Happy Memorial Day: How the US military (and its advertising agencies) dupe naive young men...

This week the New York Times published an article about how the military is using social media and movie tie-ins with the latest X-Men film, complete with ads voiced over by actor Gary Sinise (the thinking man's Toby Keith.) The difference between the hucksterism and the reality of military life was beautifully captured in the following excerpt relating the comments of the army officer in charge of social media recruiting:

Describing rappelling and other activities that recruits go through in boot camp, the general said: “It’s exciting stuff. Would I love to have those young people tweeting about that.”

Why can’t they? Well, “in the first three weeks of basic training, we take away your smartphone,” General Freakley said.

In 2004, Mother Jones published an article about how the Pentagon has bullied movie producers into showing the U.S. military in the best possible light since at least the 1920s. Example? The first movie to win the best picture Oscar, Wings, cost Paramount a then-astonishing $2 million. But the US military's contribution to the film was $16 million.

Wings, 1927

Some recent samples of preposterously fake military advertising aimed at young men whose critical thinking comes courtesy of Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation...

Marine Corps:



Air Force:



Finally, the reality of what the military often does (and will do almost anything to hide.)



(The third version, of course, had to be WikiLeaked to the public because the Pentagon refused to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests to release it, and now the person accused of the leak faces decades in prison. Free Bradley Manning.)

The Pentagon's mantra when it presents its crushing budget requests may be that it defends freedom, but it certainly doesn't practice it.