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Bakhit's work is very interesting. > Looking at the US from abroad, it is frightening to see a nation recruiting a lot of its poor and poorly educated into the

by nandemo 10y ago

Bakhit's work is very interesting. > Looking at the US from abroad, it is frightening to see a nation recruiting a lot of its poor and poorly educated into the biggest war machine the world has seen Though the evidence is not 100% conclusive, that doesn't seem to be true: > So 50 percent of the enlisted recruits (i.e., not including the officers’ corps) come from families in the top 40 percent of the income distribution, while only 10 percent come from the bottom 20 percent. [0] > under blatantly false premises and justifying its operations with obviously false narratives. Unfortunately, the American public in general supports involvement in wars regardless of the premises, e.g.: > A Gallup poll made on behalf of CNN and USA Today concluded that 79% of Americans thought the Iraq War was justified, with or without conclusive evidence of illegal weapons. 19% thought weapons were needed to justify the war Opposition to war basically only happens when the number of casualties is too high and/or the US is perceived to be losing. [0] http://freakonomics.com/2008/09/22/who-serves-in-the-military-today/ http://freakonomics.com/2008/09/22/who-serves-in-the-militar... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_opinion_in_the_United_States_on_the_invasion_of_Iraq#cite_note-9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_opinion_in_the_United_...

e12e 10y ago
Interesting report, I'd missed that. I do wonder if that data isn't rather dicey to draw on - I mean if you're poor or find yourself with few prospects in a well-off neighbourhood, you might end up in the wrong part of that graph. You might realize that you should go to college, but you can't afford to, etc. Still, it's hard to deny it paints a rather different picture than the location of recruitment centres gives. The entire US military is huge, and even with the explosion in military contractors, most roles are surely non-combat roles. Even more so with the focus on special forces on the ground (I seem to recall the ratio is something like 10 to 1 currently). That doesn't mean non-combat roles can't be dangerous, of course. It would be interesting to see more details. [ed: thinking more about this, even with the death of the US middle class, it's a little mind-boggling to see so many people eager to go to war in a country that's arguably at peace.]

by nandemo 10y ago

e12e 10y ago

Interesting report, I'd missed that. I do wonder if that data isn't rather dicey to draw on - I mean if you're poor or find yourself with few prospects in a well-off neighbourhood, you might end up in the wrong part of that graph. You might realize that you should go to college, but you can't afford to, etc. Still, it's hard to deny it paints a rather different picture than the location of recruitment centres gives. The entire US military is huge, and even with the explosion in military contractors, most roles are surely non-combat roles. Even more so with the focus on special forces on the ground (I seem to recall the ratio is something like 10 to 1 currently). That doesn't mean non-combat roles can't be dangerous, of course. It would be interesting to see more details. [ed: thinking more about this, even with the death of the US middle class, it's a little mind-boggling to see so many people eager to go to war in a country that's arguably at peace.]