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Poor and Uneducated Like We Thought: Debunking The Military Debunkers
"The typical recruit in the all-volunteer force is wealthier, more educated and more rural than the average 18- to 24-year-old citizen is," claimed the authors of an oft-cited 2005 "comprehensive study" of the U.S. military commissioned by the Heritage Foundation.
Two years later, right-wingers trot out the Heritage troop survey as evidence that America is sending its best and brightest, rather than its down and out, to win Afghan and Iraqi hearts and minds. The GOP blog Newsbusters used it to rebut Rosie O'Donnell's statement that most recruits enlist in the army to get an education: "Of course, facts don't matter to Rosie O'Donnell." But are these "facts" true?
The key word here is "volunteers," which here means "new recruits." A new CBO study released this July states: "Because black personnel have been a larger share of recruits in the past and because they have relatively high retention rates, however, they account for a larger share of the active enlisted force as a whole: 19 percent, compared with 14 percent of the civilian population of 17- to 49- year-olds. Black service members make up a smaller percentage of the active officer corps: 9 percent."
You're more than 35 percent more likely to be in the military if you're black than if you're white. But you're 35 percent less likely to become an officer. Ignore the propaganda--the military is a reflection of, rather than a cure for, racism.
With Afghanistan joining Iraq as a war considered an unwinnable mistake in the minds of the public, military recruiters are being forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
In 2005 the Army promoted 97 percent of all eligible captains to major, an increase from the prewar norm of 70-to-80 percent. A Department official told The Los Angeles Times: "Basically, if you haven't been court-martialed, you're going to be promoted to major."
It may be too much to assert that, as Asia Times did recently, that "U.S. ground forces are increasingly made up of a motley mix of under-age teens, old-timers, foreign fighters, gang-bangers, neo-Nazis, ex-cons, inferior officers and a host of near-mercenary troops, lured in or kept in uniform through big payouts and promises." Or is it?
"Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members," Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator told the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Citing the "toughest recruiting climate ever faced by the all-volunteer army," Major General Michael Rochelle, head of army recruitment promises: "If you have excessively prominent and vulgar tattoos they will not take you right now, but that is about to change."
"824 felons were allowed to sign up in 2004 as opposed to 1,605 in 2006 under the moral waivers scheme," reports the UK Guardian. "Almost 59,000 drug abusers entered the military in the same period."
There are, of course, intelligent, well-educated children of wealthy parents serving in the military. But they are the exception, not the rule. If Afghanistan and Iraq are, as the Bush Administration argues, central fronts in the war on terror, which is a war for hearts and minds, we ought to be sending our best-prepared, most presentable representatives of American society abroad as personal ambassadors. Our decision not to pay the higher salaries and benefits that would lure those men and women out of the civilian workforce belies those claims.
38 Comments so far
Show AllMr. Rall,
You would do well to go to any base near you and talk to the young people in uniform. Then have an opinion.
The felons are all wearing neckties and have Ivy League educations. Their pedigrees are populated by the most avaricious and useless lice ever to gather at the head of our government.
It's a sad state of affairs when the military chooses neo-Nazies, gang members, extremists, felons, and drug abusers over willing and able gays and lesbians.
Fabulous.
Rall's contempt for those that join the military is well known. Remember Pat Tillman? He was the professional football player who passed up a 3.6 million dollar contract to enlist in the army, only to be killed by "friendly fire" in Afghanistan. Rall called him an "idiot" who only wanted to kill arabs. What a piece of work.
The situation in the military reflects the broken policy of the Bush administration and how they pushed war on us at the expense of military preparedness. The situation described by Rall is just a sign of how wrong Bush was. Thats why Repuklicans fight these facts, not so much because they 'support the troops', but because they're too narrow minded to comprehend situations that don't match what George Bush says.
