Wednesday,
January 02, 2019
Trump's Wasteful Military Venture
What have the soldiers done at the border? According to one
report, “very little.”
commondreams.org/views/2019/01/02/trumps-wasteful-military-venture
The media frenzy
surrounding Trump’s political posturing about his wall during the latest
government shutdown should not distract us from the fact that 5,000 active duty
soldiers remain stationed at the border. This deployment is wasteful, not only
of taxpayer dollars, but of potential, valuable experiences that the working
people who are our troops could be receiving.
Why engage in this
venture? According to now former Defense Secretary Mattis, “in terms of readiness, it’s
actually, I believe, so far improving our readiness for deployments.”
While that hardly sounds like a ringing endorsement, one must ask what
deployments might the administration be planning and why? It is even more
bizarre given that Trump has decided to remove soldiers from Afghanistan
and Syria.
Such mixed signals
highlight the mission’s lack of a clear purpose. Even its name – originally
called Operation Faithful Patriot – has changed due to disputes over
the reason for the troop’s presence on the border to confront a
few thousand Central American asylum seekers. Some have alleged that the
deployment was an attempt to rally political support before
the midterm elections. Regardless, the deployment’s lack of a coherent
objective, as President Trump has given no
specifics, has hurt troop morale. With
an estimated cost of $200 to $300 million,
this use of tax dollars is impossible to justify, as is the waste of soldiers’
time.
With an estimated cost
of $200 to $300 million, this use of tax dollars is impossible to justify, as
is the waste of soldiers’ time.
What is clear is that
military enlistment is potentially a vehicle for upward mobility. Now, perhaps
more than ever, this is relevant for who is joining up. Active duty soldiers in
the United States Armed Forces are disproportionately rural, people of color,
and middle class. According to one study, 44% of military recruits come from
rural areas, whereas less than 20% of the country’s total population
reside in the countryside. People of color – African-American, Latino, and
Asian – make up over 40% of
enlisted personnel.
Economically, middle-class people enlist
at a higher rate than either the poor or the rich.
Whether they reside in
rural areas, are people of color, or members of the middle class, working
families in the United States currently struggle with job insecurity, an ever-increasing cost of living,
and the reality that economically they will do worse
than past generations.
Military service is
about, or at least it should be about, more than war. It is a way to gain job
experience in professions, including engineering, mechanics, and nursing. From
the military, working people acquire skills that they put to use in the service
of our country and then later, to get ahead in life.
If troops are to be
deployed within the United States, then why not set them to work at sites in
the aftermath of natural disasters, such as the fires that ravaged California,
or the hurricanes that devastated Florida and Puerto Rico?
In this deployment,
what have the soldiers done at the border? According to one report, “very little.” They live
in tents with little electricity and without hot
meals and they receive no special pay for
this operation because there is no combat. Troops cannot actively assist in
border security given that the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act restricts the ability
of the military to enforce domestic law – immigration law included. This
was made clear on November 25th, when a group of migrants allegedly
rushed the Tijuana/San Diego border to enter the United States.
It was not military personnel, but border patrol agents, who shot tear gas and
rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
If troops are to be
deployed within the United States, then why not set them to work at sites in the
aftermath of natural disasters, such as the fires that ravaged California, or
the hurricanes that devastated Florida and Puerto Rico? There’s plenty of
opportunity for military personnel to use and hone their skills in a positive
way. Stringing barbed wire for a mission with unclear objectives is hardly the
highest and best use of their time.
The reality is that
military personnel work for their country and their families. Unfortunately for
them, this current operation contributes nothing to their training, as they
labor for little more than stroking the President’s vanity and boosting his
political ambitions.
This work
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E.
25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject
class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and
nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything
to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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