American Views Abroad

 
When GI Joe Says No, an essay originally published in The Nation, discusses the very crucial differences in the US military today compared with the Viet Nam war era. It points out that though many soldiers ship off to war despite serious political misgivings, they are not prone to resisting. The reason lies in how the military is organized today and the key words are 'unit cohesion----the ways the military uses solidarity among soldiers as a form of social control.' Further 'because they join of their own free will, they find it almost impossible to rebel. Volunteering implicates them, effectively stripping them of the victim status that conscription allowed.'

The author, Christian Parenti, highlights that 'understanding the world of the military is also important because it is a major force in the socialization of young working-class Americans.' More important: 'Since WW II military psychologists, sociologists and historians.....have agreed that soldiers fight not for justice, democracy or other grand ideas but for the guy next to them.
Unit cohesion is the real glue holding the US miliary together.'

The essay can be read at www.commondreams.org/views06/0421-30.htm.
- posted by Gloria @ 12:52 PM