"The typical recruit in the all-volunteer force is wealthier, more educated and more rural than the average 18- to 24-year-old citizen is,"
My remark is a bit off-topic, but here in Western Penn-Maryland-Virginia, being rural is not associated with being educated or wealthy. When I worked at the Pittsburgh federal building, all the recruits were white kids from the hills - on the way up to the 17th floor, many acted like they had never been on an elevator before in their lives.
The big story today of the soldiers and recruiters charged with drug running in Tucson Arizona is an example of a sociopathic society offering little burnt sacrifices as a smokescreen to conceal its own insanity. Addressing the defense of "just following orders," former military judge, Gary Solis guffawed, and several other "experts" parroted his notion that those soldiers are "trained to know better." He should be cackling hysterically at anyone who doesn't see through the shallow, transparent nonsense of his own assertion. Sixty percent of Marines and forty-five percent of U.S. Army soldiers say they would not report a fellow serviceman for killing or injuring an innocent Iraqi civilian, and ten percent say they have personally mistreated civilians through physical violence or damage to personal property. This from the May 4, 2007 Pentagon released report, see www.armymedicine.army.mil. So much for being trained to know better. Contrast this with any reputable report on regional Muslim attitudes on justifying violence towards civilians which hovers between one and twenty-six percent worldwide (pewglobalreports.org).
What we are confronted with is undeniable. The most fanatical madrasas anywhere on earth are not "training" human beings to become dangerous psychopaths at anywhere near the rate of the U.S. military. But then this is a society that has made denial it's strongest institution.
This article is fantastic. This quote pops:
"Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members," Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator told the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The interesting thing is this is reported with an element of surprise. In fact, the entire operation in Iraq is an act of white supremacy on its face.
One need only consider the following:
+ We attacked without provocation or invitation.
+ The argument that we can fight terrorists over there without fighting them over here is actually debated seriously without shame with the tacit assumption that it is perfectly acceptable for the US to designate another country as our personal battlefield.
+ Counts of civilian casualties are not kept, treated as irrelevant. Cancer resulting from DU shells is treated as a failure of Iraqis to clean up the messes properly.
+ Politicians on both sides chafe the pending vacation of the Iraqi parliament on grounds that they have not finalized the death knell oil agreement that hands 80% of Iraqi oil to US oil companies in perpetuity.
+ Degrading treatment of Iraqi prisoners of war, contempt for the culture, etc., actively encouraged from the top down by Pentagon.
Et cetera. A soldier who shows himself to be a white supremacist is probably showing leadership qualities in the eyes of the people who sent them there.
One thing not mentioned in this article is that in order to try and fill recruitment quotas, they are now recruiting immigrants and promising them a fast track to citzenship if they are willing to join in our invasion of Iraq. Then, if they don't get blown to pieces or die of exposure to toxins in our waepons or suffer from Post traumatic war syndrome they get to be citzens.
It is amazing how many ways the Corpratocracy can think up to exploit the poor and vunerable in our population and the globe.
If only all the Corporate CEOs and their proxies in Congress and the Excutive Branch could be drafted and have to risk their lives and health in these wars of agression, we would see a quick end to war and a new age of diplomacy. Draft all Chickenhawks!
MIRF: Good points. There is also the "Timonthy McVeigh" effect sure to follow. I'm sure Morris Dees could explain it better and connect the dots, but for some of these fascist neo-nazi types, military service (should they survive it, and I know Evelyn Smith will point out the survival deficit based on DU exposure) will prove quite an effective education when US martial law, environmental problems, fiscal implosion or internal rebellion calls for their expertise in assembling their own militias. Someone might as well begin a book entitled, "The Enemy Within" now, for the outcome is certain. Remember, the CIA trained Bin Laden to operate against Soviet forces and look what happened? Chalmers article gives examples of similar inversions. Violence leads to violence, that is a natural law as reliable as gravity. Homage to force first will never GET the truth of that... they just throw more dogs and weapons into every fight, but with global warming's fire set, we really have a very different "battle" on our hands that calls for collective synergy, not fighting like angry mice among ourselves.
