Rambos and White Trash

The global press is buzzing with news of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death by a US military airstrike.  President Bush spoke about how proud he was of the US troops for this achievement. Elswhere in the German press the reviews of the US military were not so positive. This week’s issue of the neo-fascist Junge Freiheit features an interview with the journalist and Middle East expert Peter Scholl-Latour, who weighs in on the US military and the Haditha Massacre in Iraq:

Scholl-Latour: Die amerikanische Armee von heute ist eine Berufsarmee, in der vor allem die ärmeren und unbedarften Schichten vertreten sind, darunter viele Neubürger, die mit diesem Dienst die Staatsbürgerschaft erlangen. Leute, die man mit Rambo-Filmen aufgepeitscht hat und die angesichts eigener Verluste schnell in Hysterie verfallen.

And earlier, Caroline Fetscher wrote in the Tagesspiegel about the "poor white trash" who comprise the US military and are behind atrocities such as Haditha:

Dass es immer wieder zu solch erschreckenden Vorfällen kommt, ist auch in der Struktur der US-Armee begründet. Sie ist eine Berufsarmee, zu der sich Freiwillige melden, die grob gesagt aus drei Gruppen rekrutiert werden: aus der weißen, arbeitslosen und ungebildeten Unterschicht („White Trash“ ist der Slangausdruck dafür); aus ehrgeizigen Nichtweißen, zumeist Hispano- und Afroamerikaner, die in der Armee die Chance zum Aufstieg suchen; und einer teils akademischen Führungselite, die zum Beispiel an der berühmten Militärakademie Westpoint ausgebildet wird.

Fetscher’s article received a great deal of attention in the blogosphere, and some have taken issue with her analysis of the sociological make-up of the military. But it is clear that the US has had to relax its standards quite a bit to supply enough troops for the unending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The Boston Globe recently reported on how the miltary was now interested in recruits who are much older, in some cases obese, and even high school drop-outs, who never would have been allowed to enlist in the past.

The Bush administration has been able to conduct the disasterous war in Iraq with OPC (Other People’s Children) – children of families without much economic or political power.  Even though this war has ripped apart and ruined the lives of thousands of families across America, most Americans are not touched directly by it and are able to tune it out like a bad television program.  That is the theme of Bob Herbert’s New York Times op/ed piece today:

"For the smug, comfortable, well-off Americans, it doesn’t seem to matter how long the war in Iraq goes on — as long as the agony is endured by others.

If the network coverage gets too grim, viewers can always switch to the E! channel (one hand on the remote, the other burrowing into a bag of chips) to follow the hilarious antics of Paris, Britney, Brangelina et al.

The war is depressing and denial is the antidote. Why should ordinary citizens (good people, religious people, patriots) consider their role in — and responsibility for — the thunderous, unending carnage? Enough with this introspection. The nation is in deep denial about Iraq."

"The many thousands of Iraqis who are killed — including babies and children who are shot to death, blown up, or incinerated — remain completely unknown to the American public.

So not only is there very little empathy for the suffering of Iraqis, there is virtually no sense among ordinary Americans of a shared responsibility for that suffering."

The death of one terrorist – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – does not change the equation, nor does it signal an end to the horror.  Americans will hear the news, cheer, and then …change the channel.

UPDATE: A reader writes a letter to the Boston Globe: "Enticed into service, poor now trapped in a dirty war."

MANY OF us are familiar with the financial concept of leveraging “other people’s money" for one’s personal advantage. Thanks to the Bush administration, we now have a variant: other people’s children.

Those who joined to serve our country in the full- or part-time military, often enticed by offers of training or educational or health benefits, now often find that they cannot leave after fulfilling their lawful obligations due to the prolonged and mismanaged war in Iraq.

Such enticements appeal only to those who suffer the misfortune of not having access to a trust fund or large parental bank account . As a result, the Bush administration’s misbegotten war of choice is disproportionately fought by the sons and daughters of working or poor people to whom the estate tax would apply only if you aggregate the assets of everyone they know.

I suspect, however, that the administration knows that any movement to place the progeny of the gilded class in jeopardy of falling into Iraq’s insatiable grinder will result in a quick end to its dirty war.

DONALD EMMETT d’ENTREMONT, Wakefield

Al-Zarqawi al-Qaeda Iraq Military Irak-Krieg Irak Haditha