The U.S.
Military - Pampered, Safe And Very Scared
By Moon Of
Alabama
October 21,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- The
U.S. military is
a socialist paradise:
Service
members and their families live for free on
base. People living off base are given a stipend
to cover their housing costs. They shop in
commissaries and post exchanges where prices for
food and basic goods are considerably lower than
at civilian stores. Troops and their families
count on high-quality education and responsive
universal health care. They expect to be safe at
home, as bases, on average, have less violence
than American cities of comparable size. And
residents enjoy a wide range of amenities—not
just restaurants and movie theaters but fishing
ponds, camp sites, and golf courses built for
their use.
Of
course, some bases are better than others. But
even the most austere provides a comprehensive
network of social welfare provisions and a
safety net that does not differentiate between a
junior employee and an executive.
For
those who stay on, the military provides a
generous retirement pay.
"But life
in the military is dangerous!"
Not so.
According to a 2012 study by the Armed Forces Health
Surveillance Center (AFHSC) the risk to ones life
is lower for soldiers
than for civilians:
In the
past two decades (which include two
periods of intense combat operations),
the crude overall mortality rate among U.S.
service members was 71.5 per 100,000
[person-years]. In 2005, in the general
U.S. population, the crude overall mortality
rate among 15-44 year olds was 127.5 per
100,000 p-yrs.
The huge
difference is quite astonishing. The death rate for
soldiers would still have been lower than for
civilians if the U.S. had started another medium
size war:
If the
age-specific mortality rates that affected the
U.S. general population in 2005 had affected the
respective age-groups of active component
military members throughout the period of
interest for this report, there would have been
approximately 13,198 (53%) more deaths among
military members overall.
Those
working in the U.S. military, even when the U.S. is
at war, have a quite pampered life with lots of
benefits. They have less risk to their lives than
their civilian peers. But when some soldier dies by
chance, the announcements speak of "sacrifice". The
fishermen, transport and construction workers, who
have the highest
occupational death rates,
don't get solemn obituaries and
pompous burials.
No
Advertising
- No
Government
Grants -
This Is
Independent
Media
|
There
may be occasions where soldiers behave heroic and
die for some good cause. But those are rather rare
incidents. The reports thereof are at times
manipulated for
propaganda purposes.
The
U.S. military spends more than
a
billion per year on
advertisement. It spends many uncounted millions on
hidden information operations. These are not
designed to influence an enemy but the people of the
United States. In recent years the U.S. military and
intelligence services have
scripted or actively influenced
1,800 Hollywood and TV productions. Many of the
top-rated movie scripts pass through a military
censorship office which decides how much 'production
assistance' the Department of Defense will provide
for the flick.
A rather
schizophrenic aspect of its safe life is the
military's fear. Despite being cared for and secure,
the soldiers seem to be a bunch of scaredy-cats. The
military's angst is very ambiguous. It meanders
from issue to issue. This at least to various
headlines:
Members of
the U.S. military live quite well. They are safe.
Their propaganda depicts them as heroes. At the same
time we are told that they are a bunch of woosies
who fear about anything one can think of.
I find that
a strange contradiction.
/snark
This
article was originally published by -
Moon Of Alabama
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