1605 felons recruited for the armed forces, and somehow this proves that the nearly 2,000,000 service men and women are just a bunch of gangbangers? Give me a break!
59,000 drug abusers? Get off your high horse, you puritanical hoodoo! Minor busts for marijuana possession in red states where one seed sends you to prison? And that's supposed to make them unfit to serve?
Who is this Ted Rall? What planet did he fall off? And can I buy him a ticket back to his goody-goody point of origin before he writes yet another ridiculously exaggerated tirade against the brave men and women serving under the American flag?
iblito July 25th, 2007 4:18 pm
nice points.and the the worst atrocities
so far,have come from soldiers already in the service,
and not the new recruits.
Can America challenge definitions?
Brave,honorable?
"Sixty percent of Marines and forty-five percent of U.S. Army soldiers say they would not report a fellow serviceman for killing or injuring an innocent Iraqi civilian"
Siouxrose July 25th, 2007 6:15 pm
"Timonthy McVeigh Effect"domestic
neo-Nazis and white supremacists/terrorists...
tend to flock outside main halls and large cities.
Acclimation to urban fighting inIraq,might change
their style/structure-and-recruitment.
Rob Price: "might change their style, structure and recruitment" how? If these types get together to do practice race wars, etc in remote sections of Pennsylvania (Morris Dees publishes a map where there is this type of activity and the section of Florida I reside in is a hot spot) imagine how much better their "training" if they sign up for the TRUE "sport" of war, which is what it is to them.
PJD: I've met poor young men here in Murtha's district that told me, with a note of actual pride in their voice, that they've never been outside the county.
They're good, honest kids, but they're not exactly worldly nor highly educated. It's a damn shame they're sacrificing themselves for Bush, who heartlessly takes advantage of their naive brand of patriotism. These kids are dying, never realizing they've been had.
dominated from without - dominant from within
What exactly is the recruiting budget these days? how many hundreds of millions per annum? Recruiter practices border crossing the legal threshold. Video war games training then the same in kids bedrooms...
@Sigma: "Remember Pat Tillman? He was the professional football player who passed up a 3.6 million dollar contract to enlist in the army, only to be killed by "friendly fire" in Afghanistan. Rall called him an "idiot" who only wanted to kill arabs. What a piece of work."
I don't know about the motives of this Tillman character, cannot read minds, but if he passed up 3,6 million dollar contract to enlist in the army to go fight in colonial wars, then yes he was an idiot. Maybe he wasn't smart enough to see through the propaganda, maybe he was in love with this Hollywoodesque but completely moronic all American hero idea, saving the world, looking though and scoring the babe who at first thought she was too good for him, all within a reasonable timeframe.Whatever he might have been thinking, it was wrong and he paid for that.
Any critical remark, however mildly formulated on "the troops" still seems to be the prime taboo. It goes so far (or rather becomes so sickening) as in the case of the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and her entire family, one Suki Falconberg, a self-proclaimed rape-authority, apparently by being gang raped by American soldiers herself, was among the most vocal defenders of these "troops."
Allow me to quote this very sick woman:
" If the six soldiers implicated in the March rape-murder of the young Iraqi girl and her family are guilty, we should remember that they are ordinary men pushed to extremes. They are just like the men around us everyday—just like our boyfriends and brothers.
How can I condemn any soldiers for wartime rape-murder if I can't answer for myself? What kind of savagery might I inflict on a woman or child if war pushed me far enough?"
This taboo, typical for any militarized society, has got many well-meaning people completely by the balls. If they refuse to hold the man who actually carries out the crime to any moral standard whatsoever, then how academic, weak and hypocritical their criticism of those in power then becomes. The argument hasn't got feet, you just push it over.
Being a recruiter for the military I disagree with many of the accusations made here.
