Military recruiters aren't held in particularly high esteem on this campus. The Campus Anti-War Movement to End the Occupation (CAMEO) periodically protests outside the recruiting offices in Dobie. This editorial page occasionally takes a stand against recruiters, most recently pointing out that the Army and Marine Corps failed to respond satisfactorily to a Freedom of Information Act request. It is commonly asserted that recruiters use manipulative and deceptive methods to entice recruits, that they convince the poor that the only way to pay for an education is to enlist and that they target underprivileged minorities. However, the prevailing mood on campus neglects to acknowledge the only real alternative to our current system of military recruitment: the draft.
The government has decided that certain troop levels are necessary to fulfill its objectives. We see evidence of this in today's high money value enlistment bonuses and education funding programs, designed to raise the number of people who join up to the desired level. Aggressive recruiting and ubiquitous recruiters' offices also help to boost the number of enlistees. If it were not for today's mix of recruiters blanketing America and high levels of compensation for joining, it is safe to say that there would be fewer people joining the military. Presumably this would mean fewer people who the government want in the military. The only solution to this problem is coercive-conscription, otherwise known as the draft.
Many countries still have the draft. Germany has retained the draft. Enticing conscripts to enlist after their mandatory service period has ended is the main recruiting tactic in that country. I assume German military recruiters don't hang around German high schools. Other countries with the draft include South Korea, Russia and Norway, among dozens of others. Many of my foreign friends facing conscription have been unenthusiastic about the prospect of doing military service or jumping though the hoops necessary to get out of it, and I have no reason to believe that today's young Americans who haven't already elected for a military career would be any more enthusiastic about the prospect of being drafted. But those who do not want to join the military are not compelled to because of the all-volunteer military.
After the Vietnam War, America transitioned to an all-volunteer military. Because the military wants more people than would sign up without a little extra compensation, it is natural that there are sizable enlistment bonuses and education stipends. These enticements may be more appealing to low-income citizens that the wealthy. But people who protest against extra bonuses for those who join the military forget that if the current system went away, many of those poor people would be drafted and would end up in the military anyway. And the claim that the military exploits the poor is misguided. A 2005 Heritage Foundation report shows that members of the military have the same average income level as the general public.
It is highly unrealistic to think that the government will take any steps to reduce the number of people in the military. Consequentially, the government will not change its policies for recruiters, even though recruiters sometimes cross the line of appropriate behavior. CNN reports that recruiters have been caught helping potential recruits pass drug tests and get fake high school diplomas. This sort of behavior is both indefensible and unacceptable. The military must keep its recruiters on a short leash to stop them from crossing the line into unacceptable and illegal behavior. But it is important to distinguish between recruiters who violate their own rules and recruiters that do their jobs.
Despite the sleaze factor of tactics along the lines of cultivating recruits on campus at a high school, they work. Protesting about legitimate but unpleasant recruiting tactics is futile. While the system of recruitment and the high compensation level for recruits is not perfect, the alternative is much worse. Frisby is a Plan II, economics and math junior.
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