Army Recruiters Forced To Remove "God & Country" Poster

by JASmius

If soldiers, sailors, airpeople and Marines aren’t on a mission for God and country, then just for what and/or whom are they on a mission?  And for that matter, just exactly what is that mission?

Yes, that is a rhetorical question:

A poster with the phrase “On a mission for both God and country” on display outside a Phoenix recruiting station was removed Friday morning, an Army Recruiting Command spokesman said, hours after the unapproved display was brought to the command’s attention.

The poster, which features a Special Forces patch along with Ranger, Airborne and Special Forces tabs, includes “a stock image” the command makes available for local recruiters, spokesman Brian Lepley said in an email, “but the text was changed by the local recruiting personnel” and not cleared by command headquarters.

“Had the process been followed, the copy shown would not have been approved,” Lepley said.

I get this in terms of how the military works – freelancing and departures from protocol and procedure are verbotten and all that.  Individualism is not a tenet of the armed forces, it’s a much more regimented entity, and “going off the reservation” is not permitted or tolerated.

Which begs the question of what possible problem the Obarmy can have with one recruiting office tacking on that phrase onto one sandwich board.  It said “God”; it didn’t say which “God”.  It was utterly and completely non-sectarian.  It makes me wish that Phoenix recruiting station had written, “on a mission for Jesus Christ and the United States of America,” since it’s apparently going to land them in the stockade anyway:

It received more online attention on Thursday, when an image of the display was the center of a news release and a post on the Daily Kos website from Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. In the post, which had nearly 400 comments as of Friday afternoon, Weinstein called the display a “stunning, unconstitutional disgrace” and labeled it the “Poster of Shame.”

He said a number of his group’s clients brought the item to his attention. The MRFF claimed in January to represent more than 40,000 service-connected individuals.

If that number is true, that would be about 10% of the Army, versus the remaining 90% who, at least theoretically, are on a mission for God and country, as opposed to being on a mission to stamp out both.  But then you know what Thomas Jefferson once said: “10% plus Barack Obama equals a majority”.

What’s that?  Jefferson never said that?  Well, I’m sure it went something like that.

Army Recruiting Command is investigating who ordered and/or approved the display, Lepley said.

“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is delighted that the Constitution has been adhered to by the U.S. Army Recruiting Command,” Weinstein said after the poster was removed. “But whoever, in any way, shape or form, allowed that poster to be designed, prepared and displayed, those individuals should be aggressively investigated and very visibly punished.” [emphasis added]

The MRFF’s knowledge of the Constitution is woefully skewed and inadequate.  But there is no doubt which “god” they serve, and on what “mission”.

Exit question: Anybody know if that Phoenix recruiting station produced an inordinately larger number of recruits?  I’d wager they did.  And isn’t that what they’re supposed to be doing?