Echoes of the past - Sowing the seeds of the new Hitler Youth?

So... there I was, on my coffee break, sitting in the Asylum Staff Room nibbling on a Chocolate Hob-Nob and flicking idly through today's "Asylum Gazette", when this article caught my eye...

Bush gives pep talk to disaster-hit Scout jamboree

FORT A.P. HILL, Va., July 31 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush delivered a pep talk on Sunday to thousands of Boy Scouts, urging them not to waver after four tragic deaths and a rash of heat-related illnesses cast a pall over their camping "Jamboree."

"The men you lost were models of good citizenship ... And you Scouts honor them by living up to the ideals of the scouting they served," Bush told an estimated crowd of 50,000 Boy Scouts, Scout leaders and visitors.

The president twice postponed his visit to the Scout gathering, which at times had the air of a U.S. Army recruitment drive. Men in black "Army" T-shirts coached young boys to chant "OO-rah" like soldiers. A giant "ARMY" hot-air balloon bobbed overhead.

Bush said the Boy Scouts "understand that freedom must be defended," and touted what he called the "armies of liberation." The Army has fallen behind its recruiting goals amid the Iraq war.

"When you follow your conscience and the ideals you've sworn as a Scout, there is no limit to what you can achieve for our country," Bush told the crowd, which chanted "USA, USA."

... Read rest of article here

My finely-tuned Nurse's Radar started pinging ominously when I read this, and I wondered if I was the only staff member who had noticed the ominous overtones of this article. I quickly thumbed past the Classifieds, onto the "Readers Write" page, and was greatful to discover I wasn't alone in my unease...

Scout Law

Howdy, Yall!

Just got back from Quantico, Virginia...Right next to CIA headquarters, the Marine University, and the spot where they had several thousand boyscouts gathered up in a field so the President could fly in for a photo op. They called it the National Jamboree and the President was a few days late getting there.

The Boy Scouts of America are a fine idea with bad execution. Let's see...How 'bout we dress a bunch of kids up in quasi military outfits, you know, like the Hitler Youth, and get them to chant things like "...a scout is obedient..."

Here is what the Scouting website says about being obedient:

"OBEDIENT
A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobey them."

Think about that, for a second...

Scouts are also ordered to be:

"REVERENT
A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others."

While respecting the beliefs of others, Scouts cannot be agnostic...They get publicly ostracized and kicked out if they are. They are also kicked out if they are not "...Morally straight!" There are court cases saying so.

So you see, Scouts are supposed to respect the beliefs of others as long as they aren't other scouts who don't believe the right things. Scouts have to swear an oath to be morally straight, while giving the scout salute.

Scouts are also supposed to be:

"BRAVE
A Scout can face danger even if he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at or threaten him."

The Sout organization has kicked out lots of brave scouts who had the courage to stand up for what they think is right...Here's something that just happened that I don't think was right...

Making 3000 boy children stand in a field in 94 degree weather, waiting on George W. Bush to show up.

The humidity was near 100%...Heat index over 100.

The Boy Scout motto is, "Be Prepared", and the boys tried to be prepared for the suffering they were about to endure on behalf of the President's photo op team by bringing water bottles...

Sorry, you can't do that...someone might throw a water bottle at the President.

15 year old boys dangerously armed with waterbottles are apparently a matter of National security...

The water bottles were taken from the boys and nearly one third of them had to be treated for heat related health problems. 300 of them had to be evacuated for medical treatment. I talked to a government official who was there.

George W. Bush decided this was a bad day for a photo op and didn't show up.

...Read more here


Now... call me odd, but my subconscious mind suddenly started re-running flickery old newsreels of thousands of young, indoctrinated German boys gathered in a vast stadium in 1932. Rank after rank of ecstatic uniformed teenagers, their heads relentlessly crammed full of Nazi propoganda, listened with rapt attention as their idol, Adolf Hitler, poured his poisonous doctrines into their young hearts. Huge flags fluttered. The World, had it known then to what purpose these young boys would be set to, would have shuddered...



Shit! I must be losing it! I've been spending far too much time on Ward 16 with the Messianic Delusional Complexes. Surely we wouldn't simply stand back and let this all happen again? Was I just feeling paranoid?

I clearly needed another perspective on this. I read on...

Hitler Youth, Anyone?

America the Free and the Brave as a permanent military state, getting up like the Fuehrer in front of a grief-stricken group of 40,000 Boy Scouts, with giant friekin' army balloons and military recruiters working the crowd, has got to be the lowest of all lows. It beats the aircraft carrier stunt by a country mile. Of course What a f*cker. While we already know that W. will sink to any low to promote his bad faith views of, the "Jamboree," which requires weeks of planning and cooperation with the hosts, is held on an army base.

For some context, the (British) History Learning Site says:

"The Hitler Youth was a logical extension of Hitler's belief that the future of Nazi Germany was its children. The Hitler Youth was seen as being as important to a child as school was. In the early years of the Nazi government, Hitler had made it clear as to what he expected German children to be like:

'The weak must be chiselled away. I want young men and women who can suffer pain. A young German must be as swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp's steel.'

Reader might ask, 'aren't you being a bit hard on the president, especially because American society indulges its children to be exactly the opposite, flacid, weak and docile?'

Not if you look at the later careers of some illustrious members. As the Christian Post report said:

"...Bush told attendees that he was a former Cub Scout from Texas; the first man he sees every morning – chief of staff Andy Card – is a former Scout from Massachusetts; Vice President Dick Cheney was a Boy Scout in Wyoming; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was an Eagle Scout in Illinois; and his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, was the den mother of his Scouting troop."

