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Sunday, July 31, 2005

Grinding up the poor for dog food
Posted by Jill | 9:14 AM

Since the 101st Fighting Keyboarders and their like won't fight Bush's war, and the children of the Republicrat DLC won't sign up, and even the kids in the manufacturing-decimated heartland red states would rather take their chances at Wal-Mart, the bodies to be fed into the meat grinder have to come from somewhere.

So they're coming from far-reaching U.S. territories, where there isn't even Wal-Mart as an alternative:

From Pago Pago in American Samoa to Yap in Micronesia, 4,000 miles to the west, Army recruiters are scouring the Pacific, looking for high school graduates to enlist at a time when the Iraq war is turning off many candidates in the States.

The Army has found fertile ground in the poverty pockets of the Pacific. The per capita income is $8,000 in American Samoa, $12,500 in the Northern Marianas and $21,000 in Guam, all United States territories. In the Marshalls and Micronesia, former trust territories, per capita incomes are about $2,000.

The Army minimum signing bonus is $5,000. Starting pay for a private first class is $17,472. Education benefits can be as much as $70,000.

"You can't beat recruiting here in the Marianas, in Micronesia," said First Sgt. Olympio Magofna, who grew up on Saipan and oversees Pacific recruiting for the Army from his base in Guam. "In the states, they are really hurting," he said. "But over here, I can afford go play golf every other day."

Here, where "America starts its day," the Army recruiting station in Guam has 4 of the Army's top 12 "producers." While small in real terms, enlistments from Guam, Saipan, and American Samoa are the nation's highest per capita. Saipan, with a population of about 60,000 American citizens and green card holders, has 245 soldiers in Iraq.

[American Samoa, population of 67,000, has lost six soldiers in Iraq, most recently Staff Sgt. Frank F. Tiai of Pago Pago on July 17. Guam has lost three. Saipan has lost one.]

"I see yellow ribbons everywhere," Staff Sgt. Levi Suiaunoa said by telephone from the Army recruiting station in Pago Pago, capital of the territory. " 'Come home safely' signs almost litter the streets."

Despite the casualties, poverty and patriotism fuel enlistments.

"I buried at least one myself, but it hasn't stopped the number of recruits going in," said the Rev. J. Quinn Weitzel, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago. "They still feel like they want to do something special for the United States."


Now, the patriotism of these kids is admirable, but once again, I have to ask: Does patriotism involve mindlessly supporting every ill-advised move a delusional president makes? Now that the talk is of invading Iran ASAP, how much insanity should Americans support before we finally say, "Enough!"?

Once again, a misguided war is being fought by America's poorest kids. It doesn't matter if there's a draft that exempts anyone wealthy enough to afford college, or an "all-volunteer" military that attracts kids who have no other options. The bottom line is that war is the Bush Administration's anti-poverty program. Don't bring the poor up out of poverty, just kill off their children so they can't reproduce.

Is THAT what America stands for?
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