The PR of Killing

America’s wars came home today in the mail, with a letter from the Selective Service. Enclosed was my son Jed’s draft card, just a week ahead of his 18th birthday.

The card, which unlike the ones in my day, comes in technicolor, arrived along with a glossy brochure advertising the US military as: “The career you were born to pursue.”

The card featured a color photograph of a bunch of Army recruits jogging towards the reader wearing gray T’s and camo pants. Over the head of each of these runners was a career: scuba diver, computer software engineer, occupational therapist, firefighter, public relations, accountant, human services assistant, interpreter, musician, journalist...etc.
~ from Happy Birthday Jed! You're on the Rolls as a Potential Draftee in America's Wars by Dave Lindorff ~

It aggrieves me to no end at how the government glamorizes the military. From video-like ads on TV to snazzy brochures in the mail to recruitment bazaars set up at high schools and colleges across the country, the art of killing others for imperialist reasons has been made to sound like becoming a rock star!

Have you ever wondered WHY neither the President nor Congress has seemed all that interested in genuine job creation? I believe that one reason we hear a lot of talk and yet see almost no action is that high employment drives many into the armed forces. Who needs a military draft when you can manipulate the poor into "volunteering" to go fight your wars?

And, as you know, America is fighting many wars. If Libya continues to spiral out of control, people should know what's coming next.

Despite the president's pledge for "no ground troops," a reason will be manufactured so that ground troops become a reality. So, if we need fighting men and women on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and then Libya, we will need a lot more troops and continued high unemployment -- even more painfully high in minority and/or working class neighborhoods -- will push more folks towards "exciting military careers!"

As Lindorff points out, one aspect is left unmentioned in the snazzy pr campaigns.

Left out of these military careers were some important ones though: trained killer, sniper, spy, mass murderer, propagandist, wheelchair-bound amputee, depleted uranium cancer victim, homeless untreated PTSD sufferer, guilt-ridden survivor, incarcerated or dishonorably-discharged war resister...

But why think about those eventualities when joining the military means a steady paycheck!