Obama's shattering Iraq failure: why I kept my kid out of the Marines.

As I've mentioned before, my son had gone through a phase when he got out of high school (Some 5 years or so ago) when he wanted to do light weapons Infantry in the Marines (0311).

One day, I got a call from his recruiter.  I listened to his pitch.  And then I said: "You can't have him."  And as it turned, they couldn't.

He was a varsity wrestler at Hockinson and he graduated with just over a 3.5 GPA.  He also has a minor case of quite controllable psoriasis.

He passed all of the tests and the physical.  But the enlistment standards are very high, so his skin condition required a waiver for enlistment... and the waiver process is arduous... long... and required review and sign-off by a Marine major general.

As a result, it took about 4 months to process.

And during that time, I went to work on him to persuade him to stay out.  Ultimately, I've been successful (so far) and he's in college working on his degree.

This post was my reaction at the time and is a replay of that:

Wednesday, December 16, 2009
The terror of finding out your son can now be a Marine.
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Today we got the word that our son is fully qualified for enlistment into the Corps.

I'm a veteran. I served 14+ years, enlisted and commissioned, combat arms (for most of it) and combat service support in the Army.

My son wants to be a Marine. I don't want him to be a Marine. I don't want him in the Armed Forces at all.

Under other circumstances, I would have reservations, but I would support his decision.

But this isn't "other circumstances."

I enlisted during that little tiff in South East Asia back in 72. I was 17 and one day old at the time, and they weren't shipping 17 year olds. And that's good, because I was something of a klutz, and I probably would have blown myself up sometime before the middle of my 17th year.

I enlisted, frankly, because I had no where else to go. My son is not cursed with that situation.

Now, he wants to be a Marine. He's wanted to be one for quite some time. (Years, in fact) I respect and understand his desire to join. Marines are exceptional individually and as a group. If you're going to go, it makes sense to go with the best, and they are certainly among that.

But it has to matter.

Our country offers much better incentives than when I jumped in for my first 4 years. They grabbed me for $1200 for a combat arms enlistment. The base pay for the newly minted E 1 (private) was $288 a month.

Now, the VA package for college and the insurance and so on is much better.

But it doesn't do any good if you're not around to collect it or if you're not capable of going when you come back.

It has to matter.

The clown running the show gives "shout outs" to a bunch of civilians when a large number of his soldiers, men and pregnant women, have just been slaughtered.

He takes 90 days to make a self-evident decision and then provides only some level of what's needed when the roar became so loud that even a moron like Obama couldn't ignore it.

He calls his soldiers a "damn good photo op."

And my son wants to go into the middle of this?

He wants to join up and put his life on the line for an utterly clueless, uncaring moron who views him, if anything, as cannon fodder for his political agenda?

It has to matter.

And I can no longer see where it does.

But my son is a man and the decision is his. I will support him no matter what.

Don't do it. Not now. Not until it matters.

Sadly, the President is a fricking clown.  A dangerous, moronic idiot.

The buck stops with him.  This is his failure.  And I'm sorry I was right.

It has to matter.

And it didn't.