The Shameless Hypocrisy of Recruiting (re: the Kerry controversy)

[theHandpuppet]

You've seen the commercials.

Young high school kids of working class or poor families, having heart-to-heart talks with their parent(s) about joining the U.S. Army. The young black kid tells his mother it's time for him "to be the man". (Notably only the young black man approaches his mother on the subject, whilst the white boys and girls talk to their fathers. Need I say more?) Another young man talks to his father while shooting pool, whilst others engage in what must be considered as similar, blue-collar type activities. A handsome young Latino makes his own pitch against the backdrop of what is painted as a gang-riddled neighborhood.

The camera pans to views of their neighborhoods; one even shows an alley-type tableau with children playing among trash and litter.

"I can earn money for college". "I can get training close to home." You've heard the pitches.

Meanwhile, a commercial for the National Guard shows us a lone guardsman in his sweats, running down a well-worn, working class street, passing modest wood frame cottages with abandoned tricycles in the yard. The voiceover tells us this is what he signed up to protect. Not Halliburton. Not Kellogg, Brown & Root. Not General Dynamics or Lockheed or Exxon Mobile.

What? No pitches to soccer mom, whose son looks up just long enough from his playstation in the back seat of the Escalade to tell Mom he'll be joining the Marines? No heart tugging scenes of the young girl from the gated community who tells Dad she'll be foregoing Bryn Mawr for boot camp? No CEO putting his arm around his only child and with tears of pride welling in his eyes, telling him/her he couldn't be prouder that HIS child has chosen to sacrifice his MBA and a spot in the firm for a tour in the Army?

I'm shocked, I tell ya. NOT.

I AM, however, thoroughly disgusted that during this feeding frenzy over Kerry's recent remarks, no one in the media -- and I mean NO ONE -- has bothered to cry foul over what is undeniably a slick marketing campaign by this government, one aimed at recruiting the blood and treasure from poor and working class families. The pitches are shamelessly classist and yes, racist. And one of the biggest carrots dangled in front of their noses is the money for college. How many times have we heard the stories of young men and women who signed up to earn money for an education only to come back missing limbs, souls, or losing their life for a chance at an education? An education that YOU, Herr Bush, offered them in exchange for military service?

Mr. Bush, YOU and your ilk are hypocrites. While you exploit Kerry's bungled irony, it is YOU who uses a chance for a higher education as the very pitch in your recruitment of young Americans for this ill-begotten war. Be honest, if you are indeed constitutionally capable of honesty. You aren't recruiting at Yale. You aren't sending your recruiters into Beacon Hill or Georgetown. You aren't offering up your own daughters or those of your well-heeled "Pioneers".

YOU, Mr. Bush, deliberately recruit from among poor and working class families with promises of college money (or even citizenship) and have the unmitigated gall to cry foul when it is pointed out that it is not the Bush and Cheney families of the world who will be paying for your wars. The only idiots out there are the ones who can't smell the hypocrisy. You reek of it, sir. Maybe some of the yapping bobbleheads of the so-called "liberal" media (now that IS a joke!) could come up for air just long enough to get a whiff of the stench.

Ah, don't you just love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning?

[Bluerthanblue]

1. people don't like to

face unpleasant realities-

There IS a kind of 'economic 'draft' in this country- ESPECIALLY when it comes to the Reserves/Guard units-

And, as jobs for 'average joes' become harder and harder to find, they'll be more folks forced to sign on for the employment alone.

I hate that this is how it is, but hating it, doesn't change the reality.

Recommended-
sadly-


blu

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. Even missing a crucial "us", Kerry was right: non-college-bound

youth are most likely to enlist. according to available data on educational aspirations and enlistment in the military.

IMO it's crucial to distinguish between youth who are not college-bound even though the vast majority of their classmates DO go to college right away, and youth from high schools that fail to educate whole cohorts of young people. More than 100 US soldiers were killed in Iraq last month. I'd like to see some member of Congress request a Congressional Research Service study of the high schools those KIA graduated from. What proportion of entering freshmen graduated, and what proprotion of those graduates went on to college and graduated from college?

Since 1987, the military have required at least 90 percent of those who score average or above on the Armed Forces Qualification Test to have high school diplomas. 100 percent of the up to 4 percent the military can admit from marginal scorers on the test must be high school graduates. So when you are talking about military enlistees, you are talking about high school graduates.

The best available data on plans of graduating high school seniors come from an annual survey called "Monitoring the Future" (MTF).

According to the most definitive study, Kerry was right: Enlisting in the military is strongly associated with lack of interest in going to college right away. Here's a page from an online report for decisionmakers about military recruiting:

From http://newton.nap.edu/books/0309085314/html/200.html :

"Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth: Implications for Military Recruitment

Predicting Propensity to Enlist from MTF Data

... Bachman et al. (2000b) predicted propensity from eight demographic variables ... the two most important predictors were race/ethnicity and college plans. Consistent with previous data, blacks were more likely than other race or ethnic groups to intend to join while those with college plans were least likely to indicate a propensity to join the military.""

[Brewman_Jax]

3. Scaringly accurate

earlier in the week, I heard these post-HS young ladies (all black) talking about their near-future plans with a suit-wearing gentleman (also black). Two said that they were going to join the army for the college money and they were told that they wouldn't be going to war. I was thinking,the army's sole purpose is projection of power and government policy abroad, up to and including the use of weapons platforms and high explosives (I'm a veteran.) Also, after hearing news articles of units (Army and Nat'l Guard) returning to Iraq for a 3rd tour of duty, what the hell makes them think that they aren't going?

The recruiters and the society and environment that gives them so many potential recruits are absolutely shameless. :(