College students are more selfish than ever before.

I remember when I was a young father and serving in the US Army hearing the psychobabble emanating from progressive circles that American parents should do all in their power to create an attitude of "I am special" in their children. I remember news reports of teachers marking up poorly written papers turned in by students because the old red pen was too harsh. I remember hearing of sporting events where every team and every participant went home with trophy in hand because it was important not to make any of the children feel like they had lost; to send them all home feeling like a winner no matter their performance. Daycare centers were told to use care and make sure that no children felt inferior to others or that any of them felt superior. These are but a couple of examples; but there are many more, of the philosophy in liberal progressive circles that it was important that all of our children feel a sameness. Superior performances were not to be rewarded for the sake of the kids who could not, or would not put in the same time and effort. And I remember at the time, this psychobabble was just a load of crap. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

In an extensive study by five prominent psychologists it has been found that college students today are more selfish, self centered and narcissistic than their predecessors. And it is reason to be concerned, these psychologists claim. These students will tend to lack a sense of empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others.

Nice going liberals.

Today, General William S. Wallace, Commanding General of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) announced that the results of a TRADOC survey among American youth contained some interesting responses. I make the connection of these the college study and TRADOC survey myself, General Wallace did not.

The TRADOC survey found that:

Propensity to enlist in the Army is at the lowest it has been in over two decades.
Patriotism has steadily decreased since 2002.

College is overwhelmingly the preferred post-high school choice, for both prospects and influencers. Educational opportunity is the major incentive.

Breaking through media "clutter" continues to be challenging.

The Army is perceived as "ordinary" vs. other services.

The Global War on Terrorism continues to have a polarizing effect on the youth market.

General Wallace continued; "We found out some pretty interesting statistics. Eighty percent of the youth today said the never watch the commercials on television. Ninety percent engage in text messaging in some form or another on a daily basis, 85 percent have access to an Internet connection that they access routinely." This explains why I see so many 250 lbs 13 year old kids these days.

If you haven't figured out why the college study and the TRADOC survey are important to our country and our Army, I'll tell you why. College students in my opinion, continue to be influenced and indoctrinated into the lunatic liberal, anti military camp and enlisting in the Army to these young people is looked upon with disfavor, even disdain. I think that young people tend to think they are above serving their country in the Army.

And yet, according to TRADOC; Only 27 percent of young Americans age 17 to 24 actually qualify to be in the Army. The other 73 percent are disqualified either morally, intellectually or physically. On a personal note, I can back up those numbers. Based on my experience as an Army Recruiter from 1995-98 in Denver, Colorado. It was a continual source of amazement to me, to watch potential recruits fail the military entrance examination. It isn't that hard, at least I thought it wasn't that hard. How could anyone who paid any attention in high school fail the entrance exam?

Our nation has more than one problem in this regard. Only 27 percent of 17-24 year old American youth are eligible to serve in the Army. The majority of this 27 percent do not consider the Army a valid career choice. High School and College campi across the nation seem to be doing their level best to bar military recruiters from school property. Our students continue to be indoctrinated into the lunatic left fringe rather than being trained to think for themselves. We are in a struggle for our very survival, engaged in what will be a decades long fight against global terror. So, who will man the front lines? Who will protect the homeland? Who will vanquish our enemy? Democrats have even broached the subject of reviving the draft. The progressives, liberals, socialist and communist faculty and staff across the land beware; continue to indoctrinate our young students, continue to preach an anti military attitude, continue to resist allowing recruiters to visit prospects on school property and stand by for the draft to be revived, and you have yourselves to thank for it.

Europe has for all intents and purposes lost it's culture and we are treading the same path. I tend to think that this is exactly what the far left wants. It is, it has always been incumbant upon those of us who have worn the uniform to be ambassadors for the military. Although many on the left can't stand this, it is a fact that we are looked upon more or less with respect and honor by most Americans even if they won't say it. People listen to what we say and we have great influence, our words have an impact, our mentorship is valued. We should mentor young Americans who in our estimation could be successful in the military to visit a recruiter and learn the facts. It is incumbant upon us to help dispell this inane beleif that all recruiters are crooks. It is incumbant upon us to do what we can. Most of us would put the uniform back on and man the front lines if we could, but most of us can't. So, lets do what we can to be a voice of realism, and reality when it comes to serving in the military today.

