I just watched the documentary "Why We Fight" I got it from the library. Fascinating stuff. One of the subjects in the movie is a 23 year old guy who's joining the army for three reasons: his mom recently died (he has no other blood relatives), he's in financial trouble, and he wants a good job with a pension. Poor sucker. It also made the point that in Vietnam where soldiers were drafted the war became a lot less palatable when they switched from using just the poor kids (who no-one cared enough about to defend) to the lottery system that included the middle-class boys. Today there is no shortage of poorly educated males with little future in America (especially with the economy in such a sorry state) so I doubt the draft will need to be reintroduced, but will it fall to us to take on all the dummies who have made a deal with the devil due to sheer ignorance? What will we do with this cannon-fodder once we adopt it, can we turn them into semi-intelligent productive people or will we be saddled with a lot of dead weight? I'm not saying that people who make stupid decisions out of ignorance aught to be sent off to die for their lack of knowledge, but I don't know that accepting these kids solves anything, after all we have volunteer soldiers dieing too, how many of them have been wooed by jingo, video-games and aggressive recruiting? Taking a few "refugees" while sending many more off to die in a different conflict is unworkable. One cannot accept the soldiers of another country as refugees and allow one's own soldiers to die under similar circumstances. The war in Iraq was built on lies, but every war is built on lies. No war is just. The elected representatives of the U.S. decided to send their sons off to die, that is their right. Protecting those kids is not ours, is it?
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Should U.S. soldiers be accepted as Refugees?
Today the Supreme Court of Canada will decide whether on or not U.S. soldiers who signed up for service without knowing what they were getting themselves into aught to be allowed to stay in Canada as refugees. Here's a brief thought on the matter. No idea whether this is the right reaction, just a gut thing. So if you can convince me otherwise, go ahead.
I just watched the documentary "Why We Fight" I got it from the library. Fascinating stuff. One of the subjects in the movie is a 23 year old guy who's joining the army for three reasons: his mom recently died (he has no other blood relatives), he's in financial trouble, and he wants a good job with a pension. Poor sucker. It also made the point that in Vietnam where soldiers were drafted the war became a lot less palatable when they switched from using just the poor kids (who no-one cared enough about to defend) to the lottery system that included the middle-class boys. Today there is no shortage of poorly educated males with little future in America (especially with the economy in such a sorry state) so I doubt the draft will need to be reintroduced, but will it fall to us to take on all the dummies who have made a deal with the devil due to sheer ignorance? What will we do with this cannon-fodder once we adopt it, can we turn them into semi-intelligent productive people or will we be saddled with a lot of dead weight? I'm not saying that people who make stupid decisions out of ignorance aught to be sent off to die for their lack of knowledge, but I don't know that accepting these kids solves anything, after all we have volunteer soldiers dieing too, how many of them have been wooed by jingo, video-games and aggressive recruiting? Taking a few "refugees" while sending many more off to die in a different conflict is unworkable. One cannot accept the soldiers of another country as refugees and allow one's own soldiers to die under similar circumstances. The war in Iraq was built on lies, but every war is built on lies. No war is just. The elected representatives of the U.S. decided to send their sons off to die, that is their right. Protecting those kids is not ours, is it?
I just watched the documentary "Why We Fight" I got it from the library. Fascinating stuff. One of the subjects in the movie is a 23 year old guy who's joining the army for three reasons: his mom recently died (he has no other blood relatives), he's in financial trouble, and he wants a good job with a pension. Poor sucker. It also made the point that in Vietnam where soldiers were drafted the war became a lot less palatable when they switched from using just the poor kids (who no-one cared enough about to defend) to the lottery system that included the middle-class boys. Today there is no shortage of poorly educated males with little future in America (especially with the economy in such a sorry state) so I doubt the draft will need to be reintroduced, but will it fall to us to take on all the dummies who have made a deal with the devil due to sheer ignorance? What will we do with this cannon-fodder once we adopt it, can we turn them into semi-intelligent productive people or will we be saddled with a lot of dead weight? I'm not saying that people who make stupid decisions out of ignorance aught to be sent off to die for their lack of knowledge, but I don't know that accepting these kids solves anything, after all we have volunteer soldiers dieing too, how many of them have been wooed by jingo, video-games and aggressive recruiting? Taking a few "refugees" while sending many more off to die in a different conflict is unworkable. One cannot accept the soldiers of another country as refugees and allow one's own soldiers to die under similar circumstances. The war in Iraq was built on lies, but every war is built on lies. No war is just. The elected representatives of the U.S. decided to send their sons off to die, that is their right. Protecting those kids is not ours, is it?
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3 comments:
I don't know, I think I've got to disagree here. Canada accepts a lot of refugees from other countries who are in unfortunate circumstances due to their position in society by virtue of birth, i.e. through chance and not their own fault. This isn't to say that people who join the army aren't responsible for their own actions in doing so, I'm just pointing out that this is not as exceptional as it might seem relative to the whole refugee system.
Secondly, you question whether and how these people can become productive members of society if we let them in. Exactly these arguments could be used against many other legitimate refugees. Most are certainly poor and uneducated. But don't mistake that for unintelligent. If someone joined the army because it was the best opportunity their society afforded them, is it really such an unintelligent choice? Perhaps so, if they had all the information someone with an outside perspective has, but from their point of view at the time it might have been exactly the right decision. And don't forget how powerful and effective propaganda is; I'm sure a very much one-sided picture of army life is presented to these new recruits.
That's not to say there should be a blanket acceptance of all people in such circumstances, but my feeling is that these cases should be judged on their own merits, and we shouldn't hold prejudiced opinions about the intelligence, character, or future potential of these individuals.
True that my friend (i.e. the bit about judging people by their supposed intelligence. As a person who's job it is to help those deemed less intelligent, I have to believe there is value in what everyone is capable of learning/knowing.)
However to accept refugees from a country that is supposedly as liberal (or at least as "democratic")as ours and far wealthier, is a bit of an absurdity I find. Usually we take refugees from nations that struggle under the weight of civil war, religious persecution, sexual discrimination and/or crushing poverty. How bad will it make the U.S. look if Canada accepts its soldiers as refugees? And how will our military justify sending kids off to die for another conflict who's rationale (at this point) seems equally vague to the one we are protecting American kids from. Glad I'm not deciding this case.
P.S. The decision (as reported by CBC) is here.
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