800,000 Privileged Youths Enlist To Fight In Iraq

'We've Been So Selfish'

January 10, 2007 | Issue 43•02

WASHINGTON, DC—Citing a desire to finally make a difference in Iraq, in the past two weeks, more than 800,000 young people from upper-middle- and upper-class families have put aside their education, careers, and physical well-being to enlist in the military, new data from the Department Of Defense shows.

"I don't know if it was the safety and comfort of the holidays or what, but I realized that my affluence and ease of living comes at a cost," said Private Jonathan Grace, 18, who was to commence studies at Dartmouth College next fall, but will instead attend 12 weeks of basic training before being deployed to Fallujah with the 1st Army Battalion. "I just looked at my parents in their cashmere sweaters and thought, 'Who am I to go to an elite liberal arts college and spend all my time reading while, in the real world, thousands of kids my age are sacrificing their lives for our country?' It's not right."

I realize some people may not find this sort of "fake news" very funny.  In fact, it actually points out something rather disturbing about the United States - something that has even received mainstream media attention: the burden of fighting overseas disproportionately falls upon kids from lower and middle income families:

New Marine Sierra Pettingill, a 22-year-old sociology major who left Duke University before her final semester, said she felt compelled to serve after realizing she did not have a single acquaintance who had died, or even served, in Iraq.

"I was sending out invitations to my champagne-brunch birthday get-together when I heard that U.S. military casualties in Iraq had reached 2,900," Pettingill said. "I decided then and there that I would not allow this inherently unequal system to perpetuate any longer, no matter how much I want to go have martini night at the Oak Room."

Doesn't this fake example demonstrate that most people are well aware of the large sacrifice a relatively small group is asked to bear?  And what does it mean that we know this both individually and collectively, but do not seem to care very much?  Short of joining the military, is there anything meaningful that can be done?  The only thing I can think of is to do anything and everything possible to stop the war.  But that doesn't really seem like enough.

Comments

[Jodi]

Alain--this is wonderful. Particularly your point that for this to work it requires that we know the truth. I'm reminded of Kerry's 'gaff'--what made it a gaff wasn't that it was a lame joke but that it was the truth in the context of lies.

I just came in from our local 'honk for peace' demonstration and a friend told me Colbert's take on Bush's escalation--far too few people. Colbert wanted 300 million people deployed in Iraq (the population of the US) minus the gays.

[Alain]

Thanks Jodi. I thought of the Kerry joke as well. And Colbert's comment makes a significant point: In order to make a real attempt at "pacifying" the situation in Iraq, the United States would probably have to send in hundreds of thousands of additional troops and slaughter tens of thousands more civilians. But it is obvious that no one would tolerate such a move, even if Bush wanted to do it. So we are left with the current strategy that makes little sense.

[Patrick J. Mullins]

Kerry's gaff was indeed a gaff. It was an insult to those who do serve, even if there are reasons that they can know no better.
to say anything else is just to point out that they are from the lower-middle-classes, and therefore stupid. If you can then say that being from the lower-middle-classes is a form of stupidity and mean it and not take it back with a lie (as Kerry did, and needed to, since he's a political liability to the entire world), then you are saying something worth listening to. the lower, uneducated classes are indeed stupid in many ways. The same is true of the middle middles, the upper middles and the uppers, but the forms of ignorance are all different emphases. However, Kerry is a total hypocrite and a coward, and it is fortunate he was reprimanded and given his fucking walking papers before he destroyed yet another election.

Otherwise, people just want to whine some more and feel guilty because they are really not going to do anything more than they were before they thought a little more tithing into the 'whine pot' would assuage the guilt till the next time.

Either do something and start showing results or stop feeling guilty and trying to 'sound sincere', because that is nothing more than an aspect of 'extended adolescence.'

[Alain]

Patrick, are you suggesting that I am trying to 'sound sincere'? If so, what would constitute a more mature approach? You say that instead of whining one ought to "Either do something and start showing results or stop feeling guilty" Other than participating in protests, or voting, or giving money to causes, what do you suggest would be a more useful or effective activity? Clearly blogging isn't going to change the world, or at least not blogging at Long Sunday. But so what?

[Toadvine]

Other than anecdotal observations regarding recruiting efforts in minority areas, which can be offset by an equal number of anecdotes about upper middle class families who have lost a child, the studies on socio-economic status seem inconclusive.

The partisan Heritage Foundation says this:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda06-09.cfm

Historically, the underlying premise of parody is questionable(i.e. true in Vietnam, not so much WW2, not so in WW1, and probably completely false in that blatant war of Yankee Imperialism, the Spanish-American war, which was idealistic volunteers)

[2nd LT]

Sorry about the relatively anonymous post, but being involved in the military, I hesitate at putting my real info out there on the world wide web.
I stumbled upon this posting after "googling" FDR's pearl harbor speech.
For some reason, the article didn't seem obviously fake to me, as it struck home. I come from an upper class family, went to a good school on the East coast and received my bachelor's last summer. I had plenty of job opportunities lined up, and if I hadn't taken advantage of those, would have attended law school following my graduation. In 2006 though, I received a crisis of conscience. I had always considered the military as a younger boy, but after going to college and deciding not to go ROTC, I pretty much put that idea on the back burner.
The more I watched the news, however, and the more casualties we sustained, the more I noticed that it was the lower class bearing the brunt. I am a registered Democrat, a former intern to a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, and was completely against the reasons we went to war in Iraq. (The purposes we fight in Afghanistan are a bit more logical, in my opinion.) I just hated feeling that while we privileged few sit back and scan the news on our flat screen TVs, watching a war so far removed from us that it might as well be a reality show, there were guys and girls my age or younger taking incoming fire in a war with underlying reasons that were probably beyond their grasp. Noone is "forced" into the military in this country, but the fact of the matter is with the failing economy, limited job opportunities right out of HS or with a GED, the military does seem like a logical, viable choice. I never faced any doubt about my future opportunities, but I felt responsible to pay back everything this country has given me and my family with my service. If someone who has been offered so little is still willing to do their part and risk their life to fight for their country, then who the hell am I to sit back and not do mine?
I made up my mind about a year before I graduated, enlisted in a delayed entry program, and shipped to Army Basic Training about a month after my graduation. Since then, I have attended Officer Candidate School, commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and a distinguished military graduate, and am well on my way to beginning my career as a US Army officer.
I just wanted the people who read this article and this blog to know that there ARE some of us out there (some of my closest friends here in the Army are Ivy league grads) who were willing to pay back what we owe to this country. Not to argue the main points about the war, for we all know, especially now, that we are there for all the wrong reasons. But that is where you have to ask yourself: Can you go to sleep comfortably at night, knowing that these kids from poor communities are shouldering the load, bearing the casualties in a war they never started or wanted? Soldiers and the military don't decide where and who they fight, that job is up to the voter and the politicians they elect. This isn't some Army recruiter wanting all of you to catch a wave of patriotism and sign up at your local recruiting office, but someone who has seen both sides, and just wanted to let in a little light from my current side of the spectrum. Take care, and hopefully we'll all get home safe.

2LT