Thomas Kilgannon claims leftie opinionator Eleanor Clift called U.S. soldiers mercenaries on The McLaughlin Group. If true, Clift’s statement is remarkably stupid, in particular as she ties her argument to the “market rate” of attracting recruits. If America had had a mercenary army, employing whoever was willing to serve, then it could have paid its soldier much less than is currently the case, since legions of foreigners would be all too happy to don the G.I. uniform for far less than Americans command. Instead, America has a volunteer Army (and Navy, and Air Force, and Coast Guard) manned by Americans (and some foreigners of legal status).

The other reason that America pays it soldiers well is that it is remarkably picky about whom it enlists. The U.S. Armed Forces are not a place for dopeheads and numbskulls.

This entry was posted posted by Zach on Tuesday, August 30th, 2005 at 3:08 pm under Support Our Troops. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.