(Note: This posting has been expanded as of 5/10 to include some of the more interesting exchanges that have occurred because of it. Thanks to all for making this an interesting exchange)
It seems the Marines were using public spaces around town to introduce the joys of military service to the young and hopeful. Something called Marine Week, which I learned from the side of a bus.
Right here at Marine week you could get a full introduction to the latest in Military hardware including a chance to walk through one of the biggest boondoggles of all times, the new Osprey. This hybrid plane, helicopter is one of the priciest pieces of hardware ever. And the noisiest. When a flock flew over me this morning, I figured that any enemy would hear them coming from many miles away.
My Friend Paul responded to this picture with this note:40 years ago this month I stood next to Abbie Hoffman on a stage at the common in front of 20,000 people and sang "Let the sunshine in" as Claude in the Boston production of HAIR. At the time we really did believe we were ushering in a new world and the Age of Aquarius and we did. We just didn't realize what it looked like. Last weekend, my brother's oldest son, Colonel Jack Fitzgerald USMC landed his team from Camp LeJeune in their OSPREYS close to where I sang. All I can say is, "what a piece of work is man."
But still, you have to admit that this whole event provided a chance to introduce junior to one of the few careers that will be hiring over the next 20 years. Mom could even get a charming picture before the little tyke comes home with pieces missing.
This event wasn't even confined to Boston Common. Downtown by Sam Adams statue they had a howitzer emplacement. The thing was aimed vaguely at the Bunker Hill monument. I wonder what Sam would have thought about our imperial army recruiting to go off and put down insurrections around the world.
The biggest surprise for me, however, was to go behind Faneuil hall and find them providing real hands on weapon experiences to everyone. A few years ago such a display would cause the police to come out and preserve public order, except today everyone was cheerleading the storm troops.
The Marines were certainly getting their jollys off showing the pretty girls how to hoist one of these sniper guns that can kill people a quarter mile away. Just such good ol American fun.
This event wasn't even confined to Boston Common. Downtown by Sam Adams statue they had a howitzer emplacement. The thing was aimed vaguely at the Bunker Hill monument. I wonder what Sam would have thought about our imperial army recruiting to go off and put down insurrections around the world.
The biggest surprise for me, however, was to go behind Faneuil hall and find them providing real hands on weapon experiences to everyone. A few years ago such a display would cause the police to come out and preserve public order, except today everyone was cheerleading the storm troops.
The Marines were certainly getting their jollys off showing the pretty girls how to hoist one of these sniper guns that can kill people a quarter mile away. Just such good ol American fun.
In a wonderful reward for bothering to do this posting, an argument ensued. At least one reader got into the mood to defend the whole process of commandeering so much public space for recruiting"Well, we do need an Army. I rather see recruiting than a draft wouldn't you?
Besides, for some people military service is a good thing: discipline, training, education"...Michael D
This caused me to fume a bit and respond ..."Thanks for your note. I couldn't disagree more.
Actually, I am a pacifist. I think one of the reasons we are sinking into the depths of the 2nd Depression is that we have bankrupted ourselves maintaining a military, which has been so grossly over funded in relation to our actual defense needs that it, and its blood sucking arms industry limpets, have drained our treasury dry.
I think that if we want to get out of our current situation, we have to cut back the military to a kind of police force. We cannot afford our imperial legions."
Mikey in DC then had to chime in to correct my mis conceptions of the place of limpets in the hierarchy of marine life....
"As a loyal minion of the military industrial complex, I feel obliged to correct you. We, of the national defense work force are NOT blood-sucking limpets. Limpets are harmless rock-dwelling mollusks. We are blood-sucking lampreys. The lamprey is a primitive parasitic vertebrate, with a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. While lampreys are well known for those species which bore into the flesh of other fish to suck their blood, these species make up the minority. In zoology, lampreys are often not considered to be true fish because of their vastly different morphology and physiology.
Thank you for your interest in Marine Biology.
Semper Fidelis. "Over the next couple of days a number of interesting responses appeared in the group over the desirability of a draft. I have included a couple. The draft issue may be a third rail of progressivism. Some deny the utility or need for a draft in a "free" society, while others (Me included) believe the draft is one way of leveling the playing field for providing service to the our society.
Michael who had supported the recruitment responded first.
"I agree to a point. The military, in many aspects is over funded. However I have friends serving without appropriate equipment.
Unfortunately beginning with WW2 we became a super power. Alot of what our military does is rebuilding and mainaining order. I completely agree that invading other countries is crap, we still need to defend ourselves which sometimes helping to stabaluze other countries."
Evan in San Francisco is also a draft supporter " Both my wife and I are of the opinion that if we had a draft, we would be less likely to still be fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the middle class were forced to send their children into these wars for years on end, risking their coming home in boxes, or with their limbs blown off, or their brains baked, we think they would have a greater stake in peace. There is a story of a mother who, while looking at a picture of her daughter in uniform, holding gun. She was crying, saying if she had had the money, her daughter would be in school holding a book."
Reita felt the same way "
Actually, I'd rather see a draft. I worry about a democracy with an army composed of mercenaries (our private contractors) and our volunteer army composed largely of men and women with the poorest economic opportunities in our society. I think we'd have fewer wars if we all had to share the burden of sending our sons and daughters to war.
I agree that military service has offered discipline, training and education, but a national service corps could offer the same advantages without the terrible costs of modern warfare. Armies are almost anachronisms in todays' world with civilian men, women and children much more likely to die at their hands than an opposing army."
Michael doggedly defended his position "You assume that if there was a draft it would stop those in charge from rushing into war because so many would object. How'd that work out with Viet Nam?
I completely agree with your comment on private contractors. I don't like an army based on making money and the desire to kill or be in power.
I also agree that war has terrible costs and when it can be avoided it should be. Unfortunately it is sometimes necessary. If it wasn't for our military, we'd be speaking German or Japanese. What would Europe look like now if the US military hadn't intervened?
Does the national service corps offer college educations and technical and mechanical training? Does it offer pensions and insurance?
Of course it's horrible to have an imperialistic military just as much as it's horrible to have war, but like fireman and police, they are a necessary fact of life that should only be used in dire circumstances. War should be the absolutely last resort."
Paul came in with a third position. " PS The draft has had no visible effect on Israel's war policy. Yes there are soldiers who protest war but military service is still presented very effectively as supporting the community. Why are you convinced it would be any different here? In fact there is a very active anti Zionist community of Orthodox Jews that have been mostly ignored by the msm in both Israel and the US. Here is link to one of the most extreme anti-Zionists Jewish groups http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Speeches/2006Iran-ACohen.cfm Most American Jews have never heard of them!"
So I get to end this, for the moment.
The volunteer army we have is basically a set of mercenaries working at the behest of the corporate powers seeking to extend the American Empire. We pay them better than McDonalds and offer some education benefits. We basically fuck them over in health care and toss them on the streets with their PTSD considered pre-existing conditions. Though I think war is a stupid way of solving problems, that has never stopped us in the past. We live in fear of fighting the last war ( Nazis!!!! Japs!!! Gooks!!) and can't see that we have become the bad guys. We have been so blinded by the state of fear produced by our mass media and our oligarchy that we can no longer hold up our heads as a free people. We are mass murderers at a distance. We pay our poor and ignorant youth to go out to maim and kill those "who hate us for our freedom".
We are powerless to stop this travesty until such time as the system implodes from its own contradictions. That may be sooner than we think.
Please post all future comments below. Thanks.
