For many years now, the U.S. Army has enforced a highly successful "don't ask, don't tell" policy. To wit: The Army has long privately acknowledged -- and accepted -- the fact that some of its recruits are individual human beings, while officially and publicly discouraging the individualist lifestyle on grounds that it undermines the collective discipline and "unit cohesion" necessary in an effective fighting force. That's why, for example, the Army has always made its grunts wear indistinguishable uniforms and cut their hair really short.
Well, reform is under way it seems, at least at the level of rhetoric. Last week, top Army officials announced the first major change in their recruitment advertising since 1981. No longer will potential enlistees receive an invitation to "be all that you can be" on the Army team. Now they will be informed that it isn't really a team at all -- that they can be "An Army of One" if they prefer.
As presumably they do. The new slogan, Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera explains, emphasizes the "personal transformation" young men and women can achieve in the service. "Today's youth want to feel empowered to make a difference individually and as a group." THE SCRAPBOOK would have thought the ideal recruit would want to feel empowered to kill his nation's enemies. But, of course, THE SCRAPBOOK is hopelessly old-fashioned.