Why Young People Join the Military
In today’s political climate, with two wars being fought with no end in
sight, it can be difficult for some people to understand why young
folks enlist in our military.
The
conservative claim that most youth enlist due to patriotism and the
desire to “serve one’s country” is misleading. The Pentagon’s own
surveys show that something vague and abstract called “duty to country”
motivates only a portion of enlistees.
The vast majority of young
people wind up in the military for different reasons, ranging from
economic pressure to the desire to escape a dead-end situation at home
to the promise of citizenship.
Over all, disenfranchisement may be one of the most accurate words for why some youth enlist….
AlterNet: The Making of an American Soldier: Why Young People Join the Military
The crime of it is the cavalier way in which our military treats its troops. They’re treated as if they are disposable. For proof, I cite the recent military hospital scandal. Want more proof? How about the extension of tours of duty of soldiers who are already burned out, physically and mentally. And the haphazard way in which our soldiers are equipped. Remember all that controversy over military vehicles that weren’t adequately armored?
It makes me want to holler.
Given that we have a “commander-in-chief” (lower case intended) who went AWOL, and a vice president and SecDef who never served, it’s hardly a surprise that they’d hold the lining of their own pockets more important than the deaths of a few soldiers.
I mean, after all, they’re not their sort of people at all, are they?