Remind Me Again: How Bad Must People's Lives Really Be to Drive Them to Join the U.S. Military?

[queerbychoice]

"Last Christmas, Mike Corcoran sent his mother an unusual Christmas list: He wanted night-vision goggles, a global positioning system and a short-wave radio. Corcoran, then a Marine sergeant in Afghanistan, wanted the goggles so he could see on patrols. They cost about $2,000 each.

According to an Army internal report released earlier this summer, many ground troops like Corcoran decided to dip into their own pockets to get the equipment they needed to fight in Afghanistan and in Iraq."
from "American Troops Forced to Buy Own Wartime Gear"

The U.S. Military has a really clever racket going on here. Put people's lives in danger, then supply them with inadequate equipment. Of course they'll be willing to spend their own money buying better equipment when their lives are in danger. Never mind that the portion of the U.S. population that serves in the military tends to be the very poorest in the country, and never mind that the U.S. government is also saving money by charging them $8.10 a day for hospital food each day they spend hospitalized from battle wounds, cutting their veterans disability benefits after they become too badly wounded to keep serving, and deporting them as illegal immigrants only after they've finished risking their lives for the government.

Comments

[jkatj.livejournal.com]

I just noticed that you dumped me. Do you mind if I keep you on my friends list? I know some people are bugged if "friends" and "friend of" don't match up, so I thought I'd ask.

I'll be sorry to miss out on your locked posts, though. I've always enjoyed reading you.

**hugs and good wishes**

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

No, I don't mind, I never mind being read. ;-)

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Hmm, the military is starting to look like some of the more horrid 19th century compny towns. I wonder when they will start charging soldiers for weapons.

[winter-ayars.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the whole not-giving-disability-benefits when you get injured defeats the purpose. Plus it's heartless and cruel.

Plus if you're queer and in the military you're treated as sub-human or an "expendable".

Plus don't forget that the drive to keep a big military both sucks down government funds and kills lots of people...

Yet we keep funding this monster?