Iraq Recruiting: Propaganda Based on False Glory

I grew up in a small town in Upstate New York, located approximately 90 miles north of New York City. On September 11^th I was in 7^th grade, and was not able to grasp fully the tragedy of the destruction of the twin towers. Over the following two years, my primarily republican town became increasingly more and more supportive of George Bush, who had been arguing since September 11^th that Iraq was a direct threat to the safety and security of our country. Just after I had entered high school, America declared war on Iraq.

Upon entering my sophomore year, I noticed an increased presence of army, navy, and air force recruiters in my high school. I could not turn a corner without seeing a pamphlet, poster, or human promoter calling upon me to serve my country. This presence continued to increase through my senior year. Although the presence of these recruiters bothered me (due to their persistent and aggressive efforts to talk with students about one of the three main areas of the united states military), I never thought anyone I knew would enlist, or even give their name to one of these recruiters. After all, by the time I was a junior and senior it seemed very clear to me that the war in Iraq was nothing more than a very misguided and completely unnecessary blood bath, and I could not understand why anyone in their right mind would want to become part of an already lost cause. I was mistaken.

Recently I found out that the army managed to recruit two people that I knew very well in high school. One of these men had severe emotional problems and dyslexia. The other came from a family of seven, and was disowned by his parents during his last year of high school due to disobeying a fundamental of his family religion. After looking at the former's facebook, it became clear to me that he joined the army in hopes of attaining glory. The ladder joined the army as a means of making his family proud, as well as to help him financially. After knowing both of these young men for over seven years, I can assure you that neither of them were fully informed as to exactly what they were getting themselves into by enlisting during this time in American history. The recruiters in our high school only talked of the glory that can be attained by joining the armed forces. Although the recruiters argued that the information about what is going on in Iraq is in all the newspapers, the town I grew up in was full of politically uneducated parents, many of whom to this day still support our president. Thus, the only knowledge many of these teenagers received about the war was from the men who were trying to get them to sign up.

This is a prime example of how the army takes full advantage of young men who are uneducated in the international political spectrum. They focus on small farm towns such as the one I grew up in, and enlist teenagers by glorifying the armed services, as well as failing to mention that they will most likely be shipped overseas to participate in policing a country composed of two main religious factions that will stop at nothing to kill each other, which includes killing the young men sent from America to try and stop this violence. Maybe I am misguided, but I fail to see the glory in policing such a country...