Two disparate sectors of the economy in the U.S. are experiencing a “boon” during the economic depression that has swept much of the world. Businesses that repair items such as shoes, clothing, and automobiles are enjoying a surge in customers. And so is the military!

Just four years ago the military fell short of monthly quotas for enlistees. A booming economy, the unpopularity of the Iraq War, the poor medical treatment that veterans received after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons were turning people away from military service. So-called “moral waivers” were a mechanism used by the military to fill its ranks with people who had a wide range of police and criminal records.

In “Military recruiters having no trouble filling quotas,” (The Florida Sun-Sentinel, December 20, 2008), a typical case is cited as an example of how the economy has acted as an impetus for military recruitment: “Working for low pay on the evening shift at a West Palm Beach International House of Pancakes influenced Cheyenne DaSilva’s decision to enlist, even before the 17-year-old completes her senior year at Forest Hill Community High School.
 DaSilva received an $8,000 signing bonus when she enlisted for three-and-a-half years. She chose the military police as her specialty. ‘It’s something exciting, and a guaranteed job,’ DaSilva said.”

An Army recruiter in Florida, Captain Robert Brown, interviewed for the same article said, “There is no question that the economy and the unemployment rate have been driving traffic into the recruiting station. We put a mortgage broker in the Army the other day. These are people looking for that stability, the paycheck and health benefits.”

The article goes on to describe the plight of a financial advisor at Bank of America who enlisted as a means of earning money to pay for a mortgage after her finances turned sour in the malaise of the current economy. The majority of recruits will find, however, upon leaving the military, that most jobs in the military are not transferable to the civilian economy.

And the new spurt in enlistments may come just in time for the expansion of the war in Afghanistan that is in the works in the incoming Obama administration.

“As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan,” Obama said in an op-ed published June 14, 2008, in The New York Times, the day before he gave a speech in Florida on his vision for Iraq and Afghanistan. (Obama campaign website)

Even in bad economic times with the potential for more recruits for the so-called “good war” in Afghanistan, the military is leaving nothing to chance. In “Urban Tool in Recruiting by the Army: An Arcade,” (The New York Times, January 4), an old recruitment method with a modern twist is highlighted in an example of recruiting techniques used in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: “At the Franklin Mills mall here, past the Gap Outlet and the China Buddha Express, is a $13 million video arcade that the Army hopes will become a model for recruitment in urban areas, where the armed services typically have a hard time attracting recruits.”

With these techniques and state of the economy, it is easy to see how the Army surpassed its recruiting goal for the past fiscal year. It recruited 80,517 people with a goal that it had set at 80,000.

With all the talk of hope and change of the election cycle just past, it appears that foreign policy will continue to be conducted at the end of the barrel of a gun. It will be business as usual. It’s difficult to counter arguments that the Taliban needs to be dealt with through diplomacy with the reputation of the “good war” being fought in Afghanistan accepted in many quarters of society in the U.S. Afghanistan remains a country dominated by warlords, the Taliban, and a profitable opium trade. Despite the accepted cant in U.S. media outlets, women in Afghanistan have never been fully accepted and integrated into its society, with great injustices still apparent.

What many recruits will discover upon reporting for military training is that the military is a closed society whose sole purpose is to strip the individual of all individuality and break down any resistance to killing those who have been designated as “the enemy” by the government. It happened in Vietnam and again in Iraq with devastating results for both the civilian populations of both countries and the servicemen and women who were sent to fight those battles. Not much has changed!