Note the ideological aspects; the Scouts are also by necessity ordained into Bush's Christian conservatism:

"Mark Hunter, the director of marketing and administration for the Chief Seattle Council, said it was enforcing a national policy. The Boy Scouts is a faith-based organization, he said, and the issue of God is not negotiable. Aside from the vow of reverence in the Scout Law, every Boy Scout pledged a duty to God in the Scout Oath."

Leaves little to wonder about what Bush meant when he said, "when you join a Scout troop and put on the Boy Scout uniform you make a statement."

... Read rest of article here


Phew! It's not just me, then.

Now... most of this was something of a Revelation to me. Y'see - where I come from in the British Annexe, just behind the Inmate's Canteen Block, Boy Scouts are nothing whatsoever to do with incitement to become Stormtroopers for the New World Order. Oh, no! OUR Boy Scouts are merely children who are supposed to be enjoying their childhood in a safe envoironment, free from any kind of vile, abusive indoctrination at the hands of superstitious fanatics, where they're taught the fine arts of helping old ladies across the road, eating baked beans with your best mates 'round the camp fire in the school holidays, learning to mix with other kids of every race, religion and colour... and face-painting.

US Army recruitment is facing a major crisis. They're missing targets left, right and centre, because suddenly the Army's not just a place to go to get yourself out of the ghetto on a decent wage and learn a trade. No. Suddenly the US Army is a place to get yourself killed or maimed, and suprise, suprise, these internet-educated lambs don't want to be led to the slaughter:

Fewer early sign-ups as Army struggles to recruit soldiers

The Army, which expects to miss its 2005 recruiting goal by about 12,000, already is falling behind for next year.

The pool of recruits who sign up as much as a year before they report for training is dwindling. So far, 3,100 have signed up for 2006, according to Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky. The Army says it hopes to have 7,200 recruits in the pool by Oct. 1, when the 2006 recruiting year begins. By comparison:

• The Army started the 2005 recruiting year with about 14,700 recruits in the delayed entry pool. It is making up some of the shortfall in recruiting by re-enlisting soldiers at a higher-than-expected rate. But the Army also has tried to trim this year's shortfall by rushing many delayed entry enlistees into basic training.

• In 2004, the Army had more than 33,000 enlistees signed up ahead of time. It met its recruiting goals

Allowing recruits to put off going to boot camp for up to a year gives enlistees flexibility and provides the Army with a buffer for future recruiting needs. Army statistics show

the pool's size is a key indicator of its annual recruiting.

Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, who heads Army Recruiting Command, said recruiting in July is slightly ahead of its goal, but that won't wipe out the current shortfall. He said parents are still reluctant to encourage their children to enlist. The Army has taken the brunt of U.S. casualties in Iraq.

Rochelle acknowledged it can expect another struggle next year.

Stephen Cheney, a retired Marine brigadier general and recruiting coordinator, said the small size of the delayed entry pool would make it extremely difficult for the Army to meet its 2006 target.

Next year's recruits may also not be as qualified as this year's, because the Army will be looking for enlistees it can quickly ship to basic training. That means recruits whose options are limited, "are not in school and not in a job," said Cheney, chief operating officer of Business Executives for National Security in Washington, D.C.

The Army is offering unprecedented enticements — including enlistment bonuses as high as

$20,000 and service stints as short as 15 months — but so far has been unable to persuade enough young men and women to join.

Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey recently proposed increasing the top enlistment bonus to $40,000 and is about to add 800 additional recruiters to the force. Even the new recruiters and higher bonuses "may not be enough for everyone," Rochelle said.

None of the recruiting trends bode well for the Army, said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.

"If you think of the Army as a watershed, their reservoir is about to run dry," Thompson said. "They have nothing left in reserve."

Recruiters have got statutory access to every American child's school records. They turn up at kids houses after school and interview them. They run glossy ads on TV pushing all the bits about Army life that don't involve being blown up by a truck bomb in Baghdad, or being forced to execute men, women and children out of hand because they're so fucking scared and trigger-happy they'll kill anything that moves.

They offer huge cash bonuses to potential enlistees. They offer college educations to kids who ordinarily wouldn't stand a cat in Hell's chance of getting further education.

All these sweetners used to work, but now they're up against rapidly-forming coalitions of parents... people who are old enough to remember the LAST Vietnam, and who have no intentions of letting their children be shipped out to the Middle East to fight a hopeless, immoral War based on lies and utter corruption.

As the murderous Neo-Con Skull 'n Boners turn their psychopathic gaze now towards Iran, the Pentagon knows that what comes next, especially if it's handled in the same inept way as Iraq (which was already a basket case, unlike Iran, which is sophisticated, commited, determined and armed to the teeth) will probably decimate their regiments.

(Courtesy: Wizard of Whimsy)

Deep Background

In Washington it is hardly a secret that the same people in and around the administration who brought you Iraq are preparing to do the same for Iran. The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.

...read full article here

So, Inmates... what do YOU think is going on? Are the Crazies cold-bloodedly indoctrinating and recruiting the next wave of Boy Soldiers to be sacrificed on the Halliburton Altar? I kind of think "Yes, beyond a shadow of a doubt".

Answers on a postcard, please.

Anyway... Must dash... Time to dish out the sedatives.