POVERTY RECRUITS

Socialists have always maintained that poverty is the biggest recruiting agent when it comes to young workers joining the military and here is a recent example of it in the USA.
"One in 10 public high school students in Chicago, wears a military uniform to school and takes classes -- including how to shoot a gun properly -- from retired veterans. That number is expected to rise as junior military reserve programs expand across the country now that a congressional cap of 3,500 units has been lifted from the nearly century-old scheme...But opponents say the programs divert critical resources from crumbling public schools and lead to a militarization of US society. ..While military officials say the junior reserve programs are not used as recruiting tools, about 30 to 50 percent of cadets eventually enlist, according to congressional testimony by the chiefs of staff of the various armed services in February 2000. This is particularly troubling given that the programs are concentrated in low-income and minority neighbourhoods, said Sheena Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Chicago branch of the American Friends Service Committee which lobbies against the programs." (Yahoo News, 25 November) RD