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WORD COUNT
647
JUNE 11, 2008
CHISELING OUR TROOPS CHEAPENS THE WAR – by William A. Collins
Unjust war,
Does make troops
roam;
Seeking help,
When they get home.
How we truly feel
about a war is reflected in how we treat its soldiers. By now, not many
of us any longer believe that the war in Iraq is about terrorism or
saving the nation. Most realize it’s actually about oil and empire. This
shows up in how we deal with both our new recruits and our returning
veterans.
For recruits, the
military sales pitch has become very mercenary. In former times we asked
soldiers to sacrifice in defense of their nation, but today, since there
is no sign of sacrifice in the civilian population, such a spiel rings
pretty hollow. So instead, we say, “OK, we’ll make it worth your while.”
“Worth your while”
means serious signing bonuses, false promises of college tuition, and
commonly, a path out of poverty and despair. That’s strong stuff, and
you’ll notice that it all revolves around personal advancement, not
serving a higher cause. This is not surprising when in fact there is no
higher cause. Plus the old patriotism pitch rings hollower still when
the bill collector from the Pentagon arrives to take back part of your
signing bonus because you were too badly wounded to complete your
enlistment.
This squalid moral
course simply mirrors the behavior of earlier commercial empires like
Rome, Britain, and France. Like them, we too now depend on mercenaries.
Over half our current warm bodies in Iraq are civilians, from the
rip-snorting Blackwater security guards to the scared Bangladeshi
indentured servants doing Beetle Bailey’s KP work. Everybody’s over
there for the money. If the troops end up with dirty drinking water and
the taxpayers end up with dirty deals, well, that’s war.
And the nature of
those troops themselves is changing rapidly too. On the one hand, we
want those with technical savvy to operate today’s sophisticated war
tools. But such men and women are also becoming too politically savvy to
enlist. Why sign up to get your head blown off? So recruitment standards
have had to be lowered to accept a shorter educational transcript and a
longer felony rap sheet. Luckily, recruitment efforts have also been
blessed by a sagging economy. This attracts more youngsters mired in a
state of economic desperation. We need them all. Bridgeport, Hartford,
New Haven, Waterbury, and New Britain are the mother lode, and one of
Waterbury’s sons just paid the full price.
Then after recruiting
is over comes the bad part – fighting. Iraq Veterans Against the War
recently put on a comprehensive show in Washington testifying as to just
how evil that part of war is. And as expected, our loyal national media
refused to cover the story, lest the public be put off by the grisly
reality and lose further heart for continuing the battle.
In fact it’s only
when the troops are discharged that their true plight gets serious
coverage. Mental health, often damaged by nearby explosions and
massacres, has finally become an issue. We now lose many more vets to
suicide than we lose troops to combat. Homelessness is rampant too,
health care is woeful, those with disabilities are shortchanged, and the
GI Bill is so far a fraud. It turns out that “Support Our Troops” was
nothing more than a Pentagon budget item to buy yellow magnets to gin up
support for the war. It had nothing to do with actually supporting
anyone, save perhaps the president.
Unfortunately, that
federal dereliction of responsibility bequeaths the job of caring for
veterans to us. Cities, states, towns and families have been left
holding the bag. And good old Connecticut has blessedly just opened a
whole new home for down-and-out vets. Meanwhile the Pentagon spends
$13,000 on recruiting for each new soldier.
Perhaps we should
have paid more attention on Mother’s Day, the original purpose of which
was to get us to reject wars like this one.
--
Columnist William A.
Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk,
Connecticut. A photo of Bill Collins is available at:
www.minutemanmedia.org
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