Rich Man's War, Poor Man's Fight

Excerpt from: "Rich Man's War and a Poor Man's Fight"
by: Camillo "Mac" Bica, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

"With the official unemployment rate at about 9.5 percent, with jobs being outsourced at a rate of about 12,000-15,000 per month, with over 1.2 million more Americans expected to lose their homes to foreclosure in 2011 and with deep cuts in scholarships and Pell Grants, recruiters can now entice prospective enlistees with generous enlistment bonuses, steady salaries and a comprehensive GI Bill to pay their college tuition, fees and living expenses should they choose to continue their education upon completion of their enlistment contract.

While motivations may be complex, I think it fair to say that, given these dreadful economic realities, military service in the AVF has become a "job to be filled by cash inducements," and the citizen soldier, driven by civic obligation, patriotism and love of country, has been replaced by homo economicus - a professional military of individuals motivated primarily by need and the realization that, in order to provide for themselves and their families or go to college, few if any alternatives are available to them other than military service. This is not to say, of course, that there are members of the military who are not motivated by such things, especially among the officer corps, or that homo economicus is not patriotic or does not love his country. It is just that, were it not for the economic incentives, they, like their more privileged counterparts, would have been less likely to enlist. Further, to point out how the government exploits economic inequities to increase enlistment is not to belittle the personal sacrifices of those who serve out of love of country. Rather, it is to call attention to the prevalence of unequal sacrifice, an injustice that must be remedied. In light of such coercive economic conditions, perhaps the term "all volunteer force" is a misnomer, as enlistees can hardly be said to have chosen military service voluntarily."