by James Glaser
May 4, 2004

Have you ever noticed that there is never a former or retired Enlisted man or women interviewed about what is going on in the war? There are 135,000 American troops in Iraq and over 100,000 of them are enlisted personal, but the only people that seem to count are the Officers.

Way more Enlisted men and women get killed or wounded in combat and the fact is, it is the Enlisted Soldier and Marine that is doing the actual fighting. So why do we not ask them what is going on?

Politicians will come back from Iraq and tell us how the troops are doing, but the news media always brings on a retired officer and they ask him questions about the troops. Those troops can't tell the politician the truth, because they always have an officer with them. Officers have no clue about what it is to be one of the troops.

Here is the deal. Officers are like in a club and they cover the asses of other Officers. It doesn't matter if a guy is retired, he is still looking out for his former branch of service and those that still serve.

If the news media really wanted to know what was going on in Iraq with our troops, they would ask somebody that just got out or somebody that was actually one of the troops, but I think they and Washington are afraid of what they would hear.

This prison thing with all the torture is a good example. Every television news station has their own retired General to ask questions about the war. They ask how these troops could do the things they are accused of and that General says something to fill in the time so he can get paid.

That General is just guessing because he has no idea of what it is like to be an Enlisted man or women. He doesn't understand what it is like for the troops to get an order from an Officer. He has no idea of what it is like to be a lowly PFC, when somebody with an eagle or bar on their collar tells the guy what to do.

If some former enlisted men would be asked what is going on with the troops, they could give an answer that had some validity. Officers have no idea of what troop moral is like, heck they have no idea of what the troop's food is like. Officers live a lot better than enlisted people, even in a war zone

The vast majority of the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines are made up of Enlisted men and women. If we really want to know what is going on with them, then we should ask them. If we want to know what is going on with the officers, we should ask an officer.