COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: General
Military Recruiting - A Seduction of the Innocent
Sherwin Steffin, OpEd News
May 8, 2007
Missy Comley Beattie suggests that if only military recruiters would fullydisclose the lies perpetrated by the Bush Administration, potential
recruits would make far more informed decisions, resulting in far fewer
additions to the combat forces.
This writer holds a quite different view than does Ms. Beattie. There are a
number of problems with her proposed solution, making its implementation a
forlorn fantasy, impossible to achieve.
Army recruiters are first and foremost, true believers. They are career
NCOs (Non- Commissioned Officers), all with a minimum rank of Sergeant
First Class. Invariably they have had several combat deployments. Whatever
political opinions they may hold, any public policy criticism is certain
career ending behavior (perhaps only running a close second to having a
relationship with one's Commanding Officer's underage daughter!)
Whatever criticism one may have of military effectiveness, efficiency, or
intelligence, there is one thing the Department of Defense does exceedingly
well. It operates a marketing/public relations machine that might well
engender the envy of any private sector company.
Beyond TV ads advertising the "opportunities" offered by the Army, special
appearances by combat veterans are designed to motivate and co-opt the
interest of potential recruits As one example, the "Why I Serve" program is
a careful appeal to the protection of personal family, and the camaraderie
of one's military family. The comments of one of the participants leaves no
question as to the focus of this program.
"'My biggest reason for serving is my family,' said MacDonald, a combat
medic who returned in 2006 from a deployment to Iraq. 'I looked at my
family, and I realized that I want them and their way of life to be
protected,' he said. 'And one of the only ways to do that is to go overseas
and take the fight to the enemy who are perfectly willing to come here and
kill themselves just to kill an American. … It requires some sacrifice, but
I am willing to do that.'"
America's Army provides a sanitized view of combat that offers the immature
the ultimate pain–free virtual opportunity to "kill people and break things."
"'America's Army,' offers a range of games that kids can download or play
online. Although the games are violent, with plenty of opportunities to
shoot and blow things up, they avoid graphic images of death or other
ugliness of war, offering instead a sanitized, Tom Clancy version of
fantasy combat."
In the end, it is not the PR, not the advertising, not the computer games.
nor any of the other varied recruiting techniques employed by the Defense
Department.
Rather, it is the gullible readiness of the targeted group – young adult
men and women – to uncritically accept all of the promised opportunities as
accurate and truthful, while rejecting the more probable threats to health,
and life itself.
Regardless of the portrait painted by recruiters, can potential recruits be
so unaware of the increased deployment time, and the ugly conditions that
exist in a combat situation? Even were recruiters to disclose all of the
ugly lies, misrepresentations, and distortions engaged in by Bush, Cheney,
et al, would this information dissuade those who choose this career?
The answer would seem to be that the "truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth," would have little effect on the number added to the
military each year. This view is readily understood after reading this
description of adolescent risk taking:
"The socioemotional system, which processes social and emotional
information, becomes very active during puberty allowing adolescents to
become more easily aroused and experience more intense emotion, and to
become more sensitive to social influence. Conversely, says Steinberg, the
cognitive-control system is the part of the brain that regulates behavior
and makes the ultimate decisions, but is still maturing during adolescence
and into a person's mid-20s at least."
The ideal recruitment target can be typically described as an adolescent
male endeavoring to satisfy his ever present need for thrill-seeking,
risk-taking, adrenaline producing behavior. Military service additionally
provides both peer and adult community approval and support. Coupled with a
frequent lack of a respected male role to help guide and place limits on
impulsive, self-destructive behavior, the successfully recruited trainee
resembles nothing so closely as the "groomed target" of the sexual predator.
For those who may find the above to be an insult to the courage, commitment
and driving sense of duty to country and comrades alike, be assured it does
not. Rather, it is a critique of the essential slavery under which the
military "volunteer" is placed once having accepted employment as a member
of the United States Military. He must go where sent, do anything assigned,
accept any environment, allow himself to be placed in harm's way, with no
option to withdraw from such assignments until his employers allow it. In
fact, even after having left active duty, as a member of the military
reserve, he can be recalled at the whim of the Federal Government.
For those who choose to perform their civic duty as first responders to
natural disasters, through membership in their state National Guard, they
can be Federalized, placed in an active combat environment, and ripped from
their homes, jobs, and families for whatever period of time the government
deems necessary.
The soldier relinquishes his Constitutional rights during his service with
the military, under the draconian provisions of the United States Code of
Military Justice (UCMJ). Here are a couple of items, illustrative of the
surrender of personal rights to which all member of the military must
acquiesce. These behaviors, engaged in by a civilian, at worst case, might
result in loss of employment. However, under military law each can result
in imprisonment:
Article 86—Absence without leave
"Any member of the armed forces who, without authority— (1) fails to go to
his appointed place of duty at the time prescribed; (2) goes from that
place; or (3) absents himself or remains absent from his unit,
organization, or place of duty at which he is required to be at the time
prescribed; shall be punished as a court-martial may direct." Depending on
the duration of the absence, maximum punishment can include forfeiture of
all pay and benefits, Dishonorable Discharge, and most importantly, up to
18 months in a Federal Prison!
89—Disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer
"Any person subject to this chapter who behaves with disrespect toward his
superior commissioned officer shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."
This behavior is defined by the following behaviors: 1) That the accused
did or omitted certain acts or used certain language to or concerning a
certain commissioned officer; (2) That such behavior or language was
directed toward that officer; (3) That the officer toward whom the acts,
omissions, or words were directed was the superior commissioned officer of
the accused; (4) That the accused then knew that the commissioned officer
toward whom the acts, omissions, or words were directed was the accused's
superior commissioned officer; and (5) That, under the circumstances, the
behavior or language was disrespectful to that commissioned officer.
Maximum punishment can include: Bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of all
pay and allowances, and confinement for 1 year.
This is neither an argument for nor against the provisions of UCMJ. Rather
the failure of the recruitment process to inform potential trainees of all
of the negatives, potentially consequential to signing a largely
inescapable commitment to a dangerous and inflexible employer, appears to
this writer to be an egregious breach of a most fundamental ethical concept
applied to the citizen vis-à-vis his government.That concept is that of
informed consent, to employment or circumstances putting the individual in
danger, at economic risk, of unknown duration, etc.
Quite frankly, the nuances of why we are fighting which enemy pale before
this deliberate "Seduction of the Innocent," achieved through planful
omission of risks and costs associated with military membership, vs. the
offered benefits dangled before wide-eyed, willing victims.
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of