<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail-first gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px;width:402.997px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding0" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-maintitle" style="margin:0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1.6em;color:rgb(154,61,61);line-height:1.1em"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal;font-weight:bold">Military made up of working class</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">U.S. wars rightly became domestically unpopular subsequent to World War II. Since Vietnam (1962-75), the rebellion of soldiers and civilians against that war, and the implementation of “voluntary”</span><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">military service, affluent Americans have overwhelmingly not encouraged their children to volunteer in such a manner.</span></p></div></div><div class="gmail-last gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px;width:402.997px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding0 gmail-split" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Accordingly, their children infrequently do so, except perhaps in more privileged capacities referred to as “intelligence” services.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">While there have always been social class divisions in relation to who serves and how they serve, these have become more obvious during four decades of radically increasing economic inequality.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">The children of the top 10 percent compete in the upper reaches of the class-rigged educational/ professional/ financial “meritocracy,” while those of the economically precarious bottom 50 percent are “incentivized” to serve as potential cannon fodder and global “cops on the beat.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Our wars are mendaciously promoted by the political, corporate, media and academic</span><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">intelligentsia, with plenty of Ivy League credentials to go around.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">War and constant threats of war are “geostrategically”</span><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> necessary in relation to the</span><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> class interests of the 10 percent, who not coincidentally own 80 percent of the stock market and whose portfolios are enhanced by military expenditures — a kind of weaponized socialism for the rich.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">The contradictions inherent in this situation necessitate an enormous amount of propaganda to both counter and preemptively silence dissent.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Thus, the incessant and highly manipulative promotion of military veterans as icons of patriotic service and sacrifice.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Nevertheless, these predominately working-class individuals serve only the accumulative interests of the capitalist class and sacrifice only to the latter’s benefit.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">DAVID GREEN Champaign</span></p></div></div></div>