COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: AWOL
Uncle Sam's Favorite Targets
Sean Gonsalves, Alternet
November 19, 2007
The Army's high desertion rates are prompting Uncle Sam to fish
harder for high school seniors to join the ranks.
You're a senior in high school and Uncle Sam wants you reeaaally bad.
What do you do?
Last week, the AP reported that soldiers are deserting their posts at
their highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters up
80 percent since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"We're asking a lot of soldiers these days," is how director of plans
and resources for Army personnel Roy Wallace explains it. "They're
humans. They have all sorts of issues back home and other places like
that. So, I'm sure it has to do with the stress of being a soldier."
There were 4,698 desertions this fiscal year and 3,301 last year.
And, as the AP notes, "the increase comes as the Army continues to
bear the brunt of the war demands, with many soldiers serving
repeated, lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military leaders --
including Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey -- have acknowledged
that the Army has been stretched nearly to the breaking point by the
combat," which is why efforts are underway to bring 80,000 new
recruits to the Army and Marine Corps.
Are you familiar with the Future Soldier Training Program? It's a
military program aimed at recruiting high school seniors that
undoubtedly has chrome rim salesmen, retail industry giants, cell
phone companies and other receptacles for youth consumerism smiling.
"The Army designed the program for high school seniors. It's brand
new. Promotional materials haven't been printed yet, but recruiters
are talking it up at schools," the Dallas Morning News reports.
"The program pays students $1,000 for each month between signing the
commitment contract and leaving for basic training after completing
high school. The Army pays an additional $1,000 for high school graduation."
For one North Texas senior who enlisted in late October and plans to
leave for basic training in late June, "he'll rack up $10,000 in
bonus money for his nine months in the program, including the $1,000
graduation award."
It's a new move in an old recruiting game, in which recruiters play
the class card, taking advantage of low-income families. Even though
hyper-"patriots" don't like to admit it, most people join the
military for economic reasons. According to a 2000 study by the
Defense Manpower Data Center, 33 percent of recruits join to fund
their education, while another third join for the job training experience.
You're a senior in high school and Uncle Sam wants you reeaaally bad.
What do you do?
People have to make their own choices but before enlisting, would-be
soldiers should, at the very least, read veteran war correspondent
Chris Hedges' book What Every Person Should Know About War.
Covering everything from "enlistment" to "weapons and wounds," on
down to "imprisonment, torture, and rape," as well as chapters on
"dying" and "after the war," Hedges aims to confront the "hard truth
about war;" not produce a work of anti-war propaganda.
"The book is a manual on war. There is no rhetoric. There are very
few adjectives. It is a book based on research," Hedges writes -- a
claim he lives up to on each of the book's 119 pages.
"War, I believe, is an inevitable part of the human condition. I
doubt it will ever be eradicated. But it should never be waged
lightly or without good cause. The cost is high. Most of those
killed, wounded, and left homeless in modern warfare are innocents,
families, including children."
Whether you agree with Hedges view of "the human condition,"
wrestling with the questions posed, and answered, in the book are of
invaluable practical benefit to anyone thinking about enlisting.
"Will I feel worse if I kill an enemy in an ambush? ... Is it easier
to bear killing an enemy you cannot see? ... Is there a chance I will
enjoy killing?" Future soldiers and their families would do well to
face those kind of soul-searching questions.
You're a senior in high school and Uncle Sam wants you. What do you do?
Besides giving some real thought to the life-and-death issues covered
in Hedges' book, you might also consider an interview retired Rear
Admiral Gene LaRocque had with businessman Eugene Lang, chairman of
the "I Have A Dream" Foundation.
LaRocque: "we've come to equate patriotism with militarism. If you're
patriotic, you're assumed to be militaristic. If you're militaristic,
you're assumed to be patriotic. Now we've measured our patriotism in
the last several years against the backdrop of war ... But the
question we have to ask today is who are the patriots here at home ..."
Lang: "I believe the educational well-being of Americans is the key
to America's defense."
If America's best defense is an educated citizenry, how does it help
to siphon off high school graduates to fight a war that can't be won
on the battlefield?
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articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
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material relevant to the work of