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Military commercials portray false rosy picture

It’s the middle of the day on Saturday and I’m watching television when a new Army Reserve commercial comes on. The commercial features a teenage boy talking to his parent(s) about how he wants to join the reserves and how the military will keep him here until he is needed. He goes on to explain that after he has finished his training and his time with the reserves, the military will pay for college. This opportunity sounds so golden, but what the commercials aren’t showing is that once you are trained in the United States, the military will be sending you to the Middle East – for how long is anyone’s guess.

These commercials disturbed me to no end. These young men and women are joining the army to potentially fight a war with no end in sight.

Currently, President George W. Bush is saying that we need to follow through; we need to stay in the Middle East and send more troops to maintain the peace. What peace?

Many men, women, and children have been killed by car bombs or terrorists since the beginning of the American presence in Iraq. It has been reported that the United States has stayed longer in Iraq than in Europe during World War II. Unfortunately, this has become our Vietnam; we are stuck in a war with no way out.

Now don’t get the wrong idea; I am not bashing our troops who are fighting bravely in the Middle East. I am the daughter of a Vietnam vet. My father fought in a war that no one supported. I am proud of my father and what he did for our country, and just like him I believed our president when he made the decision to go to the Middle East to stop Iraq from making weapons of mass destruction. I believed our president would take down a dictator who was hurting innocent people who didn’t deserve to be killed, but now it seems that we have worn out our welcome.

It worries me each time I see the Army Reserve commercials because they do not show the truth of what is happening in the Middle East. These commercials are sending a message to young people that they will not be harmed while serving their time in Iraq, emphasizing the time spent training in the United States and the financial benefits they will receive rather than any overseas missions to which they may be assigned.

These commercials do not show the car bombs, killings of soldiers, those who did survive who have to go through rehab or their families suffering. They do not show funerals or children suffering because their mother or father will never return home. The commercials don’t show what really happens.

We’re sending people out there who do not understand that war is a dirty business and that people don’t always come home.

Julie Sparkhul is a junior journalism major and the calendar editor for the Daily Forty-Niner.

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