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Letter to the Editor: Bruce Butler’s column about the military lacks nuance and context

Merlin Parrish
Silverthorne

I’m writing in response to Bruce Butler’s column “In service to our country,” as his column lacks nuance and context in regards to his discussion of the U.S. military.

Butler frames current issues with the American military to be social, that any people we may have in active service are little more than political pawns used as a social threat rather than an active force in ensuring American security. Butler neglects to mention that the U.S. spends more money on the military out of any other country in the world, with a 2022 budget of between $750 billion and $754 billion. If the U.S. military is suffering, why doesn’t the government cut its losses and redirect its funding somewhere else?

He bemoans the fact that fewer youth seem to be enlisting because they are afraid of “critics searching for microaggression fouls” in an environment “under a microscope of political correctness” where “small transgressions can turn into … career-ending incidents.” Butler’s article makes this statement a few days after the House approved a measure that would aim to combat white supremacist and neo-Nazi activities in the armed services. If neo-Nazis and white supremacists avoid enlisting because they’re afraid their careers might end because of a “microaggression foul,” the military has suffered no great loss.



In the military, you must work as a unified front. If people don’t want to join up alongside others because they can’t act “politically correct” in a “woke” environment, they aren’t strong enough to be soldiers. If the ones willing to enlist are from these “woke” communities and they actively choose to protect and serve the U.S., we should be saluting them instead of feeling sorry for the cowards who weren’t brave enough to serve next to a service member from a marginalized community.


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