Drug users are talked about here like most people in the US have not ever used drugs before. One time smoking marijuana makes you a drug user. If you do join you no longer can use it but you are still considered a drug user and it is required to be documented in you contract.
Gang members and tattoos are talked about here. Not every branch of the military has lowered its standards regarding tattoos. Most branches have actually tightened their standards to keep obvious gang members out of them.
Racism, I have turned away several people that have tried to join that made it evident that they were racist in one way or another and the people I work with have done the same. I personally know several people that have joined since the war started that are Muslim and the reason for them joining was to assist the US with weeding out those that abuse their religion.
Criminal activity, stated like the military is the only profession where people commit crimes. Those that do are eventually caught and pay the price for it. There are police officers that have run drugs, border patrol agents and INS agents that have facilitated illegal entry into the United States and countless other crimes committed by other professionals.
Many here say Pat Tillman was an idiot because he passed up a multi-million dollar contract to be in the military. Maybe he realized that money does not bring happiness or give you the feeling of fulfillment that he was looking for in his life. Being Patriotic is not being naive. Some people realize that there are more important things in life than their own life. I am sure he had to problems "scoring the babe" as a professional athlete.
Non-citizens do join and joined even before the war in Iraq began. Congress and the President are the ones that determined that members of the military that are non-citizens can have their citizenship process accelerated not the military.
As far as pay goes, the military gets paid a good amount of money but articles such as this distort the truth and young people are easily swayed. All the benefits you can get while in the military are better than almost any other job you can get with the same starting qualifications.
Finally check out the statistics on the dead in Iraq and Afghanistan and compare them to the US population statistics. You will see a higher percentage of those who have died are white as compared to the general US population and the blacks are at a lower percentage and the same is true for those with Hispanic backgrounds.
Before you form your opinion look at all the sides and facts not just those from anti-war advocates.
wilson 12:21 pm
"It's a sad state of affairs when the military chooses neo-Nazies, gang members, extremists, felons, and drug abusers over willing and able gays and lesbians."
Good point, wilson. It's an even sadder state of affairs when the American voter does the same.
Who is this Ted Rall? What planet did he fall off?
His cartoons appear in many newspapers around the US...
Actually, dear recruiter, I think that I was the only one who said Pat Tillman was an idiot to join. Can make it sound nicer, but not less true. (He seems to have realized at some point too he was being had.) I too am sure he could score all the babes he wanted (if so), but I think that state of affairs has been slightly altered with him being dead and all. You might call that fulfillment, I'd be more inclined to call it the combined result of being stupid and having bad luck.
I'd say you join the military and you're already half-way down where Tillman went. The bad luck is just a one time Murphy's law away.
And for what?
"with a note of actual pride in their voice, that they've never been outside the county."
So true, actually, I don't want to pick on just the Appalacian region. I encounter this attitude across most of the US. The US is the only place where there is pride in being ignorant and provincial.
And while ther are a few elevators in Cambria county (in downtown Johnstown) the kids never go there because they get frightened by the few black people living there...
"These kids are dying, never realizing they've been had"
so true, so true...
Ted Rall is just telling you the truth, so attacking the messenger is sheer idiocy. The numbers are staggering--there are 54 million men and 54 million women in this country who fit the age and physical ability parameters to serve: Only 1.4% of them volunteer to do so. That means that Americans who are poor and minority are the ones doing the dying. It's not a "professional" force nor a "volunteer" force if people don't have a choice because they're too poor to have any other choice.
My family is a military family and we're proud of our service. We've served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf War, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. But our military is being destroyed by George W. Bush and his band of merry authoritarian psychos. We now have a "hollow force," according to nearly all military analysts. We've spent more than $500 Billion (it will be $2 Trillion in the end) to destroy our military and we are now desperate for recruits who are willing to sacrifice themselves for Bush's lies: We'll take anyone now, tats or not.
The miltiary just recalled more than 1,000 recruiters back to duty to go out and scour the countryside for illegal immigrants (more than 8,000 have fought), poor people, felons, neo-nazis, drug addicts and pregnant women to "fight them over there so we won't have to fight them over here."
