We need our soldiers

I keep reading in the paper about soldiers refusing to be deployed to Iraq. I keep seeing soldiers on the news refusing to take a second tour through the Middle East. I read today they’re making a movie called Stop-Loss portraying a soldier defying a request to re-enter the war zone. How are our enemies supposed to fear/respect us when our own soldiers refuse to follow orders? In Roman times, they would label you a deserter. The Romans killed deserters. The Roman Empire also collapsed. So go figure. Granted, our reason for fighting is morally bullshit. We’re there to protect our interests. Our economy is driven by oil and having dictators or warlords in control of it can only end badly. So of course our president would think attacking liberating a couple of countries would be a good idea. It protects our future oil and his friends’ future businesses. His employees, on the other hand, think otherwise. So I guess they have a good point when they say they want to stay home. I support their decision from a moral and personal standpoint, but on a professional and patriotic level, I strongly disagree. My question is: Don’t these men and women know what they’re getting into when they sign up? It’s mainly the reason I don’t sign up, but that’s another story. It doesn’t take a genius (or maybe it does) to know a soldier’s main job is to fight whenever called upon, no matter what the reason. A lot of the wars we’ve fought in did not have a direct link with us. Fighting the Germans was the best thing to do in WWI & WWII, but it wasn’t actually our fight. Vietnam had good reasons, but it wasn’t our fight. So why are these people surprised by our involvement in Iraq? It has nothing to do with us; except for they have oil that we will eventually need. You can’t believe the government will give you schooling, a guaranteed job, and a signing bonus all for ironing a uniform and a little training. You know what’s in the job description when you are hired with any job, so when your boss tells you to do something job-related, you know it has to be done. It’s like being a janitor and refusing to clean shit. Sure it’s a dirty job that no one wants to do, but you receive a salary so you can do such a thing. Suck it up or join the Coast Guard. I see a larger problem coming from this. The more deserters we have, they fewer soldiers we have. The fewer soldiers we have, the more vulnerable we are. Wait, there’s more. The more we fight pointless wars, the more people don’t want to join the military. The more people don’t want to join the military, again, the more vulnerable we are. Needless to say, I don’t like where this is all going. We may be fucked. When we actually have to fight, there won’t be anyone to do it. It’s like crying wolf. This doesn’t go for an American invasion of course. I’m pretty sure I don’t have to say that every able body will protect our own land when needed. However, will we have able bodies to fight the next Hitler? Will our soldiers want to fight a dictator that is conquering helpless countries like Napoleon did? We need our soldiers. We need to have our military seem like a desirable job. Right now its not. They can’t even get high school dropouts to enlist, and they have nothing better to do with their lives. It’s only a matter of time before someone takes notice and takes advantage. Or maybe they’ll have pity on us like we do with Russia. My point of this rant? I hope this deserter problem we have is only a phase and our soldiers still want to fight when we actually need them.