Recruiting Future Casualties

Military recruiters disgust me. They are paid to convince young people to abandon civil society and become a cog in Washington's awesome death machine. Of course, they don't tell them that they are going to be cogs. They tell them that they are going to be leaders. Leaders of brave men and women as they keep the evil that is the rest of Earth's population from killing Americans or even each other. Then they tell them of all the financial benefits that the federal government will heap upon them as payment for their "sacrifice". I'm sure they typically avoid mentioning the dearth of medical care providers veterans are experiencing or the astronomical suicide rate of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (and veterans in general). The gritty truth is replaced with romantic visions of honor, justice, and adventure. The State requires some to give all and it makes their job a lot easier if the some are kept in the dark about these matters.

It's bad enough when young men and women seek out military recruiters, but what I find especially despicable is the targeting of children for military recruitment. The government calls this contemptible program the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). The JROTC aims to "instill in students in [United States] secondary educational institutions the values of...service to the United States" as well as developing patriotism and responsiveness to constituted authority and "increasing a respect for the role of the U.S. Armed Forces in support of national objectives". In other words, they are teaching them to be obedient to the State. It turns out that Marion High School has a chapter of the JROTC and recently had a "field day". The JROTC claims that 30% of the kids that go through the program end up in the military. Indeed, Army recruiters, Marine recruiters, and the Indiana National Guard were all in attendance as well as the Marion Police Department and Marion Fire Department. I learned from the Chronicle article that one young lady plans on joining the National Guard. She thinks being a cadet is fun. I don't doubt that being a cadet and playing soldier is fun. But I'll tell you it wasn't much fun for me listening to a friend of mine, who had returned from overseas duty with the Guard, describing pulling the charred remains of his buddy out of his Humvee after their convoy was disrupted by an IED. No fun at all. Just somber silence.

But the Feds need fodder for their offensive wars. And they are not above targeting educationally and economically deprived children. In fact, that's their stated policy:

Encourage program expansion into educationally and economically deprived areas. Focus efforts on at-risk youth by maintaining at least 20 percent of units in educationally and economically deprived areas.

That's right. Join the military. We will feed you. We will clothe you. We will educate you. All we ask in return is your life.

To be fair, not all people who join the military will be killed in action. Many will be the ones doing the killing. Remember the Afghanistan Kill Team? Or how about those "servicemen" who mercilessly gunned down first responders (after murdering a journalist)? Assistant Superintendent Ken Folks described the JROTC program's leadership as "fantastic role models". I don't think our children should be modeling themselves after brutal killers or dismembered corpses. And I don't think they should be modeling themselves after mindlessly obedient servants of the warfare state. And they certainly shouldn't be modeling themselves after the people who seek children out in order to turn them into brutal killers or dismembered corpses. Maybe we should be teaching these kids Math and English instead of obedience.