The author is a former U.S. Army infantryman who served two tours in Iraq, and is a member of March Forward!
“Skills that will serve you for the rest of your life.” This message will greet you if you visit the goarmy.com website.
This
is what the Army is projecting to potential recruits: that by joining
up you will have a sound foundation from which to launch a career when
you leave. Recent findings say the complete opposite is true.
“While
their nonmilitary contemporaries were launching careers during the
nearly 10 years the nation has been at war, troops were repeatedly
deployed to desolate war zones. And on their return to civilian life,
these veterans are forced to find their way in a bleak economy where the
skills they learned at war have little value,” says Michael A.
Fletcher of The Washington Post. Today, veterans actually experience
higher unemployment rates than civilians.
Some veterans even
want to return to combat simply to have enough money to pay for food and
bills, because job opportunities are so rare for returning vets who
have spent their days, months and years in war zones.
“I’m hoping
to get deployed,” one Marine said. “I could use the money.” This is
common among vets. The men and women of the military are not fighting
for false ideas of “freedom” or “democracy;” they are fighting simply to
eat.
The United States spends more on its military than all
other countries in the world combined. This money that could and should
be used for jobs, health care, education, housing and hundreds of other
social services is being funneled into the hands of wealthy defense
contractors instead of where it belongs—with us.
An anonymous
Ft. Lewis soldier who was in the military for 14 years and was medically
discharged after serving multiple combat deployments told March
Forward!, “I can’t find a job anywhere.” On top of not being able to
find a job, he is in constant conflict with the Veterans Administration
to try and receive the benefits to which he is entitled.
One
issue that veterans face when searching for jobs is the perception of
employers that all vets have mental health problems, including substance
abuse, and are prone to violence. This makes it harder for veterans to
get hired, contrary to promises from recruiters that military service
makes one more valuable in the job market.
The truth is that one
in five vets claims a service-related disability such as PTSD as a
result of their experiences, including the brutality they have witnessed
against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
While the Army
website emphasizes the many different “jobs” you can perform in the
military, this writer learned how to kick in doors—a skill that does not
translate well to civilian careers.
The military and its lapdog
recruiters project empty promises about how “Your education is our
mission.” In reality, the mission of the U.S. military is to serve the
interests of Wall Street. But they can’t fight their wars themselves.
They need poor and working class people to fight those wars for them. To
carry out that mission, they need us, the rank and file, and that is
why they try to recruit us with inflated promises of jobs and education.