A Gathering Of Eagles

My friends, you have no doubt heard the news that anti war protesters plan to meet on March 17th in Washington D.C. to demonstrate against the war. I suppose those of us who support our troops have grown accustomed to hearing the harping, sniping, hate filled drivel hurled by the likes of William Arkin, Cindy Sheehan, George Soros, Jane Fonda, Al Franken, Bill Mahr and an assortment of other loud mouthed liberal do gooders. Since the revelation of their plans to meet on hallowed ground, the Vietnam Memorial, a grass roots counter demonstration has evolved and has continued to attract patriotic Americans from every state. They are going to protect that memorial and to show America that the anti war rabble rousers aren't the only ones who can turn out the membership in force.

I have no problem with misguided anti Americans exercising their free speech, but when they think they can use the symbol of the generation of my older brothers; Vietnam Veterans, who bled and died for that wall. When elements of the closet socialist/communist movement in America plan to politicize the war, to cheapen the sacrifices of our nations patriots I've got a problem with it, to be sure.

I urge anyone who is so inclined, contact A Gathering Of Eagles at the link provided at the top of this post and go to Washington D.C. I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick and tired of these defeatists who want us to retreat from Iraq in defeat.

Who are these people? What motivates them to actively seek failure? With red faces and spittle flying from the corners of their mouths, they grandstand in front of military hospitals treating our war wounded, and yet they want us to think that they really care about our troops? Two years of outrageous lies, conspiracy theories, unfounded accusations, desperate tactics from people with no grounding in reality. It looks like the folks who will participate in A Gathering Of Eagles has had quite enough of it and the anti war cabal will no longer have the stage to themselves.

I refuse to post a link to any of the crackpot websites that protest the war. You can google them and read to your hearts delight, but I will not give them space on this blog. Just know that these anti war organizations have allied themselves with our enemy, some have even sent money to them.

There are indeed, two Americas my friends, which one do you belong to? The Democratic party has sold it's soul to a thousand different one issue special interest groups and can no longer hold them together, they are tearing apart at the seams. The Democrats are now ruled by the ultra liberal left, these are not your run of the mill lefties. These are people who lament over the near miss our vice president experienced in Afghanistan. These are the people who call our president an outright fascist. These are the people who deep down, want to see American torn asunder and for a socialist form of government to rise from the ashes. The people who want to steal your hard earned income and give it to the "poor", raise your taxes, people who think the government should be central to our lives, a people who want our government to replace God as judge of man.

Stand up patriots! Stand up and be counted because we are in grave danger. These lunatics are the minority and I don't care what poll numbers anyone tries to shove in my face. These people live in denial, they have no concept of the danger we live in today. Iraq is the issue that keeps their faces smashed against the glass of reality, that forces them to see the world as it is. Full of enemies, danger, mayhem, chaos and suffering. They don't like what they see. But there is a big difference between us and them. We know that we have to meet these dangers head on and that sometimes we have to fight, we must not shrink from them; for they will not go away, we have to make them go away by whatever means necessary.

My fellow Americans, our nation is in danger, from the socialist, communist, the dirty terrorist mufisden who live in our midst as well as enemies from the outside. A Gathering of Eagles will demonstrate how much and how many people who live in this great country are willing to stand up to aggression and tyranny wherever it may exist. Even if it is within the halls of our own congress.

Hillary Clinton is a radical.

This is all that you really need to know about Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton. She is a died in the wool liberal, and that's a putting it mildly. At heart, Hillary Clinton is a socialist and probably believes communism would work in America. Of course this is my personal opinion, but I know it is an opinion shared by millions of my fellow Americans.

I have made it a point not to comment heavily on the topic of politics but I have very strong feelings when it comes to the Clinton's. Perhaps it is due to my career in the Army, but ethics and moral standards are important to me. I feel they are vital attributes in our president, for all our elected representatives in fact. This is why I have a favorable impression of President Bush. Regardless of whether I agree with him on an issue or not, I don't have to guess where he stands. The nation cannot rely on that kind of courage from Hillary Clinton. Isn't it obvious having observed her for the past two decades, that she has no problem with flip flopping? How many times do we have to witness her saying one thing to a group of people, to have her later say the opposite to another group in another forum? How can America possibly entrust it's future to her? What would she do? What would she try and do?

Well, we know this much:

She doesn't like the military. She insisted that military personnel not visit the White House in uniform, rather that they wear civilian clothing. Her husband wrote a paper in which he admitted loathing the military.

