socio-economic groups it's about people. People willing to give their life for what they believe in, not what best suits them, what they believe is right.

...and Jenna Bush in a uniform."

mmmBump

Personally, In a fox hole I'd rather have a bricklayer or normal folk next to me !

This is a bunch of crap! My daughter joined the Navy in April and is certainly not in the poverty category. She could have stayed in college but chose to go in the Navy and finish up her degree serving.

I was at her graduation at Great Lakes where most of the graduates and their parents looked and talked like my neighbors. People were there from all over the Country just to see their child graduate! I met a lot of people at the Navy Lodge my youngest daughter and I stayed at who were officers, CWO, and enlisted on active duty whose son or daughter was enlisted and graduating with my daughter's class, Air Force personnel whose child had enlisted in the Navy, and just people from all walks of life!

I think this class envy article is disgusting. What is wrong with being a brick layer or any other occupation if it is an honest living? The military is made up of men and women from all backgrounds which is good because each of them adds something to the military in their own way from their own experiences.

"Charles Moskos, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University who is a leading authority on military culture."

Yeah, the same Nortwestern thay would not let me enroll after I returned from Viet Nam in 1969
because my presence on campus would be offensive to students.
Screw Nortwestern and this crummy rag of a newspaper that printed this story!

Yup, the same ol' us against them hokum. When will these disgusting jerkalists realize that this tired class warfare stuff hurts the poor a whole lot more than it does the wealthy.

"Yeah, the same Nortwestern thay would not let me enroll after I returned from Viet Nam in 1969 because my presence on campus would be offensive to students.

I detect a sore spot there.

And rightly so, it seems.

Our system creates so much excess wealth that it is capable of supporting a huge class of totally unproductive parasites, the chattering, scribbling classes. Universally, these glib incompetents attempt to cloak their uselessness by criticizing the system [and the very people] which feeds, protects and enriches them. They can bombard you with their bogus credentials but they cannot change the oil in a motor car or field dress a whitetail deer. For an absolute certainty, they cannot be relied upon to defend this Free Republic against enemies domestic and foreign. Thus, their absence from the ranks of our Marine Corps, our Navy, and our other armed services is a good thing. We do not need such Quislings in our defense. They cannot be relied upon and it is well that we Real Americans know who they are.

What a disgusting article, downgrading the people who go into the military.

The people who go into the military are more focused, in my opinion, than the run of the mill college student.

Case in point: My GD Angela enlisted last year. She is in the Navy. She has a high security clearance and has a very complex important job at Whidbey Island Naval Station.

She has wonderful oppurtunites ahead of her, with what she has learned in her job in the Navy.

We are all very proud of her!

By the way, her father is a Research Scientist, and, her mother is an Accountant.

Excellent article. I served in the Marine Corps after high school. For me, it was a chance to escape a troubled home and a rudderless life. College was not an option for me out of high school. I have no doubt that had I not enlisted, I would be working a dead-end job today and certainly wouldn't be posting here tonight.

The people I served with were all middle-class or poorer. I can't remember a single person from a privileged background (otherwise they would have been in college or in the Officer Academy). It is true that well-off parents tend to steer their children away from the military. It is also true that middling parents not so well off are quick to send their children to the military because it gets them out of the house and gets them off the hook for any tuition bills.

I'm not sure what the solution is. Certainly I don't like the idea of a draft. I think an all-volunteer military is the way to go. That helps to ensure unit cohesiveness and effectiveness in training and on the battlefield. It's important to know that the people you serve with are volunteers, they wanted to be there. I suspect that many of the problems we had in Vietnam was that we had so many people who were drafted and just didn't want any part of it. So they just focused on not getting themselves killed rather than killing the enemy. Ironically, that attitude may have actually increased their chances of getting them and their buddies killed.

