I saw an AP article with the intriguing title Iraq War Proves Thorny Issue for Kerry. What struck me was this unrelated paragraph towards the end:

During his day on campus, Kerry promoted his plan to give a free college education to students who agree to public service. He said he would pay for it using $13 million that banks earn for issuing government-backed student loans.

Huh? So I decided to check it out. First I found a little more info in the original article from Iowa:

Kerry proposed the "Service for College" initiative to help make college affordable and strengthen America's security. According to this initiative, for two years of service to the United States, every young person can earn the equivalent of the state's four-year public college tuition. Students could also get two years of college tuition in exchange for one year of service.

"It is great because it offers tuition to students and at the same time helps out the whole country by getting students involved in service like AmeriCorps, Peace Corps or the military," Schoenthal-Muse said.

We already have that for the military: it's called ROTC. Still not satisfied that I understood exactly what Kerry is proposing, I went right to the link at his website.

Now, I was a little disgusted when I read the opening paragraph

On September 11th, 2001, America experienced the most terrible and deadly attack in its history. Yet, President Bush's response was to call on Americans to wait in long lines at airports, go shopping, or wrap their windows in plastic.

which has nothing at all to do with education, but somehow Kerry ties it in to making our nation stronger by calling on young people to get into public service. I don't know what that has to do with 9/11 or the jab at Bush, but whatever.

So I finally got to the pdf file of his proposal, and I see that he's offering

a simple deal to hundreds of thousands of America's young people: If you will serve for two years in one of America's toughest and most important jobs, we will pay for four years of tuition at the typical public university. Young people will also be able to use their educational awards to pay off student loans if they have already finished college or to enter job training, start a small business, or buy a first home.

Forget for a moment the big question of where the money will come from to implement this plan and focus on some fine print. My big question is whether you get a salary while you're doing your two years of service. Are those two years done for no money and then you just get tuition at the end, or do you make some sort of salary for the service in addition to the college tuition? That's a big difference, and it's not addresed.

If you're working and making a salary for two years, plus you get free college, then that's a lot of money that has to materialize out of nowhere. I'm nowhere near competent in economics or business (wish the husband were here), but this sounds fishy to me.

Does anyone else understand how this could work?

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1 It works by everyone forgetting he ever said it. Of course, only Congress can make it happen. AmeriCorps now does things groups like the Boy Scouts are no longer allowed to do.I know one young woman who cleared trails in Arkansas for a year. They were paid virtually nothing, but had "the experience of helping others." It is, however, the only true public service. Politicians like to claim they've spent their lives in public service, but I hardly consider a good-paying job with lots of perks a "service."

Posted by: Mike at April 15, 2004 01:29 PM (cFRpq)

2 You're right to be concerned, as the details are important. Arguments for alternative public service have been around since the fights over the draft in the late 60's. Every time we propose to increase incentives for non-military "alternative" public service, careful consideration needs to be given as to whether such incentives will be detrimental to the ones for enlistment in the military. No matter how you slice it, domestic public service is not the same and a "one-size fits all" strategy won't work IMO. A "one-size fits all" approach is generally true for military enlistment incentives (with some exceptions). But what complainers often fail to understand is that even a soldier in some specialized non-combat MOS is still as deployable to a combat zone (Iraq) as any combat soldier. Not so for "Americorps" volunteers, who I gather often design their own public service projects (to include such dangerous duty as passing out condoms in high schools and teaching about STD's).

Posted by: Paul H. at April 15, 2004 03:57 PM (s6c4t)

3 Here's your answer. He said he would pay for it using $13 million that banks earn for issuing government-backed student loans He's gonna rob a few banks. )

Posted by: Larry at April 15, 2004 05:54 PM (6TcYT)

4 Americorps volunteers do a lot of the social service stuff that would otherwise not be done at all. I'm of two minds about Americorps and CityYear (a similar program that, for a time, was affiliated with it). My eldest daughter was a volunteer, and she thinks of it as one of the best things she has done. It does give inner-city youth a chance to be of service, and also to be influenced in a positive direction. There is putatively a structure for discipline, but it can be sporadically implemented. My daughter was older than some of the volunteers, and a college graduate. Her service (2 years) gave her an opportunity to work through some issues, and decide on a career direction. It also gave her some practical experience with being in charge of a group. She will be taking her first vows this summer in a Franciscan order. These programs need to be supported by the business and charitable community, not just supported by the government. I don't think they can realistically be expanded to the general population, though. There's a big difference in the quality of volunteer you get when you spread the net too far.

