FROM THE SHORES OF MONTEZUMA TO THE HALLS OF MARLBORO HIGH

In the lunch room of the High School I work at currently, there was a recruiter from the Marine Corps.

He was dressed to the 9's in his dress uniform, had a colorful table adorned with many pamphlets and pictures of the Corps and soldiers laying on the ground firing machine guns.

During the lunch periods, many kids went up out of curiosity, (after the one or two bravest went first) and they shook hands with the Marine and many did push ups in pairs or alone, showing what they could do. They would get a bumper sticker or tiny yellow and red foam football with the Marines logo on it, or maybe a poster that had a Marine doing a chin-up, with the words, "We only ask everything you've got. And we'll tell you when you've given it."

I have to say I had mixed feelings about him being there.

First let me say I have nothing against the military. My family have served in all branches since the Civil War. Sure it'd be great for our species to evolve over-night to a place of understanding where not one group of humans feels they need to band together with weapons as a "just in case" form of conflict resolution.

I know we live in a militarized world. There have been armies as long as there have been large civilizations after Man left hunting and gathering behind, staying in one spot and increasing population through agriculture. (some say that was the beginning of the end for our species)

And following World War 2 and the subsequent Cold War, the United States became the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. (use the euphemism "Super-Power" if it goes down easier) And today we have the largest, most expensive, most technologically advanced, and now most combat trained, military on the planet. (our largest export. i kid)

And even if we didn't have over 700 bases in over 130 countries and maintained armed forces just to protect our borders, those forces would involve ships on the water, and each ship needs marines. They keep order on board and can be sent on land to conduct missions in support of the ship. But on a larger scale the Marines have their own combat units that fight on land like regular Army divisions, but with their more intense training and conditioning (including the brain), the Marines are considered more elite and often first into the fray.

And where else you gonna find new Marines but in a high school? Boys in 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grade who don't know what the heck they're doing with their lives yet or feel they have no options.

My mother has spoken often of boys she knew when a teenager who joined the army, served four years then came home more mature, responsible and focused than they were beforehand. (this was before Vietnam when just about everyone in her world knew or dated someone who had been hurt or killed there).

And maybe not every American kid wants to sit in a class room studying English and Math in order to be sentenced to a prison-like cubicle for the better years of their lives on earth, instead wanting the adventure, action, discipline and daily immediacy the military provides.

What I have a problem with is where they will most definitely serve if they do indeed enlist. Iraq or Afghanistan, most likely the latter, both of which I feel are blatant imperialist land acquisitions.

I will debate this with anyone who cares to. And I will back everything with as many facts about American foreign policy as possible. Not emotion. Not rhetoric. Don't tell me that our government, both Bush and Obama administrations and Congress', have spent countless billions and tens of thousands of lives both dead and wounded (theirs and ours), to liberate millions of oppressed people in order to keep us free. That was the story in World War 2 and the Cold War and its being forced down our throats again.

If this argument were valid (which seems to be the only reason people come up with when we wonder why we're in either country right now - Iraq in particular), then we'd be invading North Korea, China, most African nations, numerous South American nations, and additional Middle Eastern nations including Saudi Arabia, our greatest regional ally there (and holder of the world's largest oil reserves - accident?) who's human rights record is one of the worst around. The world has oppressed people's-a-plenty. And we ain't spending a dime or a life to liberate them.

So if they're not there for freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (which will come super-sized in the form of the first Baghdad Walmart and Kabul Home Depot), then there are other reasons - like protecting American interests - not YOUR interests or MY interests mind you - but rather the business, banking, energy, and military interests. Corporations who profit from war, conflict, and scarcity. (more to come on scarcity as the necessary root of capitalism)

At least be up front with these kids. Don't give them a John Phillip Sousa song and dance about the ol' red white and blue, apple pie, I cannot tell a lie. Tell them they what they may really be called to serve. Empire.

Then let them decide.

MJW