Comments on: March of the Dead http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:31:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Gordon Sturrock http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-19159 Gordon Sturrock Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:46:34 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-19159 "March of the Dead" video taken in D.C. on March 19th by Squadron13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaw44MnkSok “March of the Dead” video taken in D.C. on March 19th by Squadron13:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaw44MnkSok

]]> By: evie http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18743 evie Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:49:59 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18743 My favorite, and which I have hoisted: Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. My favorite, and which I have hoisted:

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

]]> By: hp http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18734 hp Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:56:14 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18734 'Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true. Mencken ‘Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
Mencken

]]> By: Joel http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18724 Joel Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:16:14 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18724 Thanks for the article. I sure hope Parliament does the right thing by US war resisters. Evie, first you say enlistment isn't about poverty, then you say that it is (servicemembers re-up because the pay is good). Which is it? I'm in contact with a good number of service-members and people considered enlistment. Sure, some of them wax patriotically, a few might even be psychopaths looking for an legal outlet for racist violence. But the vast majority are motivated by the lure of money for college, sign-on bonuses and job training. The Heritage Foundation tried to discredit the poverty draft notion a few years back with a study of enlistment rates per zip code, uncovering that the largest jumps in recruiting numbers were happening in suburban areas - a shift from the recent past when an overwhelming majority of recruits came from poor inner city and rural parts of the country. But anyone in touch with the changing economic realities of US suburbs should not be surprised by this. Poverty rates are growing fastest in... that's right, the suburbs. And the lure of money for college is hard to pass up when your folks make enough money (on paper) to disqualify you from student aid, but are so far in debt that they can't afford to help pay your tuition. The US Army Recruiting Command trains its recruiters to identify young people that are insecure about their future, going so far as to give them tips on what times of the year first-year university students are most likely to drop out because of financial and psychological pressures. You say "there are troops volunteering for multiple tours b/c combat pay is good," which is partly true. Not only is combat pay good, but certain bonuses might be tied directly to re-enlistment. And what's a family breadwinner to do when he discovers that after 4 or 6 or 8 years in the service he hasn't picked up any skills that are marketable in the civilian world? Why, he sticks with the only job he knows he can do. It doesn't help that the military uses this reality to bully people into re-upping. The son of a friend of mine re-upped recently after a year in Iraq - only after his commanders hounded him for months, threatening to renege on his sign-on bonuses and warning him that no-one in the US would understand him, that he'd never find a job and his wife and kids would either leave him or they'd all end up in a homeless shelter. This, hon, is a poverty draft. Thanks for the article. I sure hope Parliament does the right thing by US war resisters.
Evie, first you say enlistment isn’t about poverty, then you say that it is (servicemembers re-up because the pay is good). Which is it?
I’m in contact with a good number of service-members and people considered enlistment. Sure, some of them wax patriotically, a few might even be psychopaths looking for an legal outlet for racist violence. But the vast majority are motivated by the lure of money for college, sign-on bonuses and job training. The Heritage Foundation tried to discredit the poverty draft notion a few years back with a study of enlistment rates per zip code, uncovering that the largest jumps in recruiting numbers were happening in suburban areas - a shift from the recent past when an overwhelming majority of recruits came from poor inner city and rural parts of the country. But anyone in touch with the changing economic realities of US suburbs should not be surprised by this. Poverty rates are growing fastest in… that’s right, the suburbs. And the lure of money for college is hard to pass up when your folks make enough money (on paper) to disqualify you from student aid, but are so far in debt that they can’t afford to help pay your tuition. The US Army Recruiting Command trains its recruiters to identify young people that are insecure about their future, going so far as to give them tips on what times of the year first-year university students are most likely to drop out because of financial and psychological pressures.
You say “there are troops volunteering for multiple tours b/c combat pay is good,” which is partly true. Not only is combat pay good, but certain bonuses might be tied directly to re-enlistment. And what’s a family breadwinner to do when he discovers that after 4 or 6 or 8 years in the service he hasn’t picked up any skills that are marketable in the civilian world? Why, he sticks with the only job he knows he can do. It doesn’t help that the military uses this reality to bully people into re-upping. The son of a friend of mine re-upped recently after a year in Iraq - only after his commanders hounded him for months, threatening to renege on his sign-on bonuses and warning him that no-one in the US would understand him, that he’d never find a job and his wife and kids would either leave him or they’d all end up in a homeless shelter. This, hon, is a poverty draft.

