US election 2012: Foreign policy at home
As Barack Obama announces a $489 billion cut in defence spending over the next ten years, there is space for the Republican presidential candidates to offer an alternative view of the role the American military should play in the world.
By Alastair Good, Montana
8:00AM GMT 06 Jan 2012
9 Comments
All the candidates except Ron Paul believe America should continue to project its power across the world through the military.
Whether criticising Barack Obama for pulling troops out of Iraq too soon or talking openly of a confrontation with Iran none of them are considering reducing the size of US forces.
For a military town like Helena, Montana which has already given a lot of lives to the war in Iraq, foreign policy decisions will have a very real impact.
For the citizens of Helena, Montana the military offers the opportunity to get an education and have a successful career, but there is a huge risk involved.
Tess Dufrechou, a senior student at Helena High doesn’t consider the military as an option for herself but the younger students who she helps tutor in a class for underachievers are interested in joining up.
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The town she lives in doesn’t have a lot of other employment options for children who aren’t smart enough to get scholarships and whose parents aren’t rich enough to pay their college fees.
What it does have is Fort Harrison a large military base housing the Montana National Guard.
“It has been, to a certain extent, a benefit to people who have no great education and who have no particular training to have some employment,”says Paul Edwards, a local resident and one of the few people in the town who protested against the invasion of Iraq.
Mr Edwards believes that more should be done to bring other industries to the area and to help support the education of the poor.
For Levi Little, a student at neighbouring Capital High School, joining up to the Marines as a scout sniper will be a way to pay for his education, though he recognises there will be some drawbacks.
“The biggest problem I have right now is going out and fighting. I mean I will if I have to but its not really something I look forward to.”
The downside of serving in the military at a time when the US is at war feels very real for John and Nina Baucus. They lost their son, Marine Cpl Phillip on July 29th 2006 in Al Anbar Province Iraq.
Cpl Baucus was manning a checkpoint in Rawah when Iraqi police waved through a fuel truck, realising something didn’t look right Cpl Baucus and LCpl Tony Butterfield tried to stop it but the bomber detonated his explosive and both men were killed.
His father John Baucus explains: “You try and prepare yourself that it might happen but you still can’t fully prepare for losing somebody like that.”
At Fort Harrison on the outskirts of town Sgt Adam Bell feels that the military offered him a structure and a set of challenges that he found lacking in civilian life.
“In my last deployment we were 20 months away from our families so it can be tough but it has its rewards as well. You have a mission, you have a goal and I like to win so for me its a great fit.”
Private Kevin Hunt is hoping that he will also benefit from enlisting but the reaction he got from friends when he joined up wasn’t all positive, “some of them said ‘you won’t be able to do anything fun anymore’ and they stopped talking to me”.
Although Barack Obama has pulled the military out of Iraq there are still 90,000 soldiers engaged in battle in Afghanistan and the rumbles about action in Iran grow ever louder meaning that for those who think signing up will be a route to a better life and a free eduction there is still the potential for a serious downside.
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Video: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/8975240/US-election-2012-Foreign-policy-at-home.html
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9 comments
jkinne
01/07/2012 07:36 PM
I find the comments from ellerveira shockingly bizarre. It worries me that individuals are so misinformed and out of touch that they espouse beliefs that belie their ignorance to the world at large. I truly hope that they have family members actively tending to the medicinal needs of their paranoid loved one – or could it be that the rants are a result of a self-medicated conspiracy theorist? I'm not sure what the purpose of the writer/article is, but the first sentence seems to expose their intent – that being the media bashing of the US for whatever ails the liberal press for whatever malevolent purposes they desire.
Today’s target of opportunity seems to be a cover story using election year political positions to assail US military policy and economic hardship/unemployment in a significantly small (less than 30 thousand inhabitants) town in the western United States. The US has multiple approaches to projecting its power the least of which is brandishing the military.
