I generally try to stick to stories with connections to Shorewood. However, there is a story out of Afghanistan that is so bizarre, I have to deviate for a moment to draw your attention to it.

Troops battle 10-foot marijuana plants.
Fri Oct 13, 8:48 AM ET


OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of 10-feet-high marijuana plants.

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said on Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices ... and as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," he said in a speech in Ottawa.

"We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now ... that we simply couldn't burn them," he said.

Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.

"A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those (forests) did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action," Hillier said dryly.

One soldier told him later: "Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd say 'That damn marijuana'."

Who remembers when this story came out? It has stuck in my memory for the last two years, irritating me like a pebble in my shoe.

Realities of recruitment
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Posted: June 23, 2004

This story included a number of statements from kids who were in High School at the time. I certainly would not want to be held to everything I said in High school, so I will refrain from arguing with anything specific the students said in the article. But the general point of the article is summarized in this section:

"Some Shorewood students say their reasons vary for avoiding the military. But they say it mostly has to do with having well-educated parents who can more easily afford to send them to college. They also say that having well-educated parents enables them to do better academically, and thus gives them more academic opportunities."

I got home from Iraq in April of 2004, only two months before this article was written, and roughly two years after completing my Masters Degree at UW-Madison. My academic program actually asked my permission to exclude my Army salary from their annual post graduation salary figures, given that it was only about 1/4 of the class average. As such, I can tell you with confidence that people join the military for many other reasons beyond a lack of educational opportunity. I reject the notion that academic achievement excuses a person from answering the call to serve.

We have an all-volunteer force for a reason. If one does not wish to serve, one may simply state "I do not wish to serve." Making up reasons such as having too many other opportunities belittles the service of those who, to serve their country, temporarily lay aside the other opportunities they have.