"Citizen Soldier" - a chilling phrase?

[mcscajun]

I went to see "American Gangster" this afternoon, but before the feature, before the previews, I got to see a promotional film for the US National Guard. In the first few seconds, I thought I was inside "Starship Troopers" for a minute ("Service guarantees Citizenship") why else did the video split the phrase "Citizen Soldier", the ostensible title of the video, and the concept supposedly being "sold", into two separate images displayed over the action/music? It was all very glorious and heroic and historic without getting too jingoistic, but it seemed OTT overall in glossing over the risks and losses and stressing the nobility and patriotism.

Intercut with comparisons of the Revolutionary War and actions in Iraq, and scenes harking back to the heroic actions of WWII were a number of scenes and a voice-over indicating the Guard would be there to help in disasters in the US, I wanted to get up and scream at the screen that they're almost all overseas or finally at home but exhausted, I wanted to yell "Bullshit!" but hey, I didn't want to get thrown out of the theater.

In any case...take a look and let's see what you think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1EuL0IfuU8