http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=813First a crooked draft, then a cunning economic draft, and now an obscene mercenary force. Why can't America devise a fair, equitable system to recruit its soldiers?
By Stewart Nusbaumer
It is widely believed that the military draft is bad and reinstating it would be wrong. Whether this is true or not, the assumption that we do not have a draft is certainly wrong. We have a draft, different from the past, but still a military draft.
First, there are all the extensions of Active Duty troops and activation of Guard and Reserve units. Thousands of our troops are prohibited from leaving the military, and part-time reservists are forced to become full-timer soldiers. Americans who were completely out of the military (even a 67-year-old doctor) have been ordered to return to service. This is compulsory--no volunteerism here. Now, forcing people to remain in or return to the military, doesn't this sound like a military draft?
More basic to our current military draft is money. A recent study showed that lower-level enlisted soldiers and young officers have significantly higher salaries and benefits than their peers in the civilian sector. In fact, military recruiters target those with less opportunity for economic advancement and have a greater need for tuition assistance for college and vocational school. This is not called coercion, but in the context of an increasingly unequal and unfair society, in the context of historical racism and continuing class discrimination, in the context of the Bush Administration's cutback on the safety network, rising economic pressure and monetary incentives is an effective means to channel a class of Americans into fighting our wars. Let's be honest. This is an economic draft.
It is not surprising that the poorest regions of the United States are over-represented in our national military, and minorities are overwhelmingly more likely to fight our wars than white males from the suburbs. Southerners are not necessarily more patriotic and minorities more militaristic; they just have less money and less opportunity . . . (continued at
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