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Recruiters target poor areas, inner city, rural, etc and
use financial enticements to encourage people. Im sure
the military would be 1/10 of what it is today if those kids
knew they were going to be used as brutal aggressors for corporations
instead of noble protectors like the image that is portrayed of our military.
people join for the service, but they also join for the material benefits. the military doesn't attract disproportionate numbers of people from lower-income backgrounds because they just happen to be more patriotic than the rest. i have friends from poor backgrounds who were were far from the military ideal in high school, and joined for the material benefits.
it's a mixed bag, so hard to generalize about. if we would need to increase the material incentives to meet our recruitment goals that would indicate something about the overall situation. that would make things more comparable to a mercenary army type of situation, imo, and that's not been a good thing historically.
My son joined the military after 911. He is highly educated with a graduate degree. Like many others, he felt a strong love of this country and the freedom we have and wanted to perserve that freedom for future generations. He didn't receive any financial or other incentive to join. As a parent, after they eliminated the draft, I was thankful I would never send a son to war; yet I said goodbye to him for two deployments to Iraq. As I stood crying and holding him, he told me that if any thing happened to him, know he died doing what he believed in.
We sent many care packages for basic necessities and items for the Iraq children. How can we comprehend children in a classroom, which consists of a blackboard, and the entire class shares one pencil? Or a child that has never had a toy? Or the Iraqi family that invited soldiers to dinner, when they had little to feed their own?
Our sons and daughters join the military for many reasons: financial, education, benefits and some because they know the American people live in the greatest country in the world, with all it's flaws and incompetent government and want to keep it free.
If our forefathers had not shed their blood on foreign soil and fought for our freedom, we wouldn't be able to speak our minds here.
The point is that I am thankful that we have system under which the people through it's representatives controls the military. I never said that the american people support the war in Iraq. If the politicians are not representing will of the people then that's an issue between us as citizens and our representatives.
Feeling sorry for them is quite a bit different than holding it against them. My sadness comes from my strong belief that they, and by extension you, have been duped by this administration into believing that their service provides for our security. In Iraq, our actions have increased the numbers of terrorists and insurgents who are trying to kill our troops, and now we are told that if we leave, they will "follow us home" and endanger us even more. That situation did not exist before our invasion, so the Iraq actions have hardly provided for our security.
I don't hold it against our troops; they are trying to do the impossible job they have recklessly been ordered to do, and they are being gravely wounded and dying as a result. That deserves my respect for their efforts and my pity for their situation
I do hold it against their leaders, and I reserve a large amount of the blame for the voters who kept them in office.
Recruiters target poor areas, inner city, rural, etc and
use financial enticements to encourage people. Im sure
the military would be 1/10 of what it is today if those kids
knew they were going to be used as brutal aggressors for corporations
instead of noble protectors like the image that is portrayed of our military.
I agree with you.
I do, though, think that it's STILL up to the enlistee to educate him or herself on what he or she is getting into. A recruiter can't dupe you unless you allow yourself to be duped.
I was a rural kid, graduating from a small, high school, low income. I had awesome grades, and college was a goal, but figuring out how to pay for it was a real concern, coming from a low-income family that could not help out. I was contacted by recruiters through my school, as were many, if not most, of my classmates, and had them at my house, meeting with me and my parents, talking about the GI Bill and how it would give me a shot at the future I wanted, paying for the schooling I desperately needed paying for. I took the predictor tests to show how you'd likely do on the ASVAB, talked about what my skills were, and what types of jobs there might be for me in the military. Was I targeted for being poor? You bet. And for many kids (and their parents) in that situation, it's hard to walk away from the possiblity of a chance at schooling you don't know how you'll otherwise afford.
In the end, I followed my gut that the military was not for me, and found alternate funding for school, obtaining my degree with honors with 75% of it paid for with grants and scholarships. But there are a lot of people who are in my same position who ARE swayed by the image the military sells, the hope of being able to achieve some type of success in eventually getting schooling in exchange for service.
