Army Holds Third Annual Bring Your Daughter To War Day - The Onion

The Onion has a short story entitled "Army Holds Annual Bring Your Daughter to War Day." While this may seem like satire, it gets harder and harder to know the difference between real news and satire with all the garbage the cable news networks pump out 24/7.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am teaching a Social Work Methods III class this semester at SUNY Brockport, and one of my students has organized a presentation for the student body and community about women in the military.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and this administration's policies are such a joke that if this satirical video didn't have a kernal of truth in it, it wouldn't be that funny. As they say, "You either laugh or cry."

Of course, the majority of Americans voted Bush and Cheney into office, not once, but twice, so I expect that about half of this country will take this video seriously and think that taking our daughters to war might be a good thing. Yellow ribbons all around - let's support those troops and their progeny.

Interestingly, you don't see Jenna and Barbara Bush, or Cheney's kids, or Chelsea Clinton in the service serving their country and fighting in the war their Daddies and Mommies have made. The voluntary army is for the poor and the career minded mercenaries.

As much as we like to extoll the idea of fighting for our country and democracy and serving in the military as "honorable", this is a myth perpetrated by the rich who excuse themselves from this "noble" enterprise so they can count their money and protect their interests.

The 4,000 dead and wounded in Iraq are pretty much people from poor rural towns or career oriented folks looking for a secure income and college benefits, because life in America seemed to have little else to offer them. War seems to be good for the economy and perhaps for morale as long as the charade of a "war against terror" can keep the plutocrats in power and the poor thinking that their sacrifice is for something honorable, and the rest of us don't experience any personal sacrifice and we can keep on shopping.

Take your daughter to war day, indeed.