| If you are a high school dropout, that's fine! The U.S. Army needs you! Over 2,900 U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since March 19, 2003. Yet, everyday, we are told how important it is to "stay the course" in Iraq. Most of us do not see the flag-draped coffins. Close to 20,000 of our troops have been wounded, most with serious brain injuries from high explosives. We do not see the missing limbs or deformed faces of these individuals. The rise in suicides among these returning soldiers is barely noticed by our corporate-owned media. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seem like virtual games of war played out in distant lands. For those of us who remember watching the Vietnam War on television, the Iraq War has been sanitized for the convenience of the Bush administration whose interest, in turn, is to provide business for corporations profiting on destruction and more destruction. Heaven forbid we see the destruction and death brought by war and remember those of Vietnam when citizens, young and old, civic and religious leaders, and returning vets galvanized their energy to object to war! Most important, we have a government targeting those too young to hold such memories. Some of these young people could guide anyone through a successful game of Halo Wars and Grand Theft Auto but would have trouble locating Iraq; on the map. The perpetuation of this scenario should worry us. The Pentagon is calling out to our young who play with "virtual victims" but who do not see the "real" dead bodies of our troops on television. At home, they play at shooting, stabbing, and mutilating virtual figures -- for fun. In Iraq, the "real" dead will play with their minds. Our young men and women have already been dispatched to the world of virtual destruction and death. They are not called on to consider the costs of wars in Iraq, or to recognize how the lack of quality jobs here in this country or the increasing cost of a college education, for openers, demands active attention from them. We should worry about the future of those "lower-achieving applicants" (New York Times) who find themselves lured by high bonus incentives to fight in Iraq. Iraqi mothers have much to worry about. They live in fear of being real victims of collateral damage or real victims of the insurgency. Between 43,000 to 48,000 civilians have been killed since the beginning of Operation Freedom. Some reports claim these figures are too low. In Baghdad, it is hard to locate this elusive "freedom" in the dark since most residents face a daily struggle for food, water, and electricity. A State Department's poll shows that Iraqis want an immediate pull-out of U.S. troops, according to the Washington Post. But our government's plans for more war do not consider women and children of occupied Iraq or favor our young men and women forced to redeploy to Iraq to fight or be killed. Join up, high school dropout! There's a game of destruction and death for you to play. "Virtual victims," those we do not see on our nightly news, become a generation of American young men and women and Iraqi mothers and children. Headlines today claim that the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could reach $549 billion! Our efforts and tax payers' dollars would be better spent freeing the minds of our young people. We offer them No Child Left Behind, and the most vulnerable are left behind to fight and die, or we offer them prison cells. We should worry about the most vulnerable children in our communities throughout the U.S. These children, too, are our future, our legacy. We need future teachers, doctors, scientists, and international negotiators -- not high school dropouts. We need our young people home to think about the future of this country -- with the rest of us! |
| Voices/ Dr. Jean Daniels Luring shcool dropouts to join the army |
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