(Lack of) US Iran Peace Agreement Part 5

The "Send Me Tour" is Hegseth posturing and cosplaying "God is on our side", a feature of the evangelical Far Right political playbook.

From AI on why people sign up.

The most useful recent data comes from the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Advertising, Market Research & Studies (JAMRS) Youth Poll, which surveyed Americans ages 16–21 about why they might consider military service. The Spring 2023 results asked respondents to select all reasons that applied, so the percentages don't add up to 100%.

Reason% saying it was a reason to join
💰 Pay / money
49%
🎓 Pay for future education
44%
✈️ Travel
44%
🏥 Health & medical benefits
38%
🛠️ Gain experience / work skills
35%
🤝 Help others
32%
💵 Pension & retirement benefits
31%
🧭 Experience adventure
29%
📈 Better my life
26%
🫡 Pride / self-esteem / honor
24%

What this suggests
A striking feature is that practical/economic motivations are extremely prominent. The top five were pay, education, travel, health benefits, and job skills. The same general pattern appeared in the 2022 poll: pay (48%), education (44%), travel (43%), work skills (36%), and health benefits/helping others (34%).
That doesn't mean people aren't motivated by patriotism. Rather, patriotism isn't among the top ten specific options in this particular 2023 question. Other research using veterans rather than prospective recruits finds a more prominent role for patriotism and duty. A recent NORC survey, for example, found that veterans commonly cited duty/patriotism, independence, educational benefits, and financial stability as reasons they joined.
There's also qualitative research on actual recruits: RAND found that employment and career preparation were the most commonly mentioned motivations in its focus groups, with benefits—particularly education benefits—coming next.
So, broadly speaking, the evidence points to two overlapping groups of motivations:
Material/practical: money, education, healthcare, job training, retirement
Personal/values-based: helping others, adventure, pride, patriotism, purpose, independence

It's NOT AI. Its called SI now. Trump decreed it :-)

Interesting data that. My understanding is that one of the big reasons that the Republicans are so set against "socialized health" is because it would massively impact military recruitment. And from the data you posted , 38% joining up to get healthcare is pretty big.

Sorry for the tangent.

Yup. Lot of discussion on that in a thread about the Farage sting, where Reform were caught taking illegal donations. James Orr, one of the guys who resigned, is deeply involved in the "Christian Nationalist" thing. Him and his wife. Pals with Vance and all that. A world run on Christian values.

I think any extremists are scary whether that’s Evangelical far right in the US or extremists amongst Israelis or Palestinians or Iranians etc.

Reform not quite as extreme but also scary and Restore are worse. Even the Green Party are too extreme for me these days.

@RedTagAlan do you think Rubio is ignoring what 'yes' is, in Spanish?

A world run on Christian values.

Nothing wrong with that in my book as even Islam has similar values (help the poor, love thy neighbour etc) under a different name.

Trump's lot though, seem to be ignoring the New Testament and are planted firmly into the vengence and smiting of the angry God of the OT. It's all a power trip.

They think they can bring about the rapture and will all be taken to heaven no matter what they may have done wrong. Sola Fide is their belief.

I saw a post saying Christian Nationalismis just Sharia Law with bacon and beer.

😂

Not for atheists such as me.

No idea about Rubio sorry. Replying to your other post.

I suppose someone has to post that meme now. I got the short straw.

Att, I will mark as sensitive, cos reasons.

And mortgage your house for the big man, you'll be blessed. Scandals galore particularly fascinating compared to the very demure laid back Clergy we have over here.

Here is a video about Trump’s spiritual advisor 😉🫠

"In a world of faith and flashy lights, megachurches and their pastors sometimes come with mega-drama… In Pastor Paula White's world, alleged marital affairs, bankrupting churches, and using church money to pay for plastic surgery aren’t unheard of. As a young girl who lived in a trailer and became a young married mother, she grew up to become a preacher after an affair with the associate-pastor of her church (and not before they ran off together to start their own church). She went on to lead a congregation of 22,000, became a multimillionaire, hosted a Christian TV show, owned a private jet and an 8,000 sqft. beach-front home. But no matter how high she climbed, betrayal, greed, and multiple scandals have followed Paula her entire career and three marriages. This is the scandalous story and luxurious lifestyle of Pastor Paula White"

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Room has emptied out at the UN as Netanyahu begins his speech.

Special stones that fly through the air like bullets and kill and wound people.

I personally think it is wrong that they walk out. And I apply that to all of them. I understand the US did not even turn up for Abbas.

Just my view though. Because it is the UN. Best place for talking and listening to start. Honour the concept that the UN was founded on.

The disagreement and yelling can be done later. Maybe in the meetup in the pub around the corner, before they all fly home. A pub with plastic glasses of course.

@OnePeppyFatball ,

‘Well the realia he used this time was holding up a pager. Some of which killed children in Lebanon. And people laughed’

The pagers were really clever and held by members of a terrorist organisation. They were an incredibly efficient way to attack the enemy with minimum civilian casualties.

Far better than massive ordnance from the air.

@OnePeppyFatball ,

It’s an interesting one. I don’t think you get many countries where terrorist organisations are stronger than the national army. It is almost like the problems dealing legally with Pablo Escobar.

I take a pragmatic view that the pagers probably net saved civilian lives, given the alternative. But I understand why you might disagree.

Most of the injured and dead were Hezbollah! That is a positive.

That was the whole point of them. I can’t see how many civilians were injured or killed separately, but at least 1,500 Hezbollah could not fight on due to them.

These pagers entire purpose was to allow Hezbollah to attack Israel without their communications being traced. They weren’t for the general population.

Actually the pagers were in contravention of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). They contained only a very small amount of explosive and were designed to maim, not kill, as can be seen by the stats of how many were killed as opposed to injured. These are expressly forbidden under the convention. Additionally, booby trapping devices which look like normal everyday civilian objects is also illegal under the convention. Israel may have thought it was being clever but once again, it was committing an internationally recognised crime.