After Bush’s speech this week, the new ads came out. You know those ads: a young man of some color other than white implores his mom or dad to let him join the military.
I saw a new one this morning: A Black kid looks directly at the camera [his father] trying to convince him to let him join up. As he pleads the camera pans down the block to the corner where local gang members are hanging out. The not-so-subliminal message? The only alternative to going to Iraq and putting himself into the path of bullets and mines is to stay here, fall in with a gang, move into a pattern of drug abuse and, eventually, die in the street—a victim of a drug war.
The ad shows us a good kid—a young man who has, by his late teens, avoided joining a gang, has stayed away from illegal drugs and who has strong moral underpinnings. But now, suddenly, he’s at risk of changing his entire perspective if he doesn’t go to Iraq. Uh huh.
If history is any guide, the irony is that these great kids who have managed to steer clear of the risks of poor urban life, are at much higher risk if they go to war. After seeing what they would, inevitably see there, undergoing the dangers and finally waking up to how they were brainwashed and how little Uncle Sam values their lives, they are more likely to come home [assuming they survive the perpetual war Bush wants us to wage] more cynical, more distrustful and contemptuous of American ‘values’ than they were when they left home. From that perspective they are more likely to use drugs, drift into homelessness and despair than if they stayed home in the first place.
But, shhhhhhhh! We’re not supposed to notice that!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
You're so right. America's prisons are full of Vietnam era vets who survived that fiasco, and were cast aside when they sought help for PTSD. I hope our nation does better by the young and women damaged by Bush's folly. The difference is that then, sophisticated misleading ads were not needed to turn them into cannon fodder.
The sickest thing of all are the promises made to these kids by recruiters about how they won't serve in Iraq, or how all their college will be paid for, or how they will only have to do 4 years.
All of it amounts to a pack of lies.
There is hope that the Democrats will pass some sweeping changes to restore the GI Bill back to how it was just after WW2.
I'm not holding my breathe.
We ask these kids to sacrifice everything and shun them as untouchable when they return.
The whole VA system seems geared toward discouraging vets from using the VA System. Doctor appoints are a hassle. Applying for aid is a nightmare. And when you do get your benefits, it's typically a pennance.
The whole goal is to discourge vets from even trying.
In the end our government asks them to sacrifice for what appears to be for their own self image. "You'll be doing a great service, no one will take that away from you" "You will always be a hero"
Few people remember their history in how The Bonus Army WW1 vets were treated and how the Vietnma Vets were treated. And now, how our gov denies Gulf War Syndrome.
The pattern has been set for a long time. Our country will ask you to join, sacrifice, and in return promise you a college education, training, and great medical benefits.
But when the war is over they will forget you. And when you ask for what is rightfully yours they will tell you to go fuck yourself.
But they will also still prey on your patriotic duty by giving speeches at VFW lodges and using you for photo props.
They will honor you for political purposes. But when it comes to honoring the committment made to you in contract form, they will turn their back as they always have.
yep, TC--and we could very well be headed back to a draft if something isn't done quickly to stop Bushco from the perpetual war.
and
hey, Poli--
yep--I based the conclusions part of the post on the Vietnam era. that's exactly what happened then.
and, my husband was a V Vet. His appendix came so close to bursting while he waited to be seen at a VA hospital it's virtually a miracle he survived.
and Agent Orange was the Gulf War Syndrome of the Vietnam era. if memory serves, the gov't never did admit it had caused the severe damage to lungs and other organs our kids suffered back then.
it was much more important not to be sued by the kids who suffered and died AFTER THEY CAME HOME from a war they never wanted to fight than to stand up for their rights in this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
uh huh.
I used to date a VA doctor. We got along well, because she's a proctologist and I'm an..... well.... never mind. Just to confirm what you both said, she told me more horror stories than I care to remember about fights she had with the VA over trying to provide needed care over supervisors' objections.
Post a Comment