Posted by: Linda at April 19, 2004 01:26 PM (pF95l)

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If this headline isn't the most hysterical thing you've ever seen...

Arafat Warns U.S. Could Kill Middle East Peace

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Found an Andy Rooney editorial via Bunker, and the headline makes my blood boil.

Our soldiers in Iraq aren't heroes:

We must support our soldiers in Iraq because it's our fault they're risking their lives there. However, we should not bestow the mantle of heroism on all of them for simply being where we sent them. Most are victims, not heroes.

As a veteran, he should be ashamed of himself for belittling our servicemembers like that. They're not perfect, but they're all risking their lives so we don't have to. Shame on you, Rooney.

MORE TO GROK:

Tim organizes our servicemembers into a fisking. He also invites Rooney to visit the America he lives in.

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Historical revisionism, Esotericus-style. Ha.

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These are my boys.

This is their mission.

US Troops Set for Showdown with Cleric

Get 'er done, boys.

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Andrew Sullivan got an email from the sister of a career NCO. His view of the war is decidedly pessimistic, as is his view of the future of the Army.

My recurring disclaimer: I am not in the Army. That said, I think that one paragraph in this email is based on her brother's guesses; as a warblogger, I have a differerent view based on things I've read.

His most pessimistic views were reserved for the future of the US military, especially the Army and the reserve forces. The Army's longterm morale appears to be at severe risk due to its being so overstretched. Re-enlistments by the very backbone of the Army (senior NCO's and Officers) are going to start dropping like a rock unless the situation changes in the estimation of my brother. This is doubly the case with the Reservists, upon whom the military has become so dependent. In addition, our military personnel are terribly underpaid given the missions that they are called upon to fulfill during this wartime era. Many military families live at near subsistence level incomes, are required to make huge sacrifices in terms of risk to loved ones and constantly having to move, and struggle to make ends meet.

I agree that morale is probably not as high as it was during the late 90's, when no one in the Army had to do much except train, but I know of a lot of soldiers who are proud and eager to be deployed. I know of one on rear detachment who is positively livid that they've left him here. Some soldiers really do want to soldier; that's why they took the job in the first place.

As for re-enlistment, so far it has been steady. Our gut reaction is that no one would willingly sign up to do such a nasty job, but the military is right on track for the enlistment goal at this time of year.

And, yes, all soldiers are "terribly underpaid" when you consider that they're on call 24 hours a day for a year. But, as I linked to the other day, military pay is something that is more nuanced than it appears.

Even in their first year of service, E-4s pull in more than $18,600 per annum, and more than $19,600 in their second year of service, and that's in base pay. Throw in BAH Type II for a married soldier (assuming 0 differentials. He earns more money if he has children) and he's really making $25,887 per year in his second year of service.

The military pay scale is all laid out for you here.

Except that while he's deployed, he's also getting hostile fire pay ($3,000 per year), family separation pay ($3,000 per year) and an allowance for per diem expenses of 3.50 per day, or 1,277.50 per year. So now we're up to $33,164.50.

But money earned in a combat zone is exempt from federal income tax. So assuming the soldier's in the 15% tax bracket, that income yields an after-tax equivalent of $38,139.18 per year.

And we haven't even figured in the value of free food for the soldier while he's deployed, or free medical care for the soldier's dependents.

So Ehrenreich's $16,000 per year figure--while not far off the mark if the soldier's a screw-up and doesn't get promoted and you only count base pay--is wildly inaccurate when it's vetted by someone who actually knows what he's doing.

And the LT? The first year 2nd Lieutenant while deployed in Iraq, makes an after-tax equivalent of $61,462.67 (somewhat less than that, actually, because he's in a marginal 15% bracket, not an effective one. But you get the idea.)

Where ELSE can you be 19-24 years old and pull in that kind of salary?

