Recruiting the Fodder

February 7th, 2005 at 19:49 Björn Hallberg

Well, the intended fodder seems to grow weary of the aggressive attempts of on-campus recruiters. Last month, military recruiters were harassed and eventually chased off a campus in Seattle and now the group, Students Against War, demand that these recruitment practises be ended altogether. As a non-American I am surprised and appalled by the belligerent tradition of recruiters that I am only now beginning to fully grasp. It is in many ways wrong to go about selling and propaganizing for armed service so openly and so deceptively. Especially in dubious times when no real threat exists and lofty talk of terror and freedom is all there is. As an observer I can tell that nothing good will come of this. The militarization we are seeing would put even Robert Heinlein to shame.

The group is hoping that recent rulings against the practise will aid them in the struggle to end the campus recruitment forum on a larger scale. Since the armed forces discriminates against homosexuals this could be the Achilles’ heel by which the will fall. It should also be noted, as is noted in the article, and this is the bit that really surprised me, that there is "a government rule that allows federal money to be withheld from any college that refuses to give military recruiters access to students and student-contact information".

One can’t help but think that reinstating the draft isn’t such a bad thing after all. Considering the cloak-and-dagger practises, borderline abuse of media and psychological parlour tricks that the US armed forces are responsible for, this isn’t exactly a perfect situation. Just recall what my views are on America’s Army for instance as a means for recruitment. The situation is obviously out of control here. At least, with a massive draft to fuel the imperial war machine, everyone would, in theory, receive the same .. disadvantage. And put an end to this travelling circus. Speaking purely hypothetical, and given my disbelief of American intentions, it still seems like a better deal to cull the population evenly than to rely on the poor, so called military families, the superfluous to fight America’s wars. If wars are to be fought it should be with honour and that cannot happen until the sons and daughters of the rich and powerful, the elite fight side by side with those less fortunate. Ironically, maybe then, war would not be so arbitrary. And we would see America’s desire to monger war and malice just fade away. Equality, even in death, can be all that matters.

Entry 28 filed under: North America. This entry was posted 3 years, 10 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.