By Frank Gage
For some time now the U.S. Military has gone into our schools to recruit students for military service. They use many different tactics to seduce our children. Military recruiters show video games, throw parties and make big promises. They promise money for college, job training, discipline, travel and other enticements.
They mislead youth about military service and say it is glamorous and heroic. The most popular and patriotic promise they make is the chance to “serve your country.” I am not only a veteran, but devoted to my country, and let me be very clear, anyone in the military today is not fighting for their country. They are fighting for big oil and major Corporations. Let me prove my point.
Since Bush & Cheney invaded Iraq in 2003 most of the big reconstruction projects have been awarded by the United States. According to the New York Times, starting this month, many new contracts are expected to be awarded for drilling hundreds of new wells, repairing thousands of miles of pipeline and building several giant floating oil terminals in the Persian Gulf and possibly a new port. KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which was once run by Dick Cheney, has been awarded over $24 Billion since the war started in 2003.
We did not go to war with Iraq because of 9/11; we started the war so we could secure and control this oil rich nation. Oh, by the way, there were never any “Weapons of Mass Destruction”; even Bush admitted that. (Remember hearing lately that the United States is accusing Iran of making weapons of mass destruction? Sound familiar?) Afghanistan doesn’t have much oil, but they do have location. Afghanistan is a strategic piece of real estate for the construction of pipelines.
Afghanistan is on the border of Iran and Turkmenistan, which have the 2nd and 3rd largest natural gas reserves in the world. According to a report by the Institute for Afghan Studies, oil and gas in the Caspian Sea and the surrounding area is worth roughly $3 trillion.
The Military can’t keep these wars going without personnel, and they need “Cannon Fodder” to do the fighting. Cannon Fodder is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as “Soldiers considered to be expendable materials of warfare.” Our children deserve more; let’s keep them out of the military.
Enough people have been killed in these wars already and the more than 5,000 young American soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan were not fighting for their country.
Join the Counter Recruitment Movement and help offer our youth alternatives to military service. If you can’t talk your child out of joining the military, give us a call at the Peace Center, 716/332-3904, and let us try to help.