Yes, we military families make sacrifices. No, we don't want anyone to have to be deployed for a year. But a soldier's job is to soldier, and a military family's job is to be supportive of the mission. Many of us understand what that means and the sacrifices it takes -- we know about deployments and the pay scale when we sign up -- but the rewards of supporting and defending our country outweigh the grievances.

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This is so true.

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I'm not sure of the weight of these two stories, but the two articles on the main Stars and Stripes page look significant to me: Abizaid asks for two brigadesÂ’ worth of firepower to quell unrest in Iraq and U.S. to stop patrols after 50 years, give more duties to S. Koreans.

And Tim takes the NYT to task for claiming the Armed Forces is losing their monopoly on news to troops.

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A powerful letter written upon the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Even today many people still recognize Americans as a sign of good. I know they do.

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I met an American tonight.

I saw trouble coming a mile away during my German class while we were going over discussion questions for the genitive case. Question #8 was Wer ist der populärste Politiker Ihres Landes? (Who is your country's most popular politician?) Of course the Conflicted Reservist was first to insist that it is Kerry, bringing up the "fact" that Kerry is a Vietnam hero and Bush was AWOL. And then an amazing thing happened.

There's a woman in our class from Italy. I believe she's married to a soldier, so I'm sure she's legally an American, but she proved herself a grokker tonight. She put the Reservist in his place faster than I could bat an eye. She turned to him and rattled off facts about Kerry's Vietnam record -- his Purple Hearts, his relationship with Fonda, his throwing away "his" medals -- that brought a look of utter confusion to the Reservist's face. It was immediately apparent that for all his grandstanding and prattling on and on about Kerry, he actually knows nothing of Kerry's background. Another soldier listened to my classmate's rant in disbelief; "no way" was the expression used.

I learned two things from that exchange tonight: I'm not as alone as I sometimes feel, and most people don't know the first thing about current events.

And that Italian woman is now my favorite classmate. As she turned back to her German worksheets in disgust, she said, "You need to do some research before you start talking."

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1 Sounds like she'd be a good addition to our Friday night meetings!

Posted by: Oda Mae at April 12, 2004 06:04 PM (B5XDK)

2 I would have paid good money to see the look on his face after she was finished with him ! I'd bet that after class - quite a few people were using the good ol' internet to find out some facts about sKerry (as Boortz calls him ha!).

Posted by: Shannon at April 12, 2004 07:17 PM (en3Op)

3 Right on Sarah. Give that woman an A+ !

Posted by: david at April 13, 2004 09:13 AM (s7Ho8)

4 Italians - of a certain stripe, at least - are among the Europeans most likely to understand the often extreme partisanship of US politics. In a certain light, Berlusconi is Bush - the center-right patriot, self-made businessman, derided by his opponents as an idiot, adored by his supporters for his plain talking and man of the people credentials. The Kerry figure would have to be Prodi - the EU-phile, unashamed of embarrassing his country for short-term political gain, with a shady and opportunistic past, and happy to mouth platitudes and present an innocuous public face.

Posted by: Dominic at April 15, 2004 06:22 AM (0h0BM)

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I completely related with what Andrew Sullivan called the snooty liberal self-parody.

"I was sitting in therapy describing an in-law I like, and quickly heading for a "but." "He's a loving, caring, selfless man -- but his politics are all about hatred," I said. "He's not educated, and more significant, he's ignorant -- he actually listens to Rush Limbaugh."
I waited for a "Whoo boy!" or a sympathetic smile, but my shrink just stared at me, expressionless.
"I assume you're not a Limbaugh fan," I ventured, assured that this woman, so nuanced in her thinking, couldn't possibly be a Dittohead. She was so reasonable that I couldn't imagine her getting off on Rush's demented tirades. She didn't seem square enough for his politics, and I was certain no hate radio fan was capable of her intellectual sophistication. Besides, she was an educated urban Jewish professional, and Rush's audience consisted largely of white suburban males.
She held my gaze a few excruciating seconds longer. "Actually, I am," she said. My moral compass began spinning wildly. I was suddenly sitting with someone new. The levelheaded sage in whom I'd confided for nearly a year had been replaced by an off-the-rack ideologue.
There were five minutes left in the session, and I felt like running. "Well, this could devolve into a whole political discussion, so I'll just finish the story," I rallied.
For the next week, I struggled with an overwhelming sense of betrayal."

