BLACKFIVE: A Few Good Women

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A Few Good Women

Posted By Subsunk

This article in the NY Times is pretty full of misconceptions and falsehoods about Marine recruiting. If you read between the "long unpopular war" lines, you'll see a Marine Corps that is using a more targeted strategy of advertising to find young Women to join the one of the finest services there is in the world today. Getting more bang for their buck.

The young Lady mentioned as a recruit is also just the type to make good Marines. Yet the reporter doesn't quite recognize that the Marine Corps is more than "parachuting from airplanes, wielding big guns, driving heavy tanks and stampeding across the ground". In fact it appears that's the only thing he thinks male Marines are good for. (I can almost hear the bewilderment in his voice over why such "big strong Men would have the smarts to do anything else"????? Wielding big guns??? Stampeding across the ground???? Where did this guy learn about the Marine Corps? In a gay bar?)

Code Pink shows up too, as some sort of experts in why this is Marine Propaganda. As Bugs Bunny said, "It is to laugh". What else is wrong with the article? Read on.

But now it is also showing a softer side. In the latest campaign, a print ad shows a female marine striking a martial arts pose in front of a crowd of men who are looking up to her as their leader. The tag line: “There are no female marines. Only marines.”

Marines are Marines, with a capital M. And there are no female Marines. Just Marines. Except for his punctuation, he's right.

Compare and contrast what we know today:

In the 1990s, when the Marines Corps was having trouble reaching recruitment goals, it ran a scattering of ads in magazines like Seventeen and Sports Illustrated for Women, using tag lines like “You can look at models, or you can be one” and “Get a makeover that’s more than skin deep.” That outreach “wasn’t as sophisticated as it is now,” said Jay Cronin, management director of JWT, a unit of the WPP Group, which has been the Marine Corps’ advertising agency for more than 60 years.

And today we know that the Marine Corps has met or exceeded every recruiting goal since May 2005. In the middle of the "longest", and "most unpopular" war in recent history. (As if Marines or Americans anywhere found any war popular.) In March 2008, they exceeded their recruiting goal by 37%, far exceeding the other services goals. Although it is also true that the Army, Navy, and Air Force also met or exceeded their goals in March 08.

Code Pink says,

Dana Balicki, national media coordinator for Code Pink, a women’s peace group, called the Marine campaign “just another example of potentially misleading tactics used to sell the war to young people, and especially young women.”

Talking specifically about the print ad that shows a woman in a leadership role, Ms. Balicki said, “She’s supposed to look like she’s being empowered, but she’s in a typical self-defense stance. After knowing the statistics and talking to women who have experienced sexual trauma or violence in the military, it’s hard to think of it as empowerment.”

Really???? "Potentially misleading", "selling war", "She’s supposed to look like she’s being empowered", "hard to think of it as empowerment"? What's misleading about female Marines being in charge? What's misleading about female Marines knowing how to pick up a rifle and use it? What's misleading about portraying female Marines as Leaders. Where is selling the Iraq war mentioned in the ad?

I don't know about you, but if a female Marine Officer struck a defensive martial arts stance on me, I wouldn't think of it as anything other than a prelude to getting my ass kicked if I laid a hand on her. If that's not "empowering" (God, I hate that word...it is too PC and wimpy for me), then I don't know what is. Excuse me, but kicking some guys ass when he threatens you is at least as empowering as learning martial arts to defend yourself if attacked, or divorcing your abusive husband, or taking charge of your own finances, and I hear how those things "are so empowering to women" all the time.

“We’re in the midst of a very difficult war, and the ground forces are taking a pounding,” said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer and military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a research firm.“We’re in the midst of a very difficult war, and the ground forces are taking a pounding,” said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer and military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a research firm.

Got that? It would seem that our forces are taking a pounding from the enemy. While I am reasonably sure Ms. Thompson didn't actually mean it that way, it is the quote the reporter chose to use, and it conveys facts which are not in evidence. The only "pounding" our guys take is the pounding their morale takes due to long deployments away from home, and the MSM characterizing them as murderers of innocents, and uneducated grunts with bad table manners and horrible breath. In the context of actual combat, while I am sure they do not appreciate incoming fire, I am equally certain that "taking a pounding" is not a sentiment that they would choose to use in describing their situations. "Giving a pounding, ass kicking, meting out excessive punishment, "getting some", or just generally beating the living sh*t out of some assh*les who desperately deserve it" might be a more accurate portrayal of their language.

The Marines also broke from tradition earlier this year by running a 60-second spot during several episodes of “American Idol.” Titled “America’s Marines,” the ad featured marines standing in formation against various national landmarks. It was intended to appeal to a general audience, including parents and other people whom military recruiters refer to as “influencers.”

What tradition was being broken? The tradition of showing the Silent Drill Platoon performing across America? The tradition of showing Marines to be Patriots who've decided to give their lives to their country in service to Her Defense?

That Tradition?

Given the drumbeat of bad news from the lingering conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, where American military casualties recently topped 4,000, the sell can be a tough one. Sentiment against recuiting has flared on some campuses, as well as in Berkeley, Calif., where the City Council approved a measure in February asking Marine recruiters to vacate their downtown office.

Imagine how much better the Marines recruiting might be if Code Pink had NOT protested Marine recruiting in Berkeley, and if the MSM had accurately portrayed the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq? The only propaganda I see today if that espoused by the MSM to slander American soldiers, and proselytize against any military action by US forces. There is NO GOOD REASON to use force, for any circumstance or condition whatsoever, if you believe the preaching and proselytizing of reporters and editors of our news organizations today. And Hollywood has accepted their premises and done their best to propagandize in the same vein.

Where else but America can radical Islam get their message blazoned across the movie screens of the world, and printed in banner headlines in the most influential newspapers.... for free! The next time you see a story that says al Qaida's media arm has been damaged or hindered....... don't you believe it. Even if we killed or captured lots of al Qaida's nimrods overseas, its media operations are alive and well in Hollywood, and the NY Times.

As opposition against the war continues, Congress has ordered the Marines and the Army to augment their forces. All branches of the military have been reaching out to nontraditional audiences, but none have done so quite as emphatically as the Marine Corps, which is the fourth-largest of the five branches (the Coast Guard is the smallest). Its advertising budget is $157.4 million this year, up from $152.4 million in fiscal year 2007.

Wow, a whopping 3.2% increase in the recruiting budget! Just about the amount of inflation! Knowing a tad about budgeting in DoD, I have to say this shows a tremendous amount of "nothing new to be seen here". The USMC decided to revamp their recruiting approach and it cost the US taxpayers exactly 0% more than it already would have due to the budget increases for inflation listed in EVERY federal budget every year.

Finally, a good note to end on:

Ms. Castillo seems to be precisely the kind of young woman being sought by the advertising. She plays soccer and softball at high school and says she is hungry to prove herself on more dangerous fields.

“The Marines are the toughest,” she said in a telephone interview. “They have the longest boot camp, the highest standards. The Marines want people to actually want to be in the Marines, not just be in it for the money.”

.....

Like anyone entering the Marine Corps today, Ms. Castillo is keenly aware of where she is probably headed. “I’m O.K. with it,” she said. “If I get sent to Iraq, I’m going to be ready.”

Note to NY Times. There are more Ana Castillo's out there. They understand that evil needs to be opposed, not appeased. They are ready, willing and able to stand up and be counted in America's column. When can the NY Times say the same?

Subsunk out.