Bang bang

Here’s an interesting news story (or so I thought anyway). The NUT is currently having their annual conference in Manchester I think. A teacher has tabled a motion to stop the military “recruiting” in schools, because they are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to tempt young people into the Forces. And part of me thought, so what? The Forces point out that they are being invited into schools to talk about their work and they talk about peacekeeping duties as well as active duty and war.

In America recruiting is something you can get a Masters in at Harvard – it’s fierce. Recruiters have targets and in a country where education is so prohibitively expensive the Forces’ biggest tool is that if you sign up for either full-time military service, or the Reserves, you can get costly things like law or medical school (as well as hundreds of other career choices) paid for. The fastest growing demographic in the US Military is young and very poor women (often single mothers) looking to provide better lives for their children, get a career or get an education. Recruiters actively target poverty stricken areas where there will be young men and women desperate for options and schools are prime targets. Some of these newly recruited men and women come from such deprived backgrounds that they need literacy and numeracy support to enable them to complete basic training, let alone the advanced training that might seem them end up with qualifications and career choices.

I find that pretty unpleasant; that when you are poor sometimes you really do only have two options do nothing and achieve nothing or join the military. To not be able to afford to go to school or to have so few opportunities available to you that you can never break out of the cycle of poverty is just wrong. The army in that case, should never be the only option available – it should be one of them for those genuinely interested – but it should not be the gatekeeper to a better life because actually, if you’re not suited to that type of life, no matter what they pay you, or how much schooling they provide, it can break and destroy a person. And with the world in such an agitated state, there will always be wars and conflicts and people to kill. (Sorry to be so blunt.)

We do something similar in this country, but with a much better system of education people are not reliant on the military to provide it for them. Also, the charge was that recruiters (in this country) were actively targeting poor areas, but the take up has always been greater in more deprived areas. To think that the poor don’t have fewer options in life generally is just stupid.

When I was at school in the mid-90s there was an army cadet corps group attached to the school, recruiting literature in the library and the army came in to do a talk. And I did want to join before I realised my knees were almost totally destroyed, but I didn’t feel it was the only opportunity available – far from it. There was no coercion or propaganda. Some of my friend’s would no more go into the army than they would chew off their own feet. And a few leaflets and a talk (which was optional to attend) did nothing to persuade them otherwise.

I suspect that people’s current opinions are coloured by their opinions on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is understandable. But to dismiss the Forces because of politics is unfair. They do much more than just fire guns (although yes, they do fire guns). Peacekeeping duties including medical aid for people and animals, engineering and building, improving sanitation, agriculture, teaching etc., etc. can make up a great deal of a soldier’s life. Surely that is something to be proud of?

To not worry about the worst case scenario – my child goes to war and doesn’t come back – is impossible and that is what makes a Forces career so unusual and such a difficult choice in the first place. However, I think if that choice is made for all the right reasons and without apparently “sophisticated recruiting techniques” then a person’s choice should be respected whichever career they choose. And all we can ever hope is that someone gets to do something they enjoy, to the best of their ability, and for them to have the chance to say they made a difference. And you can do that in the Forces or working for a butcher’s because like everything, it’s as much about what you put in as what you get out...