It's an article in Salon by a woman who doesn't trust her shrink anymore because the shrink likes Limbaugh (don't bother registering; it's not a whole lot longer than this, and just more snotty). I've dealt with this before, when a friend told me she couldn't believe I leaned Right because I was so interested in other cultures and points of view.

And the Right's supposed to be the intolerant side.

MORE TO GROK:

Wow. Annika got slammed for no reason.

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Last week I explored the Left-leaning tendencies of the textbook I'm using in teaching my ENGL 101 class. Today I started studying Chapter 9: Example.

The sample topic:

Write and essay that uses at least three extended examples to support the thesis that poverty exists in your neighborhood, town, or state.

Poverty is all relative; slums in the US are affluent neighborhoods in many places in the world. Wanna see what Iraqis live in near my husband?

But OK, fine. Some people are poor in the US by US standards. It's just the unquestioning assertion that "poverty is everywhere" that bugs me somehow.

Because the topic is already specified in the wording of the assignment, the aim of your prewriting efforts should be to find the area of poverty in your neighborhood, town, or state you wish to cover and to amass specific details that you can include in your examples. If you are like most of us, you will find poverty just around the corner. As a prewriting activity, we suggest you take a drive to the affected area and look it over for yourself. [emphasis mine]

That's not an objective sentence for an instructional textbook.

I also laughed when I saw that one of the essays in this chapter, given as a model of good example writing, is by Maureen Dowd. If you don't think my textbook leans Left, you're smoking crack.

The real kicker was at the very end of the chapter. There's ususally a photo writing assignment, where there's some photo that's supposed to make you think. This writing assignment makes me ashamed to be using this book:

The photo of a young girl peering from among a group of burka-clad Afghan women is an example of how a garment can represent a strong tradition. Write an essay in which you use two or three other examples of clothing that represents a tradition among some group.

In my world, the burka is not equal to lederhosen or a grass skirt.

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Nelson Ascher says the insurgents are expecting us to roll over like Spain did.

But, though theyÂ’re repeating over and over again their tired routine, thereÂ’s no sign that America will behave like Europe and I think that it is this very difference in the behavior of the Europeans and Americans that mystifies the Islamic radicals. As it happens, theyÂ’re much more acquainted with the European mentality than with the American one and that simply because so many of them were born or have been living among Europeans. Thus they have arrived to the false conclusion that the US was nothing but Europe writ large.

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In Albany, Ga., barber Marty Ford keeps the television in his shop tuned to Fox news so customers can get the latest from Iraq.

"Time," is a word he emphasizes.

"It's only been a year. We got rid of that government and things are on the mend. It just takes time," said Ford, 46.

I spoke Friday out of frustration. I'm still frustrated. I read all the reactions here about what we should do, and I feel every one of those reactions every day. My emotions are on a cycle, but my resolve is stalwart; we will see this through and we will succeed.

Florian quotes Riverbend, not one of the Iraqi blogs I read. No common ground. In response, I quote Healing Iraq:

It is the most foolish and selfish thing to say "pull the troops out", or "replace them with the UN or NATO". Someone has to see us through this mess to the end. Only a deluded utopian (or an idiot peace activist) would believe that Iraqis would all cosily sit down and settle down their endless disputes without AK-47's, RPG's, or mortars in the event of coalition troops abandoning Iraq. Please please don't get me wrong, I am not in the least saying that I enjoy being occupied by a foreign force, I am not a dreamer who believes that the USA is here for altruistic reasons, I am not saying that I am happy with what my bleeding country is going through, believe me when I say it tears my heart every day to witness all the bloodshed, it pains me immensely to see that we have no leaders whomsoever with the interest and well-being of Iraq as their primary goal, it kills me to see how blind and ignorant we have all become. Iraqis are dying inside every day, and we are committing suicide over and over and over. Some people call me a traitor or a collaborator for all the above and for speaking the truth as opposed to rhetorical, fiery speeches which have been our downfall.

