Indeed, that title is worth repeating. The US military is now recruiting soldiers who were born after 9/11. And among other things, they are being recruited to fight in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, the first of several wars that the US government used 9/11 to justify. Still going on after almost 18 years? I guess the US government, or should I say the Deep State behind the US government, hasn’t completed their ‘business’ there. That now-famous line in the Neo-Conservative handbook ‘The Project For A New American Century’ is perhaps worth bringing back here. In speaking about a ‘transformation’ in the Middle East that needs to take place in order for the US to maintain and even enhance their supremacy in the region, the manifesto notes that,
“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event–like a new Pearl Harbor.”–The Project For A New American Century
Of course creating a new Pearl Harbor was one of the major intentions of 9/11–not only to foment public opinion in favor of going to war against the bad guys in the Middle East (except Saudi Arabia, of course, the only Middle Eastern nation actually tied to 9/11), but also to build enthusiasm for more army recruits to sign up and die overseas for the global elite, err, I mean, their ‘country.’
And were they successful with this ploy? I guess it depends on who you talk to, and what would be meant by ‘successful’. The wars launched on behalf of 9/11 were resisted from the get-go by people who were already awake to what was going on underneath the cover of geopolitical rhetoric. And many more awakened when the inconsistencies in the 9/11 story and false premises like ‘weapons of mass destruction’ became part of global discourse and the subject of many documentaries.
But maybe the global elite still consider it a success. After all, they were able to kill a lot of people and make a lot of money, while gaining more of a military presence in the region from which to better bully countries. But have they now backed themselves into a corner, relying on a narrative that is no longer sustainable?
Recruitment Issues
Certainly, 18 years later, this same war in Afghanistan is not inspiring the same recruitment fervor, as this Buzzfeed article notes:
As the war in Afghanistan enters its 18th year and the US Army falls thousands short of its recruiting goals, the Pentagon is recognizing it has to do something different to recruit an age group that does not remember 9/11 and for whom the “war on terror” has been background noise their entire lives. This includes rethinking some of its traditional military PR, which has unintentionally turned the corner from inspiring to morbid by highlighting that some of the young people enlisting today are taking over the same tasks in the very same places their parents fought almost a generation ago.
This must be disconcerting for second-generation recruits: while they are being told that their efforts to fight overseas will ‘make a difference,’ they have first-hand knowledge that in addition to all the death, dismemberment and PTSD they must have heard about, and in some cases directly witnessed, that the time their elders have spent in Afghanistan over the past 18 years has not made the situation any better. It has not improved the United States, the country that was invaded, or global security in general.
So that being the case, it might surprise you to know that, according to statistical research done for the year 2015, recruits who already had a relative in the military represented a full 83% of all recruits in that calendar year.
The Rise Of The Warrior Caste?
The army reasons that there is a rise in the ‘warrior caste,’ which comprises the groups of American families that have the ethic and patriotism to ‘bear the burden of a nation at war.’ But is this an accurate assessment? Does this notion not stem from a foregone belief that most Americans still endorse the wars that have been fought and continue to be fought since 9/11, but they are simply leaving it to other citizens to go through the rigors of ‘fighting the good fight’?
In many cases I actually believe that the propensity of family members continuing to join the army stems not from a generational patriotism as such, but from the greater difficulty they may have in shifting their perception about the true underlying motivations behind military aggression. They would need to acknowledge the fact that not only they but their respected older family members have all been duped by a false narrative. I assume many must continue to cling to the threadbare notion that the military is going around the world invading countries to bring freedom, foster true democracy and make the world safer for American citizens–unless of course they were only in this killing game for the money.
And speaking of money, the military actually has been increasing its offer of financial compensation in order to reach its quotas, as well as lowering its standards for a new recruit’s history of mental illness, according to this USA Today article:
People with a history of “self-mutilation,” bipolar disorder, depression and drug and alcohol abuse can now seek waivers to join the Army under an unannounced policy enacted in August, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY.
‘Nuff said.
The Trust Gap
Would it be a surprise to the top brass in the military that recruitment is down simply because most people no longer trust the military or the U.S. government? Or that fewer people are willing to go overseas and kill people for no apparent reason?
People are waking up, getting smarter, despite Deep State efforts to keep people dumbed-down. There is a trust gap between citizens and the military, and it’s getting wider by the day. What would help recruitment, Military PR department? The truth. Yes, we can handle the truth. If people had real reasons to believe that they were actually fighting for individual rights and freedoms, and a better life for their children, the recruitment lineup might be a little longer. If they believed that the military was really about the defense of traditional American values, then a career in the military might make more sense to them.
But any argument about truly using the military for defensive purposes would naturally imply that there is not such a need for America to have military presence around the globe. Then the notion popularized by Ron Paul and others that we should close our bases in other countries and bring all our troops home to focus on defending our borders would become the rule of the day. And then the tremendous amount of money spent on the military, if not being outright reduced and diverted to matters of domestic importance, could be used to support great projects at home designed to improve the lives of American citizens.
Of course, none of this can happen, until the military is wrested away from the Deep State and put into the hands of ‘We the People’, to serve OUR best interests, as the Constitution meant it to be. In the meantime, let’s just enjoy the goods news that a swiftly decreasing number of young people in America are willing to go overseas to disrupt and control other nations by force.
The Takeaway
The power of the Deep State is only as great as the extent to which people are willing to continue to take up arms and fight for causes that we are clearly seeing are unjust. Many in the past were brainwashed into thinking that they were fighting in wars for important values and principles, like ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy.’ As we awaken to the truth of our history, and our unwitting complicity in unnecessary conflict in the world, the way of global peace and unity will become clear to us.