Soldiers are people doing a job. Some are great people, some are not so great people. All are making a sacrifice.
I agree that how our leaders misuse them should never be held against them. This is why I don't agree with the notion that opposing the war is anti-troops.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pslOldTimer
Feeling sorry for them is quite a bit different than holding it against them. My sadness comes from my strong belief that they, and by extension you, have been duped by this administration into believing that their service provides for our security. In Iraq, our actions have increased the numbers of terrorists and insurgents who are trying to kill our troops, and now we are told that if we leave, they will "follow us home" and endanger us even more. That situation did not exist before our invasion, so the Iraq actions have hardly provided for our security.
I don't hold it against our troops; they are trying to do the impossible job they have recklessly been ordered to do, and they are being gravely wounded and dying as a result. That deserves my respect for their efforts and my pity for their situation
I do hold it against their leaders, and I reserve a large amount of the blame for the voters who kept them in office.
agreed. equating opposing the war with opposing the troops is an obvious political tactic.
No, your analysis is not correct. They sign up because they want to make a difference for their country. They are proud men and women that love their country and want to keep it safe.
Big bucks? I don't hardly think so. They don't make big bucks. A job at McDonalds will pay you more then enlisting in the Military.
They are not like the french foreign legion. The french foreign legion were sent to fight battles for anybody and anything.
Our brave boys and girls want to make a difference for their country.
I went to Viet Nam. And it wasn't kicking and screaming. didn't see anybody else kicking and screaming either. I was a volunteer. I didn't get drafted.
No, your analysis is not correct. They sign up because they want to make a difference for their country. They are proud men and women that love their country and want to keep it safe.
Big bucks? I don't hardly think so. They don't make big bucks. A job at McDonalds will pay you more then enlisting in the Military.
They are not like the french foreign legion. The french foreign legion were sent to fight battles for anybody and anything.
Our brave boys and girls want to make a difference for their country.
I went to Viet Nam. And it wasn't kicking and screaming. didn't see anybody else kicking and screaming either. I was a volunteer. I didn't get drafted.
for the poor, it is at least *perceived* as a good economic alternative to low-skill service sector work. there is the promise of skilled training and college education.
a friend from high school from a very poor background was investigated by the secret service for using jrotc computers and printers to print anti-military pamphlets and distribute them in the school. two years later he joined the navy for economic reasons. the recruiter lied to him, so he ended up stuck in a warehouse for four years. but he did enjoy travelling and he did get training as an in-flight mechanic which he doesn't use. in his time there, he felt like a social outsider compared to many others who joined more for the service. he now has a college degree thanks in part to the military, but the way he talks about it i doubt he would have done it again. he willingly served his country, but i never got the sense that he was especially proud of it.
in the end, i think it's a mixed bag, with some people at one extreme or the other of what motivates them.
My sadness comes from my strong belief that they, and by extension you, have been duped by this administration into believing that their service provides for our security.
Is your middle name "Assume"?? I didn't say the battle going on now is for our security. I was speaking of the general idea of having a military is to combat threats to our security and freedoms. WW2 for example.
Did that clear things up? Or are you still confused?
Is your middle name "Assume"?? I didn't say the battle going on now is for our security. I was speaking of the general idea of having a military is to combat threats to our security and freedoms. WW2 for example.
Did that clear things up? Or are you still confused?
If this were the case, the military would have unseated
the Bu$h regime long ago. Iraq never was a threat to
us, ever, in any way shape or form. Diametrically opposed
is Bu$hs jihad on the Constitution and principals America
was founded on.
To make things clear for you, Bu$h has much more in common
with a fundimental Iranian Ayatollah than an American.
He is the worlds greatest threat. Americans better hope and
pray another country doesnt use Bu$h regime logic and determine
our fascist leader needs to be violently unseated for 'democracy'
and whats best for the world.
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Why they serve
