We MUST prevent our youth from ever 'joining up'.

What I am trying to question is the myth – no, the propaganda – of the war mongers that allows us to believe it is possible to be ‘re-introduced’ after engaging in this modern present-day ‘wars’, where men are taught, trained, and ordered to do things that permanently damage if not destroy their humanity.

It is hard for me to believe that a human being can engage in such acts of violence as are demanded by our military – especially the youth who are idealistic and believe they are doing something brave and good for our country when they learn they are merely tools of oppression, racism, misogyny, genocide and violence – and then return expected to function ‘properly’ in the ‘real world’. What I’ve read, especially from pre-conquistador, pre-colonization, pre-enslavement accounts, and have come to believe is that once a human being has taken another human being’s life – whether by accident or on purpose – that human is no longer fit or trusted to live amongst other human beings. In those olden dayz, such individuals were exiled or committed suicide. And furthermore, some peoples believed it took 4 generations (of hard, conscious work) to remove the stigma from that person’s family and peoples.

Micah Johnson was probably barely 18 when he enlisted in the army and most likely did not read the small print that indentured him to ‘service’ for 8 years: he probably thought after he did his 2 year stint from 2009-11 which he signed up for and was apparently was not then sent into combat, he was super lucky and free. Instead he was put into the reserve and then called up for ‘duty’ and sent to Afghanistan, where he probably committed and/or witnessed acts of such atrociousness he couldn’t recover. For we are using reservists and national guard folks for over 45 per cent of our combat troops, the first time in our history, as there is a huge shortage of young people swallowing the recruiters’ lies and ‘volunteering’ for active duty.

I believe the only way to “re-introduce” anyone is to make sure they NEVER ‘serve’ in this military; to smash the myths that they will somehow be better off, or that this is an ‘escape’ for them, or even that they will be educated. The harsh truths of our military are many, and the immense propaganda machine almost undefeatable. Youth who join the military, whether for a brief time or for a life-long career, do consistently worse in life, are less ‘successful’ than their peers – by race, class, sex – who do not join the military; men who join the military are 2 to 3 times more likely to murder their girlfriends, wives, or ex-es than their peers; only 17 per cent of men who are entitled to educational ‘benefits’ are in any shape after ‘serving’ to use those benefits.

But probably most telling of all is the number of Afghan, Iraq, and all recent combat veterans (of the over 7 countries that we know about that we are engaged in killing their people) who are committing suicide: even during and shortly after the Viet Nam era, many more soldiers committed suicide than were actually killed in combat. And today the numbers are even greater, as the heinous crimes men are engaged in are even greater. I can’t remember the exact statistic but something like 6000 soldiers have died in combat and over 100,000 soldiers have committed suicide in the past 15 years.