For those of us that served/made it a career, the last thing that we desire is a combat operation despite what all the Rambo movies and pitiful, lily-livered losers would have you believe. Yes, there are those in the ranks that come on a little strongly and along with that comes lots of bravado, but being scared and indecisive does not keep a country free nor keep its service members safe. Maybe the writer has forgotten the Marshal Plan, all of the emergency aid programs conducted after disastrous international
volcano/tsunami/earthquake events, and billions of foreign aid the US has poured into countries that many people would otherwise be challenged to locate on a map where it not for the internet or Google Earth. Many of these efforts were achieved purely through civilian means other than maybe the massive lift/transport capabilities required due to timeliness or seer lack of otherwise available assets.
Also, it would seem that the writer is somewhat ignorant of the make-up of the US armed forces or at least didn’t know enough to ask the right questions. National Guard units are individual, state-controlled military entities that do not offer full time employment in the same manner as US active duty units. They can be called upon by the federal government for use at the national level under very specific conditions. Currently, there are some selective Montana NG units that have been federalized and are experiencing combat tour rotations. Members of NG units do not make their livings from being full time soldiers/airmen. They have 9 to 5 jobs like other civilians – they just also have their voluntary jobs in a NG unit. If someone is using the NG to be their main employment prospect, then they are setting themselves up for financial disappointment for when combat operations are over in the Middle East, NG units will revert back to state control and all of their members will once again assume their civilian professions. If they like the military, lifestyle, chance to be assigned in foreign countries, or a myriad of other opportunities/challenges, then they need to become a member of one of the active duty component services and make it a career. But making the decision does not guarantee them a life-long career – they must still perform and progress in order to maintain the job and then, only as long as there is a demonstrable need for the skill – such is the life. My point here is that there are many reasons for people to volunteer for the National Guard – pay, pride in oneself, serve their country, learn new skills, etc.
Along with the contract with the NG comes the reality that one may actually have to perform the MOS/job skill for which they have been trained. The NG is not in the business of being an alternative payee for college aspirations. It offers a college fund benefit for those that participate, but the job of the NG is to provide for state and potential national defense/disaster relief.
USARN
01/07/2012 08:21 PM "I find the comments from ellerveira shockingly bizarre. It worries me that individuals are so misinformed and out of touch that they espouse beliefs that believe their ignorance to the world at large." You will find that mentioned poster has a deep seeded hatred for America and Americans, per previous posts.
kmax
01/07/2012 12:45 PM The main idea of the this article is just disgusting. First they create many towns without the proper infrastructure, without enough jobs. Then instead of correcting mistakes and improving people's life - they behave like it's some nature's order - and send these "unnecessary" people to kill another intractable people somewhere half around the world.
ellerveira
01/07/2012 03:53 AM Part of the abuse of the poor in US society is to use them, due to their need for employment, as cannon fodder and mercenaries for US imperial wars. A draft is impossible but the US can always make mercenaries of the poor and unemployed. One good reason for the US to keep unemployment high. It makes it easier to get mercenaries into the army
USARN
01/07/2012 08:14 PM More lefty propaganda. "The current makeup of the all-voluntary military looks like America. Where they are different, the data show that the average soldier is slightly better educated and comes from a slightly wealthier, more rural area." http://www.heritage.org/resear
ellerveira
01/07/2012 03:51 AM The US doesn't have the money or the guts to attack Iran since a blowup in the area could finish off any economic recovery and sink Obama's chance to be re-elected. The US has only one option: pretend to "punish" Iran while dilly dallying until it has a nuke and then the game will be over since the US could not attack it for fear of what it could to in response. The US has to stall about an attack until it is too late.
kmax 01/07/2012 12:38 PM Oh no. US just doesn't want to send the american soldiers there. And there's no need, since US is actively selling weapons to it's allies in the Middle East. $36 billions in one week. By the way, funny that US has chosen 6 absolute monarchies to bring democracy to the rest of the Middle East.
royalgreenjacket
01/06/2012 08:57 PM Fair one good luck in Afghanistan, I have worked with the US forces and most are not bad, bit gung ho for me.
chasnme
01/06/2012 11:50 AM Just like the Romans, monkey see, monkey do...
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