[Publib] Army and homeless

[Judith Turner]

I was going to stay out of this one but I have to say that the military, at least at the lower ranks, has rarely been made up of the rich and powerful of the nation.

By Julius Caesar's time the armies of Rome were extremely ethnically diverse, made up of residents of foreign territories and former slaves who were promised pensions, land and later, Roman citizenship, in return for military service.

Up through WW1, the British Army -- the one that fought Napoleon across Europe and made possible the British Empire -- was largely composed of men who had a choice between vagrancy, prison or extreme poverty in England, Ireland, Scotland or the colonies. Officers were frequently younger (i.e., surplus) sons of the ruling class who needed a socially acceptable occupation.

Many of Napoleon's foot soldiers were conscripts and troops raised by levy in conquered territories.

Look at the statistics for the Vietnam Conflict which was the last American war that utilized primarily regular army units (as opposed to Reserve and National Guard units.)  Compared to the US population at that time, a disproportionate number of the regular Army members who died in there were young, poor, Southern and black.  

It would be an extremely unusual government, or society for that matter, that would not select its recruits from among the poor and dispossessed.

Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI


But it bothers me that the government is pursuing those who are more desperate or less likely to be informed about the truth of military recruiting or understand the contracts that they sign.


Susan Dennis

       
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