Since the beginning of civilizations, man’s greed for land and power has driven him to wars with one another. The soldiers who have fought the war have always been persuaded and motivated on the lines of their king and motherland, but in actual subjectivity these individuals have always fought wars that were never theirs and from the olden times have been coaxed in to the war for the wrong reasons. The modern time things have changed a lot in terms of development in the civil society and also in the art of warfare, but the knack of harnessing innocent youth into wars which may not be even for the right reasons still continue. For the same reasons the process of anti wars have started and this is one of the few things in the world which can be considered as morally right.
The modern era has been an upstage for many countries and their knowledge on the domain of certain science of weapons has brought dooms day for many. Natural resources such as oil have also been one of the many reasons wars have been fought. These reasons for war can only be considered as diplomatic rows and cannot be considered as vital reasons to wage wars against each other. However the inefficient politicians and decision makers create these wars and the military recruiters then lure young men and women to battle by promising them a lot of things which are untrue and false. There is no element of doubt that army recruiters lie to prospective candidates and lure them on the basis of that. They are a dozen lies associated with each recruitment and
the most common of it all it is the false promise of college fees. This is one of the worst lies that are told to a volunteer as he expects the army to pay for the entire sum of the college fees once he completes his tenure with the army. The claimed amount by the armed forces is above $71000.However there is a catch to it and candidates who sign up often overlook the fact about understanding statistics of how many recruits get this fund for their education. It has been estimated that 65% of the recruited candidates for the ‘Montgomery GI bill’ are never given the college fund and a meager 15% attain a college degree. Secondly the amount which is claimed by the forces in untrue and candidates do not get above $37,000 (Aimee Allison and David Solnit. 2007). It is stipulated that to even get that amount of money, there a certain set of conditions and mandatory deposit from the candidate that is required. These innocent students are taken into a web of lies and are promised an education that they never receive, the only thing they ever do receive is the aftermath of a war, which has a huge impact physically and mentally.
The military cannot be considered as the place for the poor and this harsh reality is dawned once the soldier becomes handicapped and is given an honorary discharge. This person who is handicapped in most probability being poor has had little education and the real life of earning money and surviving starts stinging him to the core. Most of these war veterans end up abusing alcohol or drugs but the country comes to shame when these war heroes are staying homeless and penniless. The following will
give an estimate of the negative impact of wars on poor candidates and their failure in normal life after their returning from war:
‘According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, it is estimated that almost 200,000 veterans are homeless and more than a half a million experience homelessness over the course of a year. These veterans are men who have served their country’ (National Veterans Telethon). The worst comes to these brave souls, when they go though acute psychological disorders and they are acquitted to little or no help. The army recruiters who had promised so much to the joining candidates seems to fade away like the lies they had spread about the advantages of joining the army. The worst thing that can be assessed is these army recruiters purposefully go in poor neighborhoods and catch weakness in terms of promising candidates money and pride which is found to be deficient in these candidates.
The system of luring candidates to join the army and to fight a war that is never theirs is one of the worst things that can be done to a citizen and in one way if it was coming under the civil court, they could be entitled to be prosecuted for fraud. The worst treatment however is done with the female candidates who too in their patriotism and for their reasons join the armed forces and face the worst kind of sexual abuse. The female candidates only become a matter of sexual exploitation for male officers and colleagues and often scar the female soldier emotionally and physically for their rest of their lives. The following will explain the cruelties female candidates go through which
are untold of by recruiters and by the forces:
‘Nine out of ten women under fifty who had served in the U.S. military and had responded to a survey reported being sexually harassed while in the service. Nine out of ten women under fifty who had served in the U.S. military and had sexually harassed’ (Aimee Allison.2006).
One of the counterargument for the recruiting process is that they might say a little above the top, but the intention is to get the right candidates with right moral background to serve in the nation. However this counterargument is badly washed out, as the candidate firstly has to be told the exact truth about what exactly one will get in terms of perks and finances apart from the exact hazardous situation one might be put in. Also the army recruiters lie about getting the right candidates with right morals has turned out to be a hoax as there are evidences of them trying to recruit candidates who are anti socials and belong to racist’s gangs. The following quote by Scott Barfield who by profession is an investigator in the defense department will explain the army’s so called moral values to induct the right candidates:
‘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’ (Nick Turse. 2006). For candidates who are of different races can face a tough time inside the army itself, because there is a high chance now that their instructor or their colleague might be a skin head or a racist.
Another counterargument given is that even if candidates are drafted to war zones, it is their duty to protect their motherland from all possible threat avenues. Today this argument is considered as the biggest farce as it has only been seen and rather noted by veterans from Vietnam War to Iraq war that these wars have been fought due to imperialist policies of the country and these wars have only worsened situations which were known before hand itself. There is a difference is having coveted operations and having full fledged wars against nations and sending candidates as soldiers on the pretext of false promises and are given a wrong sense of security. This is the main reason why candidates suffer through post traumatic stress and other psychological disorders as firstly they are given a glossy picture for their future and their position in the army, once the reality strikes to them, they often undergo hazardous situations and to top that even their basic promises are not fulfilled.
In the end it can be concluded that joining the army today by these recruiters is the most incorrect decision to make as it seems these recruiters have become immoral to the core and they are only trying exploit weakness of prospective recruits by giving them lies about financial independence and giving them wrong hopes of finally earning respect in their neighborhood and family. It is highly wrong to send these candidates who are duped by the words of the recruiter to a war which is based on questionable policies. Today we have seen the hopeless conditions of Vietnam veterans and the Iraq veterans are threading the same line. This is the actual time for the government to realize there polices with other foreign countries and not to undermine the fact about cheating army recruiters.
Work Cited:
1) Aimee Allison and David Solnit, “Top military recruitment lies”. September 2007. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62945/
2) National Veterans Telethon, “Proposal to request funds”. November 11th 2008. http://www.homelessanddisabledveterans.com/innerpage.aspx?pageid=13
3) Aimee Allison, “An Excellent Reason Not to Join the Military” May 5, 2006. http://www.alternet.org/story/35792/?page=2
4) Nick Turse, “U.S. is recruiting misfits for army”. October 1st 2006. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/10/01/ING42LCIGK1.DTL
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