Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Race baiting cluelessness

Raul Reyes (a NY Attny specializing in who-knows-what and member of USA Today's Board of Contributors) spews out a gaggle of insulting garbage about Hispanics in the military. (BTW Raul, if I have blond hair, blue eyes and my last name is Martinez because I grandfather came from Spain - does that make me Hispanic?) He sings his one-note tune at USA Today a few days ago (see more of his constant B-flat here, here, here, and here - yes, it gets boring).
Latinos enlist for the same reasons others do: patriotism, educational benefits, job training and a sense of purpose. Like other minorities, Latinos have often seen the military as a path toward social acceptance. Members of my own family have donned the uniform.

Yet with our country at war, Latinos are uniquely vulnerable to recruiting material. Hispanics are more likely to attend inferior public schools than other Americans are. We have high dropout and incarceration rates. According to the Pew Center, we are younger, poorer and less educated.

The military is a double-edged sword for many Latinos because it offers opportunities not available in civilian life, but it is fraught with clear risks. Worse yet, with a few notable exceptions such as Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former top commander in Iraq, Latinos occupy the lower rungs of the ladder, making up only 4.7% of the officer corps.
Uniquely vulnerable? GMAFB. I don't think David Duke could get away with saying that kind of crap. And what is it with the 4.7% comment? Recruit more or less? Make up your mind.

This is such an agenda driven bit by an ethnicity-pimp that it is not worth comment - but you know me.

I'll wait for his concern about the number of Southerners in the military. We're too ignorant to know better, you know - just cannon fodder. Waiting.

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