If you're attacking Ted Rall for telling you the truth, you're part of the problem not the solution. If we don't force this president to get out of Iraq, we will have no military left to defend this nation if it is attacked.
Obei Wan - Regarding your callous remarks concerning young Mr. Tillman's death, if there was a real Obei Wan I'm sure that he would be laying his light saber upside your head. You should change your name to Darth Sidious and get back on the Death Star.
Alright I'm Darth Sidious if it makes you feel better sigma.
Recently I noticed the following graffiti in the men's room at Frankfurt Airport.
"I am a GI on the way to Iraq to kill some sand niggers"
So much for America's finest, and yet we continue to be mesmerized by everything military - an idolization I have not found anywhere else in the world. How come we have forgotten Vietnam so quickly? I think it is time for an honest reevaluation of our attitude toward the military establishment.
poor and uneducated
I definitely agree with much of what you said, about drug use etc, however as far as your pay statement -- I absolutely disagree.
"As far as pay goes, the military gets paid a good amount of money"
Are you kidding me, who gets paid a lot of money? Not all for sure. How much money is worth dying for and being sent to Iraq numerous times without sufficient breaks in between. Also, are you aware that there are some soldiers on food stamps, WIC etc? No soldier should be on food stamps.
I am a wife of a retired enlisted man. He retired a couple of years ago and noticed that there was a notation on his paperwork. When he asked what it meant, he was informed, that even after serving 23 years, he could be called up to serve again until he is 55 years old. How's that for indentured servant? Mind you, when he was a 17 year old, that wasn't part of the contract that he signed.
Here's a link for soldier's basic pay: http://www.afmentor.com/mentor/2007basicpay-e.htm
Note: Some soldiers also receive BAH, if they live off post/base. This is to assist with housing.
Take a private's pay divide it by the number of hours they are away from their families and you'll find that they exist way below the poverty level.
And BTW, one doesn't have to be anti-war to be against a criminal act of aggression, murder, and the destruction of a civilization.
I suspect that the average soldier is better educated and a better citzen that the average college student, He is damn sure better led.
The reference to soldiers not reporting a fellow soldir for killing an innocent civilian is a distortion of the stat. Because of irrational rules of engagement, self defense is questioned. Someone who has fought house to house is less likely to challenge a civilian death in such a battle than some JAG in osifer's pinks. Real cruelty almost never gets hidden.
In most circumstances, only college graduates can receive a commission as an officer. The question should be: of the black college graduates in the military, what are pass rates for OTS (officer training school)? Rall's charge of racism would have more credence if less than 14% of blacks with college degrees were officers. Leaving out that rather relavent piece of information leaves the impression that he is simply looking for data to fit his belief that the military is racist.
PBS reports that only 3% of enlisted personnel have a BA or BS http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/iraq/war/mfacts_people.html
The best graph I could find indicates that around 2000, less than 15% of black men had a college degree. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/iraq/war/mfacts_people.html
I would wager (since I have no data) that the number of black officers is not so seemingly low when the numbers are adjusted to account for those who are ineleigible (non-college grads).
It would be nice if we lived in a world where there were no wars, crime, poverty, etc. But guess what, WE DON"T! It would also be nice if we could solve all our disputes diplomatically. Won't ever happen. There will always be someone who wants what you have or wants to impose their will on you forcibly. Unfortunately, you have to take up arms and kick their ass or submit. Submit would be the optimum word for MOST but not all the participants in this forum.
How many of you have done something constructive for the United States in your life? Based on most of the comments here, I would say very few. Why don't you get off your asses and support your troops while they risk THEIR lives. I don't see any of you pukes risking anything. Sounds like most of you think you're to educated to fight those who would cut your throat in a heart beat.
You don't like the war, then you will get your chance to vote in new leadership. And if the troops are withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan, what then? What would you do?