]]> By: evie http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18689 evie Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:29:28 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18689 TS Sorry, I can't make it any clearer. TS
Sorry, I can’t make it any clearer.

]]> By: TS Draegeth http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18659 TS Draegeth Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:53:27 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18659 Evie, I am not seeing your point. Evie, I am not seeing your point.

]]> By: evie http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18636 evie Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:41:44 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/march-of-the-dead/#comment-18636 There are so many platitudes in this piece I cannot possibly address them all, or even want to. I apologize for what may seem a personal attack but I see no other way to critique <I>March of the Dead</I>. I've no idea what your personal experience with today's military is, other than attending the WS event in D.C. Hubby and I considered expat status in the summer of 2001 - we knew war was on the horizon, for no other reason than the fiasco of installing Bush. The "poverty draft" is not really what the US has - not yet. Yes, there are poor folk in the military but there are also sons and daughters of America's affluent and middle class, who joined for a variety of reasons unconnected to poverty. You write : "... young men and women without prospects following high school graduation. ... deliberate targeting of the most vulnerable and destitute in society for use as cannon fodder is despicable and sickening ... the scourge of war ..." Insipid bordering on b.s., hype, meme, hyperbole. Do "progressives" have the same template when they write or what? "And if soldiers are not forced to return to the war zone for second, third, or even fourth tours of duty ... " - hon, there are troops volunteering for multiple tours b/c combat pay is good and most of them never have to kill anyone to earn it. Contrary to popular myth, tens of thousands of US troops are rotating in and out of Iraq and not killing a single Iraqi. Tens of thousands spend very mundane tours in Iraq. Yessir, war is wrong, lives are destroyed - but trotting off to another part of the White Folks Empire and taking 10 minutes out of the day to write puffery does not make anyone anymore rational or honest than the rightwing windbags. I believe today's "progressive" writers/activists lose a wide swath of public support for the simple fact they either write to impress a small circle of folks who, believing their brows are higher, prefer eggheadish discussions on the "ism" of Marx/Lenin/Engels, OR they write trite knee-jerk pieces at a 6th grade level for civilian grunts. Progressives lose because they do not know their base. There are so many platitudes in this piece I cannot possibly address them all, or even want to. I apologize for what may seem a personal attack but I see no other way to critique March of the Dead.

I’ve no idea what your personal experience with today’s military is, other than attending the WS event in D.C. Hubby and I considered expat status in the summer of 2001 - we knew war was on the horizon, for no other reason than the fiasco of installing Bush.

The “poverty draft” is not really what the US has - not yet. Yes, there are poor folk in the military but there are also sons and daughters of America’s affluent and middle class, who joined for a variety of reasons unconnected to poverty.

You write : “… young men and women without prospects following high school graduation. … deliberate targeting of the most vulnerable and destitute in society for use as cannon fodder is despicable and sickening … the scourge of war …”

Insipid bordering on b.s., hype, meme, hyperbole. Do “progressives” have the same template when they write or what?

“And if soldiers are not forced to return to the war zone for second, third, or even fourth tours of duty … ” - hon, there are troops volunteering for multiple tours b/c combat pay is good and most of them never have to kill anyone to earn it. Contrary to popular myth, tens of thousands of US troops are rotating in and out of Iraq and not killing a single Iraqi. Tens of thousands spend very mundane tours in Iraq.

Yessir, war is wrong, lives are destroyed - but trotting off to another part of the White Folks Empire and taking 10 minutes out of the day to write puffery does not make anyone anymore rational or honest than the rightwing windbags.

I believe today’s “progressive” writers/activists lose a wide swath of public support for the simple fact they either write to impress a small circle of folks who, believing their brows are higher, prefer eggheadish discussions on the “ism” of Marx/Lenin/Engels, OR they write trite knee-jerk pieces at a 6th grade level for civilian grunts.

Progressives lose because they do not know their base.

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