Zeyad too is going through the cycle of reactions. No one wants to see people dead, but war is sometimes the only avenue to peace.

My instincts tell me that.

MORE TO GROK:

Re-reading what I wrote back in November helps too.

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The husband called this morning. He said that they had been talking about R&R before all the Fallujah stuff started. As the Platoon Leader, he had to rank his soldiers by who he thinks deserves R&R the most. He put himself at the bottom of the list.

I'm so proud of him.

Since most of his guys were also nine months in Kosovo last year, he thinks they all deserve it more than he does. He also said he's not sure how big of an effect this list will have anyway, since they've stopped all talk of R&R since Fallujah. I told him I was impressed by his integrity and that we'd take R&R if we could but I'll be proud of him if we can't.

I'm so lucky to be married to such a selfless soldier.

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Five things I really hate:

1. when orange juice turns sour
2. cleaning the George Foreman
3. when people leave their porchlight on during the day
4. the sound of a fork scraping on a dish
5. the expression "anywhoo"

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1 I'm with you on the George Forman. I stopped using it long ago for exactly that reason. My #1 is people in the left lane on the highway doing less than the posted speed limit.

Posted by: Larry at April 10, 2004 08:16 PM (6TcYT)

2 My #1 is people in online forums who say "hon" or "hun." Such as "hang in there hun." Especially when it's not a 60 year old person, but a 19 year old someone who hasn't a darn clue about the subject in which they are telling you to hang on through. Just pounds on my very last nerve.

Posted by: Shannon at April 10, 2004 10:14 PM (6EP7S)

3 Pour or run really hot water on the grill (hang it over the edge of the sink), and most of the crud wipes right off.

Posted by: LCB at April 11, 2004 01:05 AM (WN/nF)

4 Grrr...that "anyhoo" really ticks me off, too...I don't understand what it is supposed to mean, or how it is humourous, chummy, or otherwise clever.

Posted by: david at April 11, 2004 03:14 AM (s7Ho8)

5 Something I always wondered... how do you know when sour cream goes bad? :-D

Posted by: CavalierX at April 11, 2004 10:51 AM (sA6XT)

6 As for cleaning the Foreman grill - I have only one comment - warm grill (do just after it has cools a bit, or plug in 1 minute), wooden popsicle stick to clean out the cracks, and a paper towel. Works like a champ.

Posted by: Ron at April 11, 2004 02:15 PM (CwrQg)

7 George Foreman grill. As soon as you finish cooking, take a few paper towels, wet them, then lay them on the grill. Close the lid and enjoy your dinner. As soon as you are finished eating, take out the paper towels, and wipe down the grill. Makes life a lot easier.

Posted by: NightHawk at April 11, 2004 06:58 PM (VYFGK)

8 Clean the foreman while it is warm to hot, use wet paper towels. The gunk wipes right off.

Posted by: Blueshift at April 11, 2004 09:44 PM (crTpS)

9 My technique is similar; I have a spray bottle of water which I use to augment the above techniques.

Posted by: triticale at April 16, 2004 02:26 PM (YmQkS)

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This is either the husband or the best friend.
I told you they'd bring the heat.

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Many times when I visit blogs, someone will say "read this" and I skip on by. If the name Mark Steyn or Victor Davis Hanson catches my eye, I'll linger, but often in my hurried mornings I'll miss out on an article because the blogger has not stressed how important it is.

I'm adding this old piece (from 2002) called The Civic Education America Needs to my crucial reading list. (I'm also printing it and sending it to the Best Friend and the Husband.) Bunker dug it up and wrote about the citizenship grades he also received in school. I struggled to find a paragraph that would characterize this important piece:

Restoring civic education—from the daily practice of its rituals to real mastery of the elements of Americanism—will not be easy, but such a shared sense of values is critical in such a vast nation that is otherwise not defined by a shared religion, common race, or dominant ethnic affiliation. After September 11, most Americans, in their slogans, flags, and posters, yearned for greater accord: “United We Stand” and “One from Many,” read some of the ad hoc banners. We are coming to realize that we cannot survive as a nation under today’s pernicious conventional wisdom of division and separatist cultural protocols—ideas based on misconceptions and outright untruths about the American past. Even the most jaded among us is beginning to sense that al-Qaida hates Asian, Hispanic, black, and white Americans alike—our women as much as, or more than, our men; Catholics, atheists, Protestants, agnostics, Jews, Buddhists, and Sikhs as infidels all. Our enemies see us as one united people even where we ourselves do not. And we are slowly re-learning the age-old lessons of war, that the spiritual is far more important than the material: that all the F-16s in the world will not guarantee us victory unless our pilots who fly them, mechanics who service them, and taxpayers who pay for them feel that they are shooting, repairing, and working for the preservation of their own common civilization that must not fall prey to barbarism.

In the America I live in, citizenship is important. Belonging to the greater whole that is the United States is important. Working together to set aside our differences and build a more perfect union is important. Being an American is important.

I'm taking a break from the computer today to go read my students' essays. Many of them wrote about what it meant to them to join the Army; that's just the pick-me-up I need today.

MORE TO GROK:

Apparently the America I live in doesn't include Hawaii, where Amritas points out the proposal to create a new ethnic-Hawaiian school district:

The curriculum portrays the United States as a colonial oppressor of the Hawaiian people, and is designed to train children to become skillful advocates for race-based political sovereignty.

God help us all.

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I don't really consider myself a cryer, but something about this week has put my emotions on edge. Last night I cried out of frustration. This morning I cry out of respect:

But asked if he ever wondered about the decisions of generals and policymakers, he said, “I support them. I’ve got faith in them. If they’re telling us we’ve got to stay here, it’s for a good reason. Good will prevail. Ma’am, if the nation needs us to stay and fight, we’ll stay and fight.”

This soldier, staying for an extra four months of duty with 1AD, groks.

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This photo made me start crying.

The caption at AP:

On the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, an American soldier removes posters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that were hanging Friday April 9 2004 on a statue on Firdos Square in Baghdad, Iraq. One year ago, U.S. soldiers pulled down Saddam Hussein's statue from this very place. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

One year ago today, I was so happy for the Iraqis. I sat on the sofa at Fort Knox and cheered wildly as they tore that statue down. I wept for the Iraqis and their newfound freedom; now I weep for their newfound vengeance.

If you remember, the statue of Saddam wasn't the only thing to come down from that pedestal last year. The American flag an overzealous soldier hung up there was quickly taken down, lest the world think we came as conquerors. We were there to give Iraq to the Iraqis, and they've repaid us by burning our dead and hanging them from a bridge.

I just finished reading Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. It was written by an Australian woman who spent years studying Muslim women throughout the Middle East. The last chapter was the most interesting, where she recounted her frustration in dealing with women who accepted the status quo. No matter how many times she tried to point out that the oppression of women is a distortion of Muhammad's words in the Koran, the Muslim women refused to believe that the way they were living was not in accordance with Allah's will. You open the Koran and point to a specific passage, and it still doesn't help.

We can point to all the good things we've brought to Iraq -- removal of Saddam, strengthened economy, freedom of speech -- but it doesn't seem to do any good. They hate us. They chose to hate us even before we showed up, and nothing we point at will make them change their minds.

You know how Plato said that stuff about the ideal chair and the real chair? One year ago my mental Iraqi was the ideal Iraqi. I imagined that they cowered under Saddam and longed for freedom in the way I would long for it if I were oppressed. I imagined that they would be grateful to be rid of such a foul leader and ready to start anew in Iraq. The majority of Iraqis, in my mind, were the ideal. Turns out there are a lot more real Iraqis and less ideal Iraqis than I had guessed.

I look at that soldier and wonder what he must be thinking. Damn, are we here again? Full circle, with just another hateful man's face atop this pedestal? Have we made any progress at all in this past year?

This week it feels like we haven't. This week I want to say, "Give the Iraqis their al-Sadr and let's go home." This week I've lost sight of the reason all of this matters. My laser beam has burned out, my ideal chair turns out to be some junky armchair at the side of the road, and my tears are flowing for that soldier who has to climb to the top of that pedestal again one year later and tear down the image of another dangerous leader.

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