The military did me a lot of good. It allowed me to gain some valuable life experience as well as the discipline to succeed in life. For example, I've only had one sick day in 16 years of work since getting discharged from active duty in 1985. I have managed to raise myself and my family to a comfortable upper middle-class lifestyle (with some help from my wife, of course). I moved away from the city to a comfortable suburb. Most of the kids I grew up with are still living with Mom and stuck in dead-end jobs. I have no doubt that I would have been there with them today if not for the Marine Corps.

I know the fact that the "rich boys" don't serve in the military bug a lot of people here. But who would you rather have fighting your wars for you? Streetwise kids from Brooklyn and tough country boys from Mississippi? Or prissy, well-bred kids from WASP families who grew up in country clubs and never had to face a bit of adversity in their pampered lives?

Ah, you just gotta love the Left. They're already introducing class warfare into the casualty lists, just to make sure that we are as demoralized as possible in the trenches as well as at home.

"Unless America's elite youth are putting their lives on the line, then I don't think this country is going to accept great casualties in a war," said Moskos

Yes, we just stare drooling at the 6 o'clock news until we get to see a soldier in Armani BDU's turned into hamburger. Then, and only then, do we feel like the war is a just one.

/sarcasm>

Where do they get these vile demons, and why aren't we rounding them up yet?

Before Sept. 11, they were on one side of a troubling gap - a widening gulf, actually - between civilians who would never dream of serving in the military and an increasingly isolated, insular culture of military professionals.

I swear some journalists just don't get it. The real gap exists between the American people and increasingly isolated and insular left in this country, not the military.

I was a "poorer class" when I joined the Army as a private in 1970. Growing up, getting good advice from great leaders, going to college, and slowly moving up, I retired as an officer this year. Figure I'm bonafide "middle class" now. Thanks, Army.

Thanks, God.

Good news. I hope your experience is representative of the country.

Historically I think the article is just plain wrong. America has usually had a very small army (expect in war time). Very few served. When big wars came along we resorted to the draft - and there were always troubles. Remember the draft riots during the Civil War?

A large, peace-time, volunteer army is a new thing for this country. We'll see how it plays out. The officer corps no doubt is partly hereditary (meaning traditional in certain families), and partly staffed by middle and upper-class enlistees. Isn't that how it is all over the world?

I left college to enlist in the US Air Force in 1984. I had a scholarship offer from the US Army (a long story as to why I didn't take it). My father, a retired colonel, swore me onto active duty. I count that as the one moment in my life that I was actually close to my father.

Dad was working for Union Carbide here in Oak Ridge in their computer systems...eventually he was in charge of the Systems Integration division. Definitely not a lower class family here.

Why did I go? I was tired of living off of my family, tired of feeling like I was spinning my wheels in school and wasting their money. And because I wanted to do something where I was actually accomplishing something. I was 15 when dad retired from the Air Force, and I felt that I owed it to my country to do something more.

I guess I'm rambling now, so I'll quit.

"I detect a sore spot there."

You got that right, the same Northwestern that was anti-military during Viet Nam is again starting the same thing again.
We are only going on our 3 rd month of THIS war and already they are planting the seeds of discontent.

"Charles Moskos, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University who is a leading authority on military culture."

Isn't it funny that these ivory tower types who've spent their entire lives insulated from the rest of the world are 'leading authorities'?

The part that pissed me off was the part about the kid who was bored in high school being described as 'troubled'.

I guess I was 'troubled' too by being smarter than 90% of my class but extremely bored and 'distracted' by the liberal garbage they taught. Now, back then I didn't understand just how liberal the schools were, but I darn sure do now after meeting like-minded people here.

Congrats on your retirement. GI bill was a God send for us and I have never regretted my time in the Army. I would do it again tomorrow.

Allowed me to get a degree in engineering and my wife a degree in accounting, also an Army vet. My Dad and all my Uncles were WW2 vets. It seemed natural that sooner or later my brothers and I would enlist, and we did. We have two girls, one is married to a former Marine.