Conditions in the US armed forces

[firecat]

Although no one in my immediate family was/is in the military, other people in my extended family were and are.

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/12/08/you_can_go_strangle_yourself_with_that_yellow_ribbon

Long article, by a Marine who served four tours in Iraq, on conditions in the US armed services. He is in favor of reinstating a draft. I can't say that I am, but I would almost be in favor of it if I thought it were the only way to get people in power to pay attention to what's going on in the armed services. (He thinks it would.)

Trigger warning, discusses violence, harassment, PTSD.

Excerpt:

For those who cannot listen to an argument without attacking someone's personality or politics, here is my background up front. I am a white male. I'm a middle class kid who grew up working on my grandfather's potato farm in Southern Idaho and lived in suburbia while attending badly run and academically useless public schools K-12. I'm a Generation Y, ivy-league educated, FDR liberal, environmentalist, atheist vegan. I graduated with a BA in English and History in 2002 from a private college I busted my ass to get into on an academic scholarship. I enlisted as a private in United States Marine Corps after 9/11 but I wanted to be a jarhead before that for these reasons: 1) I could not afford graduate school without the GI Bill; 2) I wanted to repay the government and country that gave my grandfather free farmland and an education after his war in Korea; and 3) I wanted to be there for my friends. I was a grunt and a scout sniper. I served four voluntary tours in Iraq. On the last two tours, I burned into my inactive reserve time and took someone else's place so they wouldn't have to go. I'm currently using the New Deal-GI Bill to pursue my graduate studies and I am a small business owner. But guess what? I'm average. This was just a job and a means to an end just like most the guys I served with. Despite the physical injuries I sustained and the PTSD I will live with forever, the lies I was told by military and civilians alike, I do not regret being there for my Marines and my Iraqis.

Comments

[n6vfp]

Even though my military time was served during the Vietnam era, I agree a lot with what he says. When I served, politics was volatile, with the leaders being all for war and the soldiers who did the actual work being against it. I served in a unit that was not normal. We were highly educated, most having more education than the officers who commanded us. We were rebels, the type who would do everything to frustrate the officers and some paid the price by getting less than honorable discharges. While being the 'wild bunch' we did our mission and did it well. I was lucky, I survived, as did many who served with me. Our whole unit were volunteers, but many, like me, joined to avoid the draft and to keep from becoming cannon fodder for generals who knew nothing of war except they needed good 'body counts' to prove to politicians that they were 'winning'. I was really fortunate, as I spent the time fighting the 'cold war', spying on the Soviets from Berlin Germany.

I lost many friends in Vietnam and lost more friends later from the effects the war had on them, both mentally and physically.

I think he tells it like it is, and deserves a medal for saying it, but there are many who would want to see him placed in front of a firing squad for talking truth. Yes, we need the draft, but as before when we had a draft, the rich and connected always found a way to not serve. Today, these same rich and connected would still find a way out. The only thing a draft would do is end these f**king wars.

[firecat]

The only thing a draft would do is end these f**king wars.

Well, that's something.

[emceeaich]

For what it's worth, the people I've known who served in the Corps are good people. Not perfect, but good people. I don't know if it's self selection or esprit d'corps.

[firecat]

My relatives in the armed services are good people. I just don't approve of how the US government uses the armed forces, in many cases.

[elf]

From the article: If we are fighting a just war with clearly stated objectives and fighting this with a firm moral compass, then we have nothing to fear with re-instating a draft because nearly everyone will support the effort

Yeah, that'd be the problem with a draft. If we had just wars, we wouldn't need a draft; we'd have enough volunteers. A draft might work in the case of a just war, to help get the kinds of support it needs--but drafts need a public that respects and trusts the military, and we don't have one of those.

The current anti-discrimination laws just barely skirt around the military, because people in the military have volunteered to be there. With unwilling draftees (as opposed to, "I suppose we all have to support our country and it's my turn now" draftees), the sexism, racism, overt proselytization and other bigotries would all hit the spotlight and explode in a thousand ugly ways.

The food allergy & religious food issues would have the same problems that prisons do--without the ability to claim "you made your choices; suck it up and deal with what's available."

When I think of transgender people and the draft, my mind recoils in horror at the possibilities.

Instituting a draft will not fix the problems in the military; it'd just cause a lot of damage to a lot of people who currently know about them. Unless the draft were set with hard, objective criteria, with *no* exemptions for wealth or status*, it'd just serve to further oppress people of color from poor communities--with added bonus of getting to oppress the liberal-freak communities that currently stay far away from it.

*Does anyone believe we'd be drafting doctors to be foot soldiers? That we'd be pulling rich kids out of college, young CEO's out of jobs?

The last time we had a draft, we were running on the dregs of the 40's style "nuclear family" myth... Daddy had a job and paid for things; Mommy tended house & raised kids. If Daddy's job was on the other side of the planet shooting at foreign uniforms, that didn't mess up the mythic family structure.

Do they intend to draft single-parent fathers? Single-parent mothers? Both parents of a gay household?

Oh, and religion... during the last draft, ministers were exempt. That was before the Universal Life Church. Continuing to exempt ministers means everyone has an instant-out; not exempting them puts *someone* in the place of deciding whose religious practices are "legit" enough to qualify them to be "a minister."

I sympathize, very strongly, with the idea of showcasing the military's problems. I don't think a draft would fix any of them, because the people who'd be coordinating the draft haven't shown themselves to be capable of paying attention to any problems.

I'm not, yet, in favor of increasing the overall pain-and-damage level as a public announcement that "this is not working."

[firecat]

Thanks for writing all that. You're absolutely right. We'll have to figure out another way to make the people running the wars pay for them.

[elf]

I did note that the author is a white, straight, male, probably Christian... was never the target of the worst of the military's problems.

He's got some very good ideas, but I think he's picked the wrong point to focus on. The issue isn't how people get into the military; it's how they're treated, and how they treat others, after they're in... changing the filter system won't fix the underlying problems.

The comments in favor of mandatory service... ugh. It's obvious they've got a mental image of "the military" that's oblivious to the actual diversity in the US, and think that if they draft young men (I think they're only talking about drafting men?), those men will just stop being autistic or gay or allergic-to-peanuts or Muslim or whatever other trait is currently convincing them that the military would be a really bad career.

[firecat]

The comments in favor of mandatory service... ugh. It's obvious they've got a mental image of "the military" that's oblivious to the actual diversity in the US, and think that if they draft young men (I think they're only talking about drafting men?), those men will just stop being autistic or gay or allergic-to-peanuts or Muslim or whatever other trait is currently convincing them that the military would be a really bad career.

Assuming it even occurs to them that autistic, gay, allergic-to-peanuts young men exist.

I think I would be in favor of...not mandatory, but strongly encouraged...non-military community service. But only if it could be done with sensitivity, which it probably couldn't.

[elf]

I could accept "two years of mandatory civil service, from everyone." And then it becomes the gov't's job to find some work for everyone--much of which would hopefully seamlessly connect to a standard career, rather than the current arrangement where, if you're doing "civil service," that's a job with no connection to the private sector.

Hold those two years to the lightest standards of the current civil service jobs--35 hour work weeks, several weeks paid vacation a year, off on all gov't holidays. No cushy desk jobs for senators' sons while the children of immigrants pull 60-hour weeks in factories with 5 days off/year.

Or whatever. That's just brainstorming. I don't mind the idea of "more people should be directly contributing toward the country's well-being;" I just don't trust the current crowd who'd be deciding how that should be done.

[firecat]

I like your ideas a lot. And I also don't trust the current crowd to do it right.