Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Choosing the military

This is from Tulsa Peace Fellowship's counter-recruitment update/digest for mid-December 2008:

'I figure if I do another five or 10 years in the Army, the economy will turn around and I can get a truck-driving job.' ~Alex Stewart, from Grand Rapids, Mich., formerly a welder in civilian life

fact: Roughly 208,000 men and women left the military in 2007.

fact: Only about 30 percent of enlisted soldiers hold a bachelor's degree.

As a nation, we ought to be thoroughly ashamed of our "poverty draft". Bring back the real draft so that all socio-economic groups end up serving in the military. That will put a stop to unnecessary wars more quickly than anything else.

1 comment:

  1. ... and for all that the "ordinary" troops -- those folks who are on the ground, in the thick of it -- do every day, a post-secondary education, lifelong free health care and a VA that properly honours its veterans should be the *least* of what they get.

    I've never supported war; never will. But the troops ... I'm behind them 1000%.

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