Any observer of our society would be well aware that we are a warring society. Through the onslaught from the babbling brook of bullshit, that is our mainstream media, with its war movies, stories of "great" battles, and war heroes, their justification for every war in which we have ever been involved. Then there is the "games" fed to our kids, super-human heroes, winning fierce battles over the bad guys, games of war, killing sprees where the player enjoys killing and never feels the pain of hot shrapnel tearing through their flesh, and knows that at the end of this violent indulgence, they can walk away unscathed, a million miles from the real killing sprees into which the state throws our kids.
Of course we should not forget those callous military recruiting teams that infiltrate our schools, targeting the poorest areas.
This is war.
All the state has to do is reap this harvest and dispatch them to fight the imperialist wars that it indulges in at the behest of the corporate giants, who are ever hungry for more resources and markets, all gained from the blood of our youth.
This is war.
The armed forces make around 11,000 visits to secondary schools and colleges schools in the UK each year, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) spends around £26 million each year on school Combined Cadet
Force (CCF) units, both of which have a strong recruitment agenda behind them, contrary to the repeated denials of this in recent years by the MoD
Marlborough science academy is one of thousands of UK schools to invite in the military. Today, as part of an Insight Into Industry event, the army and other organisations – including the fire and rescue service, Marks & Spencer, and Hertfordshire University – are giving students an insider’s view of their work. Next to the assault course is a display showing salary scales for all military ranks, and male and female soldiers from different units are on hand to answer questions.
We recommend that the Welsh Government considers whether further research is needed into the reasons for the apparently disproportionate number of visits to schools in areas of relatively high deprivation.
Concerns over how many visits army officers make to schools in deprived areas will be debated by assembly members on Wednesday.
The British Regular Army visits schools as a major part of its recruitment programme and a third of new soldier recruits are aged under 18. These recruits may face serious personal risk and challenging moral dilemmas, yet their terms of service can prevent them from leaving the army for up to six years. Given that minors are less able than adults to make free, informed and responsible decisions about enlisting, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the House of Commons/Lords Joint Committee on Human Rights have recommended raising the minimum age of recruitment to 18. Both Committees also recommend that the UK ensure that disadvantaged communities are not targeted for recruitment.
This is war.
If we wish peace to be the main picture of our society, then we have to stop the military from the callous recruiting of kids, which happens mainly in poor and deprived areas, all with the blessing of the state. We have to ban all military recruiting teams from anywhere near a school. Schools are supposed to be a safe and welcoming environment for the enlightenment and development of our kids, allowing them to make balanced and informed decisions as adults, they are not to be a conveyor belt of cannon fodder for the interests of a profit greedy corporate world.
This is war.
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