She has a terrible memory at the most convenient times, for her, especially if the truth would reflect badly upon her, read; Whitewater.

Hillary Clinton wants to appear to be an independent woman capable of standing on her own. But she needs her husband if she is to stand a chance at the Oval Office, and she knows it. This is why she stands behind her adulterating husband while he insults women.

Why did Hillary Clinton ask her Alma mater, Wellesly College to put her undergraduate thesis under lock and key? Because in that thesis, she embraces the model presented by a far left radical Saul Alinksky. A man who outlined the necessity of reforming our capitalistic society through a direct takeover of power.

I think, no, I know that Hillary Clinton is a socialist. Why does she hide it?

Because if that particular gene were let out of the bottle, she wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting elected president.

As first lady she told the country she was the "co-president" she actually headed the health care reform effort, an effort the failed miserably. Who in the hell did she think she was? She wasn't elected and she had NO right to insert herself to any position of authority.

Hillary Clinton is not the altruistic woman she would have us think. Her political career is based on lies and deceit. While claiming she had no intention of ever running for president and claiming that she only wanted to be a senator from New York; that she would give her undivided attention to the people of New York, every move she made since then as been with an eye on the White House. She saw the senatorship as punching her ticket, a way to pad her resume for a White House bid.

And so, Hillary Clinton has, and does continue to present an untrue image of herself that she thinks she can sell on the American electorate. You must always keep in mind, Hillary Clinton lusts for power, she will say or do anything to achieve it. She has sold her soul in pursuit of it. And I have to wonder, what would she do if she were the president? I don't think she even knows, to people like her, the thrill is in the campaign, the goal is the victory, what comes after is secondary.

I know that she would increase your taxes and she would confiscate corporate profits, she would gut the military and she would put America's future in the hands of the United Nations.

Hillary Clinton's strategy is obvious. She must appear to be a liberal because liberals vote in large numbers in the Democratic primary. But she must also convince America she is a conservative, because she can't win the general election without major conservative votes.

I actually shudder at the thought of our future with Hillary Clinton at the helm of our nation.

I do not know who I will vote for in the 2008 presidential election. But I have made a decision already. And that is I will not vote for Hillary, and I will actively work against her candidacy. Not that I dislike her personally. But because I don't trust her, and I don't respect her. The President of the United States at the very least must be trustworthy, and respectable. Even if we disagree with his policies, that is something we can work around. However, if you are constantly trying to figure out what your president really believes? Well, that's a recipe for the fall of America.

It is difficult for me to comprehend that Hillary Clinton is taken seriously as a presidential candidate, and I think it has much to do with the fact that she is the wife of Bill Clinton more than anything else.

I have heard liberals say anyone but George Bush, while I disagree with them I can relate to how they feel. Because in my mind, its anyone but Hillary Clinton.

I don't know about you, but I think our future is too important for a reactionary, socialist radical like Hillary Clinton to be entrusted with the office of the presidency.

I hope you will join me in pointing out her lies, hypocrisy and deceit whenever the opportunity presents itself.

