Sorrows of Empire - Essay Example

Sorrows Of Empire Ironically, with the self-proclamation of the of "Global police" the current US military and foreign policy intends to keep peace prevailing on earth by the use of violence and war. The US has, as of now, 725 military bases in a whopping 120 countries. The large number military actions that the US has initiated in the last 50 years including invasion and taking control of other countries show that US is perpetually looking for an opportunity to exercise their military power. Its as if, they have decided to keep the forces in combat.

The United States military has been losing people from the service due to these wars in more ways than the obvious. Apart from the death and serious injuries during direct action, there are accidents, illnesses due to exposure, the resignations at the trainee levels and retirements. In order to compensate for the depletion of soldiers, in the recent past they have embarked on a mission to enlist large number of youth into service. Out of the $ 400 billion a year that the US government spends annually to run their military establishment, a considerable part goes into "recruitment expenses" - spending in various ways to allure the prospective candidates to enroll by creating an utterly false impression of a wonderful life socially, mentally and monetarily.

This paper takes a look at how unfair these new and "innovative" ways that the military attracts the youth to enlist in the forces, are. First they distributed leaflets and flyers that glorify a "secure" career with the military with an overdose of words like "serving the nation", honor, and dignity, in order to ignite the patriotism and the call of duty among the youth. The promise of a high flying career with free college education got the attention of a huge number of students from the not-so-wealthy families.

Then they spent millions of the taxpayers' money to create a computer game that simulated war situations called Americas Army and then gave free copies of it to students across the country. The game was manipulated so as to influence the mind of the user in favor of a military career, by avoiding all unpleasantness like blood, dismemberment and gory debris of war and just showing the fighting and the exciting part of action. This was a clear attempt to mentally manipulate the youth into liking an "active" career in the forces.

The offer of free college education was another method that was effective with the studious candidates with limited funds. " They often enlist", Chalmers Johnson writes "because of a lack of good jobs in the civilian economy and thus take refuge in the military's long established system of state socialism - steady paychecks, decent housing, medical and dental housing, job training and the promise of free college education" (p.99). In order to attract the candidates from well-to-do families that military sponsored drag races to which free tickets were offered to the students in the vicinity.

The military conducted a recruitment center right in the race premises to finish off the business of recruiting then and there. This worked to associate the military with racing which is definitely a craze with the youth. I feel that the military used unfair tactics to attract the unsuspecting youth into enrolling with the armed forces. By making the military look like a fun place to work in and playing down the perils of direct action in war situations, the management fooled a bulk of the recruits into making a very serious decision in their life.

Considering the effects of biological arms like Agent Orange and nuclear ammunition made with depleted uranium which are suspected to be causing a lot of trouble for the soldiers that served the US army in Iraq and the way the US defense and foreign policy seems to be looking forward to the next war, enrolling into the forces should a decision that needs to be taken more serious grounds than free education and high speed racing.