Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Doesn't pay to mess around with the military....

From TomPaine.com:

SARA ROBINSON

How to Kill An Army: A Scenario

[an excerpt]

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the number of new recruits coming in on conduct waivers is up. So is the number of convicted felons, gang members, avowed racists, and people with substance abuse problems. The military is increasingly turning a blind eye to solider misconduct, because it can't afford to lose the boots—so racist activity, rape, and other criminal acts are going largely unpunished.

Maybe McCain figures that this new crop of kids isn't all that interested in college anyway. Maybe he's decided that down here, with the bottom of the barrel coming into sight, we're getting the kids for whom the military isn't a ticket to college, or a way out of anything. It's just a better alternative than a lifetime of unemployment—or worse, cycling in and out of jail. And maybe he's being a realist about that. It's certainly where we seem to be headed.

But we don't have to go there. And if we think this all the way through, we'll do whatever it takes not to go there. Because if McCain is serious about stripping away the barest promise of benefits and turning America's high-tech army into a dumping ground for the country's undereducated, pre-criminal, behaviorally unstable, and economically desperate—then there's another possible future looming, and it's the stuff of our worst nightmares.

What Lies Ahead

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/how-kill-army-scenario

[Use link above to read]

Wrap...

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