[Peace] VVAW Veteran article on youth and the military

[Robert Dunn]

    Folks, here is an article on youth and militarism. Hope you enjoy, we 
should get Barry Romo to speak at the IMC for a Human Rights Nite.
Peace,
Robert




Youth, Militarism And Alternatives:


                   A Strategy For Youth Organizing

                                   Barry Romo & Dave Curry



Our goal is to (1) briefly analyze what happens to today's youth when they 
are faced with the burden or choice of military
service and to (2) describe what can effectively serve as an alternative.

Analysis of the Military in American Life

Youth action organizing that is an alternative to military service must meet 
the human growth needs of young people and at the
same time bring them into a life of organized political practice. In order 
to describe such youth organizing, we need to look at
the role that the military currently plays in the lives of American youth. 
How do youth view the military? How does the military
shape the values of youth who are not in it? Why do they ultimately join the 
military?

Today's Military

Research on military service in the post-Vietnam era has emphasized the 
degree to which service has become increasingly
driven by economic considerations, but we believe that other considerations 
remain as important. The military still offers itself as
the central institution in our society that opposes terrorism and defends 
the nation.

Changing Nature of Military Service

In his classic piece of research on combat soldiers in World War II, S.L.A. 
Marshall discovered that only fifteen percent of
soldiers fired their weapons under fire. He proposed that with proper 
training, the U.S. armed forces could become more
effective with respect to firepower and killing potential. Studies of 
soldiers in Vietnam showed that Marshall's premise had
become a reality. Almost 100% of U.S. combat soldiers in Vietnam fired their 
weapons in conflict. Between the premise and
the realization had come a complete metamorphosis of the U.S. combat 
soldier. Younger, and with less pre-service experience
of the world, the U.S. soldier has become a more efficient product of 
behavioral science. Perhaps most important has been the
creation of a "new morality" for the young soldiers, a morality that is more 
in tune with the demands of modern warfare. (One
writer described the Vietnam War as a moral vacuum in a technological 
blizzard.) The aftermath of service, the Vietnam-era
veteran, may not be as successful a product, but the soldier was everything 
the World War II researchers had wanted.



By the end of the Vietnam War, no one wanted to join the armed forces. The 
general public had ceased to view the military as
a viable career alternative and those serving were regarded as "chumps." The 
Army and Navy especially made major attempts
to change their institutional images. The "new" action Army and at least 
limited uniform changes in all branches of service were
the order of the day. Experts openly talked about the economic motivations 
for military service. Some mourned the plight of the
post-Vietnam force as an army of the poor and minorities serving for 
non-patriotic reasons. ROTC in high schools and colleges
experienced declines in enrollment and programs.

But again changes occurred. With the coming of the Reagan years, the 
exciting and patriotic aspects of military service came to
be emphasized. In the years that followed, Desert Storm and the Persian Gulf 
War were orgies of patriotism and jingoism.
Updated images of Rambo, Iron Eagle, and G.I. Joe became the male warrior 
caricatures in American youth culture, and Demi
Moore joined the male images as G.I. Jane. In tight job markets and the last 
years of the cold war, military recruiters had a
fairly easy task.

This situation was not to continue. The U.S. emerged as the sole superpower. 
A rejuvenated U.S. economy allowed the
demand for workers to surpass the demand for jobs. Military recruiters face 
new problems. Enlistment is down. The prospect
of being at sea or overseas for long periods of time on "peacekeeping" 
missions have weakened the appeal of military service.
Still, hundreds of thousands of young people continue to enlist. Women, 
minorities, immigrants, and the poorly educated are the
primary targets of recruitment efforts

Rites of Passage

Young people, males and females, still use military service as a rite of 
passage to move from childhood to adult status and
privilege. Young people still use military service as a method of escaping 
from what they perceive as oppression - or at best a
humdrum existence - within their families. The military has strong cultural 
resources on its side: movies, television, and even
history as it is sometimes marketed in the schools and media. Much of 
Hitler's success is said to have been due to his ability to
appeal to manhood, heroism, and recognition. The new military, especially in 
its mass media advertisements, serves as a conduit
for the same themes.

In our society, the military has many sister institutions. One in particular 
is this country's ubiquitous system of competitive sports.
On one hand, organized sports activities teach skills of social interaction 
and build healthy bodies. On the other hand, sports
convey the message that it is right to sacrifice self, personal dignity, and 
even previously working body parts to the cause of the
team as symbolic neighborhood, school, town, family, and even nation. The 
coach is often the predecessor of the drill
instructor. A letterman's jacket is the harbinger of medals, ribbons, and 
uniforms as instant material recognitions of manhood
and physical achievement. Sports, like the modern military, embraces an 
ideology of action and sacrifice for its own sake.

