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Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Comment of the day: Dissing the Air Force, thinking about America’s needs

Because we haven’t dissed the Air Force since, oh, I dunno, maybe Oct. 23, 2009. This one was on Friday from “Lester_Ballard,” and came at about No. 37 in the comments file of Yellow Ribbon (V): If you don’t recognize the uniform, it means that they’re in the Air Force, and they don’t make any ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
U.S. Department of Defense Current Photo/flickr
U.S. Department of Defense Current Photo/flickr
U.S. Department of Defense Current Photo/flickr

Because we haven't dissed the Air Force since, oh, I dunno, maybe Oct. 23, 2009. This one was on Friday from "Lester_Ballard," and came at about No. 37 in the comments file of Yellow Ribbon (V):

Because we haven’t dissed the Air Force since, oh, I dunno, maybe Oct. 23, 2009. This one was on Friday from “Lester_Ballard,” and came at about No. 37 in the comments file of Yellow Ribbon (V):

If you don’t recognize the uniform, it means that they’re in the Air Force, and they don’t make any movies about them because being a strategic deterrent isn’t exciting.

More seriously, Lester adds this distinction:

I’m a 1st Lt. I recently escaped the officer accession pipeline. I can tell you that the Marine Corps isn’t getting America’s best and brightest to serve as officers, but it is asking its company grade officers to solve some of America’s hardest problems. … A draft, I’m not so concerned with. The integration of the military with the rest of America, absolutely.

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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