And to Oebi Wan, so you think the military is stupid. Well, I think you need to take a look in the mirror, then you will see stupid!! Pat Tillman was a better person than you could ever hope to be. Money isn't the whole world to everyone.
jcraf: Give us a break. My ancestors, piss poor, came to this country and molded iron, farmed crops and fed people, worked factories, fought wars and helped build this country for the past 150 years or so.
I registered for the selective service, nearly joined ROTC myself, and I've personally fixed up the shit the Boomers left my generation:
http://paulbramscher.blogspot.com/2007/03/lets-get-real.html
http://paulbramscher.blogspot.com/2007/06/on-being-well-rounded.html
Your appeals to patriotism (bad enough) by supporting the troops in an illegal war that does NOBODY any good (except Halliburton) is rotten to the core. Best way to support our men and women is to bring them home. Best way to support this country is use our military as it was designed: defense -- not offense -- against threats to the USA -- not Israel, etc.
When did Iraq attack us?
Ah...back in 1987 when they fired on the USS Stark. What did Reagan do? Nothing? Why not? Saddam was a good guy back then I guess. Come on, man. By now, we should all be able to smell a lie.
Was it that 2004 was the last year the US spend slightly less on their military than the rest of the whole world combined? Not on it's soldiers pay or on protective gear or on help after they've become invalids and worthless burdens to society it appears. "Supporting troops" seems to translate in supporting wars exclusively. Wars, purely of choice and for reasons nobody knows but those who refuse to state anything but nonsensical crap about it. Crap they can't even sell anymore to some of their own neocon-sycophants of the first hour, who finally decided reality is more resilient than their ability to deny it.
Participating in acts of Aggression is a war-crime, for me to say that supporting that is stupid, is understating the case. It is criminal! Actually participating in it is indeed a crime under International Law. The responsibility is on your head.
In every normal army you are taught the virtues and necessity of obeying orders, but you are also strictly forbidden to obey unlawful orders. A war-crime certainly qualifies as unlawful, even in a rogue empire that shits on International Law.
Maybe you were under the impression jcraf that a mirror always reflects you. And understable mistake since you can't look through someone else's eyes into it.
JCRF: you are as ignorant as you are emotional. You speak of following and serving the leaders of our country as the only way to "make a contribution." And you say that we have but two choices: "take up arms or submit" (as if there were no middle ground in dealing with terrorism). Have you ever noticed that the media never asks the uncomfortable question of why they hate Israel and the United States? Are people like you really that stupid? Or is it just your pride and emotions that prevent you from using your brains? Or maybe you've simply been duped by Fox News and other Zionist-favoring media. Someday you may learn that there are many other ways to make a contribution-- including speaking out against lies and corruption.
Okay, well, it seems possible my cynicism doesn't go far enough and I might have to swallow some of my words after all:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003617692
Ain't it pretty?
Ya know, the more I learn about Pat Tillman the more I respect him.
He turned down a million dollar a year contract to join the Army Rangers (a very physically and commitment demanding unit to say the least) at a time of war.
He apparently was intelligent and well read: He read the bible, the quran, the book of mormon and transcendentalist literature. He finished his studies early with a 3.84 average from Arizona State.
Despite his theological interests he apparently remained commitedly non-religious according to his brother and an NFL associate.
Apparently he was critical of the war, did not support Bush, and even went as far as to reccommend John Kerry to a fellow soldier as the candidate to vote for in 2004.
Some sad facts surrounding him and his death:
Fact:
He was awarded the Silver Star (and the Purple Heart with posthumous promotion) for dying in action against the enemy, when in fact he was killed in a blue on blue encounter.
Fact:
Military and Bush officials lied and then lied to cover up their lies about the true circumstances of his death, up to the level of a Lieutenant General now being demoted over his part in the deceptions, down to the banality of JAG officers slapping each other on the back in congratulations of sucessfully diverting inquiries away from finding out the truth. Members of his unit were warned away from revealing the true circumstances to the family.