My fellow Rockheads, consider if you will. Operation Fadr al-Qanoon (which the media calls the “Baghdad security plan”) is underway. Progress is measurable, remember though, that this is a marathon, it’s still a bit early to know how it will turn out, but there is reason to hope.
The message for all of us, especially professionals like me who do this for a living, is patience, family members who have loved ones in Iraq can also counsel patience to their friends and acquaintances, we need to steady the nerves of our fellow Americans. The war has been going for almost four years, the current strategy just few weeks. We need to give it more time.
It will take time to bring security to the people of Baghdad and the Al Anbar Province. To do this , we need to build trust with the people, engage community leaders, develop intelligence and trusted networks, then compete with the insurgents and death squads to deny them access to their targets – their fellow Iraqis, whom they cynically exploit and kill. All these things we are doing, but the process cannot be rushed, and requires detailed local understanding: so we move at the pace the Iraqis can sustain.
Patience, determination, courage and stamina are vital. Political reconciliation at the grass roots level is what is going make this work, with security as a buffer. Needless to say, we are not leaving this to luck: some commentators have focused on the troop surge, but the main effort isn't the surge, the anti war crowd as usual focuses on the narrow, missing the big picture almost entirely. The main effort is a political effort, by Iraqis with our support, to reconcile at the local level. The surge is simply to create an environment for this political effort to take place. This is going to be a lot like heavy peace enforcement or police work, not so much like classical counterinsurgency, let alone conventional combat. And with just one additional brigade in Baghdad and four more on the way, look at the result; we are getting somewhere now on a political level. And there is an oil revenue sharing agreement; we've cleared a high hurdle.
Our task is to stay alert, focused, and with a keen eye, read the situation, ready to modify our approach as this develop.
I think these are the major trends:
Muqtada al-Sadr has run off to Iran, leaving some of his thugs scratching their heads and wondering if they have been Persian stooges all along.
Iraq on the whole has been relatively quiet, as it has been for much of the past year, nearly two. At least half the incidents in Iraq still happen within Baghdad city limits; control Baghdad, and you have the upper hand, the insurgents and terrorists knew this inherently having lived in the country all or most of their lives, it just took us a while to catch up.
Al Qa’ida in Iraq has successfully been marginalized, with alliances of local Sunni leaders, and some other jihadist groups, opposing its brutality and murder, its terrorist campaign of viciously murdering fellow muslims in the streets. They are contesting its self-styled, self proclaimed leadership.
Increased targeting of helicopters has led to increased shoot downs (out of hundreds of flights every day) a Baghdad helicopter ride is still safer than a cab ride in New York City..
Security in key neighborhoods of Baghdad shows positive signs of improvement, as Americans and Iraqis partner at the grass roots to clamp down on violence and insurgent influence. Terrorists have are now using car bombs against innocent bystanders in markets and public places a sign that they know where the danger lies (loss of influence with the population) and are trying to kill the “surge” using the most mass casualty producing terrorist weaponry available, in other words, they are truly desperate now to influence not only Iraqis, but the American public, you need to keep that in mind.
Some sectarian and insurgent groups have seemingly appeared out of nowhere to attack outposts, local communities working with the government, and security forces; more desperate measures.
This last trend is the most professionally intriguing. In counterinsurgency operations killing the enemy is not difficult, finding them is difficult. But finding them, and distinguishing them from the innocent population, can be terribly difficult. In shifting our tactics away from directly hunting down insurgents, and to protecting the people, we have undercut insurgent influence and they know it, their options are to flee, wait us out, or come into the open to fight, to contest control of the neighborhoods, they will not do this for it means certain death. But the fact that some are coming into the open suggests they realize that waiting us out is not an option. It also makes the job of finding the enemy far easier. This is good, but we must not lose sight of the focus; protect the people.
On this score, again, it’s too early to say for sure but initial signs are really encouraging. One indication that is not very useful is car bombs, we can expect these to be one of the last insurgent tactics to diminish, for a couple of reasons. It takes an entire community, coupled with its local security forces to defeat a clandestine suicide bomber, and it will take a while to build effective networks to achieve this. Second, insurgent tactics are driven by the need to capture the attention of the nearest television camera, nothing does this better than a big bomb; remember that. The bad guys will hang on to this method as long as the news media reward it.
Overall, then, though early signs give us genuine reason to hope, prudence, patience and professional judgment must be our watchwords. There will be tough days as always; the problems remain daunting, complex and deeply ingrained in the social and political fabric of the Iraqi society. Violence will ebb and flow, come and go, and there will be “spikes”. But over time, if the strategy works (and I think it will), we should see a downward trend in violence and an increase in trust and reconciliation at the local level, in remaining ready, as we certainly are, as we always have been, as we have been doing, to refine our approach if needed.
We must not allow ourselves to confuse the country of Iraq, where there is a real war, a real people, and a real obligation to provide security for them, with constant harping of the "Vietnam template, quagmire Iraq" of popular liberal, anti war, anti American, Democratic, wild-eyed imagination. The professionals have a duty to be clear-headed and to accurately analyze and assess the situation in a professional fashion, adapting as the situation dictates. We have a duty to care for our people, their families, and the Iraqis, America must give this time, take it slow and carefully, we must not allow the Democrats, liberals, or any other anti war organization rush us either to judgment or failure. We have a real shot now, we can do this. We will do this.

Thank God for our troops, for the overall professionalism, courage and determination to get this job done despite the best efforts of congress to stop them from reaching their goals.
I think we've learned much over the past four years, about our Army, our troops, our president, the congress, and the Iraqi people.