Aohell

The Emperor's New Soldiers

Well, two reports just came out about the US Army. One said it's spread too thin and the other said it's not meeting recruiting goals. While the Bush administration pooh-poohs the reports, they ring true.

Worse, the US Army is seeing shortfalls in equipment stockpiles. That is not a good thing. It seems likely that the army won't be able to outlast the insurgency in Iraq. It's also quite likely it could not respond to another major threat, say, a war in the Caucasus or intervention against a nuclear-bound Iran.

While the US already puts its National Guardsmen through coimbat duties like the Tsarists of old treated their troops, there simply aren't going to be enough soldiers to meet all the US' commitments overseas. Where will the new soldiers come from?

Here's your first hint: They will not be the sons of families whose wealth places them in the top 5% of households by income or assets. When the drafts of war blow, they chill the homes of those who can't afford the cost of insulation.

How much sadder that the wars themselves are waged primarily to benefit the very families and interests that decline to participate in the sharp end of things. But, then again, wasn't the greatness of Rome built upon the backs of its slaves? Far be it from me to suggest something as unpatriotic as the notion that the poor of America should be anything but proud to plunge headlong into a conflict fought to make the world safer for someone else's money. Far be it from me to suggest something as unpatriotic as the idea that the benefits given to soldiers pale miserably to the profits being generated in the wake of their efforts.

Instead, I shall be the true patriot and suggest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are undemocratic, imperialistic, and that they have no place in a true democracy. Current administration policy is a blatant affront to the decency of humanity and an insult to the equal rights Americans are supposed to have.

Soldiers are necessary to keep a nation safe: this I know. I'm not ignorant of my Hobbes. It's a nasty, brutish world out there. But soldiers are not necessary to keep my aristocrats fat and happy. Those ventures make my nation less safe and cause blood to be shed in vain. No US soldier in Iraq died to keep my freedoms. They died to enhance the bottom lines of profiteers and to boost the fortunes of politicians. It is truly wretched how men without any conscience at all will commit people willing to die for freedom and justice into a battle for nothing more than a little bit of money.