First Lady Announces Pledge to Hire 100K Veterans and Military Spouses by 2014

First off, just as an aside, look at the story page and select some of the story text on it. Yes, you are seeing that right. They changed the default highlight color to pink. Hot pink. Apparently the white background-black highlight contrast was a little too obvious... or would that be a little too masculine? Pink. Nothing subliminal here.

OK, so maybe I am being a little out of control here. I can admit that. But you have to admit, that is pretty damned funny.

OK, I am done. Now, notice that somehow the president's wife is in a position to promise the country that veterans and their spouses will be getting 100,000 jobs. I wonder how she can do this. I am not sure if she is in fact officially a US gov't official but she is the First Lady and as anyone can tell you, damn, that does count for quite a lot. But for her to make a *personal* pledge? Well, I don't deny her sincerity. I am just wondering by what actual mechanism, aside from her personal influence with the president, will she be able to make that happen? Yes, I see in the article that various companies have made these promises as well at her urging, but really, how if they are not in a position to hire people due to the lousy economy are they going to hire all those people? Or better yet, how is anyone going to keep up with tracking these companies for their "pledge fulfillment" when participation is "voluntary"?

Point is, currently not even the VA and the DOL can make such promises and they have been trying to help get vets jobs now for years.

But anyway, I am going to assume that somehow she has the ability to either make good on this pledge (or the companies named in the article) or to at least begin to meet with some level of success. I will then ask the next question: how is it that the *spouses* (read: wives) of military veterans are also part of this pledge? Yes, they waited for husbands to return. Yes, they have to also deal with the effects of PTSD, albeit from the POV of a loved one rather than the man actually suffering from it. But how does that qualify them to get preferred hiring status or qualification into a jobs program over anyone else when really, did they don the uniform and go to a foreign land and live with bombs exploding 30 feet away from them and getting shot at? So let's say a man returns from one of our wars and due to his PTSD or other war-related problems cannot work full-time. His wife then qualifies for preferential job training or getting hired. Great, she can work. Now, is there a system whereby she is required then to stay with her former-soldier husband? Or can she divorce him the day after she gets her new Michelle Obama-enabled jobs program for veterans *and their spouses* job? The devil is in the details.

Don't get me wrong, I rather think if anyone deserves a major leg-up in getting job training and a solid chance at working as a civilian, it's our war veterans. I just find it awfully funny that somehow, now, the "spouse" of these same veterans are also now to get the same sort of consideration when they never saw a moment of combat.

And puhleeze, someone out there will reply to my comment (or think to) saying that this can include women too and that women make up X% of our military, blah blah blah. Facts though are facts. The vast majority of people in the Army and Marines (who do the lion's share of the fighting) are men and the great majority of casualties, esp. those wounded such that they are disabled or have serious adjustment troubles back home, are men. Don't let the politically correct mainstream media news stories fool you. It's men getting the vast majority of clobbering in these wars and to downplay or understate that is the omission made so often by our media and popular culture, not the other way around.