Junior ROTC and its business partner, high school recruitment, work 
alongside sports programs more explicitly, providing
uniforms, medals, and military discipline to their participants. Promises of 
bartering high school ROTC skills into college ROTC
financial support and scholarships also have to be considered. Among 
non-participants comes a tendency to accept living in a
social world where military symbols are ever-present.

Inside the family, the communication between father and child has long been 
a difficult process. Sports have provided one
convenient subject for father-child interaction. But war stories are even 
better. What he did in military service (or at least some
of what he did in military service) is an easy thing for a father to talk 
about to keep a child's attention. This father-child relation
centering on military experience varies from family to family. For some, 
it's a passive social dalliance. For others, it's summers at
brutal marine "bull pup" camps. Also to be considered is the simultaneous 
inheritance of manhood and military service when the
maturing child enlists in the same branch of service that spawned those 
exciting stories of childhood. "My old man was a
marine, and now I'm a marine." In today's setting, even young women may 
crave that piece of their inheritance from their father.


National Defense/Anti-Terrorism

Military enthusiasm must have a tangible "enemy." This enemy is the 
military's reason to exist. An enemy must be sinister and
powerful. Today's enemies are "small fry" made big with their potential to 
control weapons of mass destruction. "Suitcase"
atomic bombs, sarin and other poison gases, anthrax and other biological 
terrors, and the ever-present possibility of
"destabilization" add appeal to the old opinion that "it's better to fight 
over there than over here!" This amalgamated enemy
establishes the United States' need for a military.

The military's role in the lives of American youth depends on its special
misperception as a major rite of passage and its misperception as the only
protection against the terrorist enemy. These two misperceptions may not 
just
prove fatal for individuals - they may prove fatal for us all. We offer here 
some
characteristics that we feel viable youth organizing must have. We do not
define the structure of this organizing, for that must come from youth 
itself.

Youth Organizing

Youth organizing must foster a sense of purpose and personhood that goes
beyond simple Ramboism but fulfills the desires of young men and women to
be people who make a difference. For those who want more than anything to
make a mark on their world, high-minded platitudes and the advice of adults
"who know what's good for them" are not especially appetizing. What young
people want are their own challenges, their own adventures, and the
opportunity to discover some truth of their own. What we must provide them
is our guidance in creating democratically structured organizations that 
provide
them the maximum opportunity for personal growth and collective experience.
What we want them to have is a chance to make their discovery in a way that
is different from our own discoveries made as youth in uniform.

Resistance to Militarism and Recruitment

One way we believe young people can do this is through their own 
confrontations with repressive institutions. There is no way
that youth can mistake such activity as action that might be taken by 
"wimps" or "sissies." As Gandhi so often said, the people's
strength can come from the unnecessary vile and violent reaction of our 
enemies to just and principled resistance.

Fighting for Justice

Young people want the world and their country to conform to their ideal of 
what is right and just. Chances to contribute to
making the world conform to the ideals of youth are not part of a distant 
past; all around there remain struggles worth joining.
Opposition to racist mascots for athletic teams, efforts to "take back the 
night" from rapists and abusers, struggles for racial and
gender equality, and working toward the achievement of self-respect and 
human dignity in the workplace are all avenues of
fulfilling action open to today's youth.



Brigades to Other Nations

Immediate access to the experiences of people in other places is another way 
young people can make their own place in the
world. Service projects in which youth work side by side with third world 
peoples provide this sense of learning from one's
own experience while gaining a sense of being part of a greater world 
struggle.

Role of Vets

The real experience of Vietnam and other era veterans must be used as a 
resource in this organizing of youth. Our experience
must be brought to bear as a weapon against the lies propagated by 
recruiters and politicians. Only we can speak with the
authority that comes from our own knowledge of the realities of military 
service and war. Many high school and college age
youth want to know what a bullet "really does" to a human being. We can tell 
them that, and we can tell them what being an
instrument of destruction (either face-to-face or from a ship or plane) can 
do to a human conscience. The myths of military
service must be smashed against the truth of our reality. This is our 
strategy for organizing youth.

                                                            For youth taking 
part in these kinds of
organizing activity, there is real adventure - personal adventure that is 
personally liberating and democratic in nature. It is the
very opposite of the military training experience of "adventure" and 
"growth" through subjugation to unreasoning discipline for its
own sake.

For 31 years, VVAW has continuously carried on a program of outreach to 
youth.


                      Barry Romo and Dave Curry are national coordinators of 
VVAW.


                                          The Veteran

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