Fact:
He was killed by three bullets to the forehead. The army doctors who examined his remains calculated that the fatal shots might have been made at the range of 10 yards. When requesting an investigations into this "unusual" aspect the doctors were successively told no.
Definitely no "idiot" or poor uneducated dupe (or dumb jock for that matter), Pat Tillman deserves not to be commemorated under some anonymous cover all description like "brave patriot" who would have told Ted Rall to love this country or leave it. He was apparently much smarter than that...more complex.
We will probably never know his full story.
Well, Corporal Tillman...until that final formation and roll call up above, I will just salute you for now. Rest in peace please, sir.
PETER SCHMID: THAT is the whole point! (I agree with you.)
Wonder why the Army doesn't recruit neo Communists and send them to Iraq?
It would be a quick and easy way to get rid of them.
Uneducated young people actually believe the GIs are dying for our freedoms. It's quite sad. Bush and his fellow thugs are laughing all the way to the bank that they could get away with their lies and propaganda. I think Ted Rall is correct about Pat Tillman.
Tennessean, how do you know it is only the poor and uneducated who join the military just because only 1.4% of the population joins? Did you also know that 1/3 of the population that is of age to join is disqualified from being able to do so because of legal, moral, or education problems? Illegal immigrants are also not able to join the military so whoever told you that is grossly misinformed. You do not have to be a US citizen to join but you must be here legally and a registered permanent resident. The same with pregnant women, they cannot join until after they have given birth and gotten themselves back into shape.
Wilsha, every person that is planning on retiring from the military is told that his retirement is like a retainer where you can be recalled back to active duty if needed. It doesn't happen very often but it is always a possibility. During the Reagan years several WWII Navy vets were recalled to active duty to train younger sailor on how to take care of battleships when he brought the battleships out of mothballs.
Also even if you are not living off base and receiving BAH(money for housing) you are still being compensated that way by not having to pay rent for where you live. You also get money for food or you get to eat for free at the base cafeteria. I know what the basic pay is for all ranks and looking at just that is misleading because of all of the rest of the allowances that military members get and other benefits like medical and dental insurance that the member does not have to pay anything into for themselves.
Ted Rall also doesn't bother to mention that both the Army and Marine Corps have been increased in size by Congress. Why this is important is because of the amount of Captains being promoted to Major. Maybe it is because of the largest branch of the military being increased by 70,000 soldiers not because of the standards being lowered. When a service has an increase in the amount of personnel in it the promotions will also increase.
Finally, not everyone that joins the military goes to Iraq, Afghanistan, or some other battlefield. I have been deployed twice since the war started and both time I ended up in Japan. I even asked to go to Iraq and was told there was enough people in my job field already going. How ofter you get deployed and where just depends on your specific job and where you are stationed. Some people do get deployed more often than they should unfortunately. This is because back when Mr. Clinton was in office he gutted the military since the the cold war had ended and we did not need to have a large military since the world was supposedly going to be peaceful from then on, and if there was something that needed to be taken care of our superior technology would be able to handle it without having troops on the ground. Now the USA and USMC both are being increased because politicians finally realized that whenever there is a war or combat you must have troops on the ground no matter how much more technologically advanced we are over the other side. Also why the USN and USAF are being downsized again and why each had to give up a large part of their budget to the other two branches.
When the day comes that ALL men will be forced to serve in our armed forces I would recommend they first try to join the army of
Air Force as both these services have not taken the hits as hard as the army and USMC has. In fact, I was serving in the USAF when the Korean War started and was surprised that then new recruits had chosen the AF as a means to avoid combat in the army. As for the navy, all navies in fact- except for the submarine force navies are obsolete when fighting continental nation such as China and Russia. it is for this reason the navy has played a role in our recent wars as they have been fought against small, weak nations who rarely can mount a viable retaliatory response.