When Juan Comes Marching Home Again, Hurrah, Hurrah...

Posted by Richard Blair at 8:16 AM on June 3, 2007.

Modern warfare has rarely been fought by the monied and privileged. George W. Bush is a good example of this meme. When the Vietnam war was in full swing, he somehow finagled a slot in the Texas Air National Guard, even though the billets were filled and there was a waiting list to sign up.

Service in the U.S. military has typically been viewed by the underclass as a means to an end - college education, job training, and/or a steady paycheck - and so, a vast majority of enlistees come from other than middle or upper class lives. It is no surprise that military demograhics are not really a reflection of the homogenous nature of the U.S. population, but rather, an indicator of social and economic mobility paths.

Military recruiting is becoming harder and harder, even in the working classes, where most of the recruitment effort is concentrated. Mom and Dad simply don't want to send Johnny (or Jane) off to a war that has lost the support of nearly 75% of the country. So as the debate over illegal immigration continues to heat up, those who won't fight are beginning to champion another potential class of military recruits - illegal immigrants...

Brigid Schulte pens a column this morning for the Washington Post that propels the idea into the mainstream:

This is a snapshot of a modern dilemma: a military in the middle of a vicious war, stretched to the breaking point for want of fresh recruits, and a potential recruit rejected for want of legal immigration papers. The solution is easy. Open the ranks to the bountiful pool of willing recruits like Jonathan, many of whom have lived here for most of their young lives, have graduated from U.S. high schools and are American in all but legal status. It's the bitter politics of immigration that's getting in the way.

The cornerstone of any neoliberal argument in favor of amnesty, or some type of working papers, for illegal immigrants is that they do the work that we born and bred Americans are loathe to engage in. Whether it's working in the dishroom at Applebee's or the avacado orchards outside of Fallbrook, Ca., most young U.S. citizens are looking for less arduous career paths, even if the money was right in those industries. Military service is no different.

As the pool of potential recruits gets more shallow by the day, neoliberals are looking for someone else to do their yard work once again - fight an unjust war / occupation thousands of miles away. The thinking seems to be: who better to fight and die for those who don't want to get their hands dirty than a class of people who have few other mobility options?

So, as the immigration debate winds its way through congress over the next few months, look for politicans on both sides of the aisle to embrace the concept of military service for undocumented immigrants as a path to a green card, or even citizenship. What remains to be seen is how the Lou Dobbs' of the world will react to such a proposal, but my gut feel is that it would pull those white bread folks who are against anything but immediate deportation of illegal immigrants back into the fold. Or, at least enough to make an "amnesty" provision politically palatable.

Tagged as: military issues, immigration reform

Richard Blair is a Philadephia area freelance writer, and the blogmaster of All Spin Zone.