Thanks to Bill Meyer, who notes that this chilling ad is playing in theaters now.

UPDATE from Paul Dravograd:

I am a constant reader of the LRC. I have just viewed the National Guard recruiting video on your blog. I honestly don't know if my reactions are just a symptom of my own pessimistic outlook brought on by old age or are genuinely grounded on what is to come.

The video really chilled me. Seeing what I saw gave me a vision of a terrible and ferocious new militarism which is about to unleash. I saw the prospect of terrible war coming soon.

Tell me that this is just my imagination.

I am familiar with the work of Leni Riefenstahl and in this video I saw so much that was the same as in The Triumph of The Will. This was not a good feeling. Tell me I am exaggerating.

UPDATE from Gary Halpin:

It was pathetic watching that ad, and as a commercial producer, I can tell you the production costs alone on that had to exceed $2M easily, not to mention the money they are spending on the media buy (in theaters).  But on a happy note, I took my 16-year old son and his friend to see Avatar, and was pleasantly surprised to hear them laugh and comment on how stupid it was after it played.  Here's to hoping it is as effective as the "This is your brain on drugs" campaign that we all laughed at when we were younger.

UPDATE from Peter Hummers:

That horrifying video's music started to remind me of The Battleship Potemkin, but the images more and more of Starship Troopers[1], albeit showing neither giant insects nor Afghani wedding parties[2]. Near the end, with the titles displaying "Courage," "Honor," etc. I thought, "Citizen," as in Paul Verhoeven's great, satirical film, when the title actually came up: "Citizen" before leading into "Soldier"!

And this under our great and benevolent "peace" president, who came up through the benign avenue of Chicago politics.

[1] http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/kwiatkowski1.html
[2] http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt345.html

UPDATE from John Gaetano:

Notice how the guard's youtube:

- disables rating the video (1-5 stars)
- holds comments for moderation
- disables comment rating (thumbs up/down)

Apparently the freedoms they are supposedly defending don't include the freedom to disagree with the government.