Oct. 30, Pasadena City College; John Kerry speaking: "You know, education-if you make the most of it, you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
Cheney responds:
"John Kerry needs to learn that the men and women serving in Iraq aren't there because they didn't study hard or do their homework. They're smart, patriotic, exceptionally well trained and dedicated to their mission. They are heroes, and they are the pride of the United States of America."
Forget about Kerry's bumbling. Forget about the hollow praises of a draft-dodging vice president. Forget, if you can, the soldiers in the military recruitment commercials. Who is "stuck in Iraq?" Who, if anyone, screwed up to land himself in the military? Let's start simple: who are "the troops," really?
This much we know: Many are drawn from the National Guard, men and women pulled away from productive civilian employment and a cherished family to fight in the sand. They're drawn from a group of principle-minded ordinary citizens who could be doing other jobs and truly believe-impugn their beliefs if you will-that they're taking a noble stand.
Their leaders are drawn from kids our age at the military academies, universities that regularly rack up more Rhodes scholars than anywhere else. And of course, they're most noticeably drawn from our ROTC classmates, who don't need to convince anyone that they study. These people are a model group, perfect for brochures and "Be all the you can be" slogans. But family men, patriots and sparkle-uniformed kids aren't enough to fill the military's rank and file.
So we ask, again, "who are the troops?" They are kids barely or not even out of high school, hoping to fight now so that they'll be given the money to study later. In 2003 the Pentagon spent almost $4 billion targeting low-income youth with commercials, video games and enlistment bonuses. The result: low to median income households of $20,000 to $54,999 are significantly overrepresented in military recruiting. Puerto Rico, with a 40 percent unemployment rate, is the Army's number one recruiting territory. It yields four times the number of recruits that U.S. offices do. Most of these recruits are not stuck in Iraq because they goofed off and didn't study; they are there because they can't afford to goof off or study.
But the military is big enough for another sort of soldier. If you went to a public high school, you may have some inkling of who this is. There's a contingent of human explosions who couldn't conceivably exist anywhere but in a place where you follow orders or are jailed, kill or are killed. This future soldier may have even come from a "good family," may have even had all the right chances in life. But for reasons complex, he'd rather raise hell. Before he was paid to do it, he was raving, brawling, rampaging-warring. He was always a warrior. He was always fighting. He's definitely not interested in studying.
If you doubt this, then just do a simple anthropological experiment. Go hang out for a few evenings around a military base, in this country or overseas, and try not to lose your head. If you consider yourself a confident, commanding person-maybe even tough and strong-you'd be wise not to show it, because you'll probably be crushed-physically and egotistically-by some of the full-time maniacs who fight our wars for us. This is the last type of soldier: the wild firebrand who neither Bush nor Kerry will fully acknowledge. He does the dangerous jobs that aren't covered in the news, but he-or she, as we've seen-still sometimes makes his presence know at the center of the most sadistic cruelties that accompany war.
Neither Kerry nor Cheney showed much of an eye for nuance in their recent comments. But neither was totally wrong, either. Kerry's "joke" demeaned the qualities of most soldiers, but it's also lined with the uncomfortable wisdom of someone who spent time in the military and knows its worst elements. Cheney's annoyingly hagiographic reply only lumps the bad in with the good, and encourages future wars by glossing over the complex mixture of individuals who are required to fight this one. Most troops in Iraq get by because they're brave. A few are just crazy.
James Zou is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Friday. He would like to thank Philip Sugg for discussions relating to this column.
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