Veterans for Peace UK Say; 'Don't Join the Army'

Don’t Join the Army’ is a project of Veterans for Peace UK. The organization says that it is a response to the Army’s consistently misleading and exploitative recruitment campaigns aimed at young people.

Army recruitment has frequently been successful from areas where there is high youth unemployment. The North East as an example.

In the wake of the Manchester bombing there has been some talk of 'boots on the ground' - mainly in the US, but in the end only education, not military muscle, can bring about change.  There was high unemployment in Iraq following the Irag war and that was certainly a factor in the rise and success of ISIS recruitment.

In much of the Middle East, including oil rich Saudi Arabia, unemployment has been high (20%). The irony is that it is places like mineral rich Africa, and the oil rich Middle East - countries suffer instability. Proxy wars in the 70s and 80s between the communists and capitalists countries held back fantastically wealthy, mineral rich countries in Africa. Today countries like Angola are thriving. The fantastic profits selling diamonds were made in Israel and Antwerp, but the costs of production was kept in Africa.   

The roots of Middle East unrest stem from the carving up of Africa in the 1800s and the Balfour declaration in WW1 where France and the United Kingdom were meeting even early in the war to divide up the spoils of WW1 in the Middle East. This was at a time the UK and France were not even winning the war.

This divide and rule strategy was to reduce countries bargaining power (to shrink Turkeys Navy that threatened the Suez Canal - the gateway to India) and later to keep Middle East economy’s needing to sell their oil and minerals cheaply to finance regional wars and fund military spending. Not to develop education and infrastructure and advance society, but in the main to keep autocratic leaders in power.  That is - till those leaders need to be removed (like Saddam Hussain) and replaced by governments (puppets in some cases) friendly to the western powers. Such as in Afghanistan today.

Leaders who want to nationalise and take control of their countries resources to benefit ‘the people’ found themselves being overthrown by the CIA, at the request of the UK, such as happened in Iraq.  A pattern that has also happened in South America and Caribbean by the US fearful communism could take hold. Guatemala for example, where the socialist government was overthrown covertly so the US, United Fruit Company could continue their profitable business. 

Most suicide bombers are not poor, or illiterate, but from largely secular and educated middle classes. Westerners sniggering about the need to claim their 70 odd virgins in heaven are presenting a misleading picture. These are educated people in many cases, driven by deep seated conviction about ridding their region from the western influence and occupation. They see the West as ‘Godless’ and corrupt. 

ISIS are brutal people after decades of war, tribal conflict, abject misery and wretched poverty. They may be out to shock the West into letting go. However we need to try and understand these people. Just dropping bombs. frequently on wholly innocent civilians, is in the end self-defeating. It just creates a cycle of violence. 

Veterans for Peace UK

Based on the experiences of hundreds of veterans, Don’t Join the Army provides young people with information about military service often missing from the official recruitment material.

Ben Griffin, served with the SAS in Iraq and is the coordinator of Veterans for Peace UK. He said “The army is engaged in a long-term campaign to recruit our children and to capture the imagination of those who will never join. The army is nothing like the recruitment adverts, our new website reveals the reality of army life and the possible negative consequences of army service.”

Veterans for Peace UK is a voluntary ex-services organisation of men and women, who collectively have served in every war that Britain has fought since WW2. The organisation says that ‘War is not the solution to the problems we face in the 21st century’.

Since the turn of the century, our society has prosecuted a long war across a number of countries. The public are aware of some elements of the war; other elements remain secret and concealed from view.

Air strikes, drone strikes, missile strikes, night raids, torture sites, internment camps, terrorist attacks, chemical attacks, sieges, invasions, and occupations are the tactics of this war.

Terrorism in The Words Of Veterans For Peace UK

If the aim of this war is to defeat terrorism, then it is an ongoing and spectacular failure, as the following graph illustrates.

If the aim of this war is to increase the status, power and wealth of individuals and institutions loyal to the War System, then it is an ongoing success story, and business as usual for our society.

The politicians get a place in history. The generals are promoted. The soldiers get medals. The arms dealers get sales. The bankers get profits. The corporations get access to resources and markets. The newspaper editors tell the story and the militarist on the street basks in the reflected glory of it all.

The death and destruction are external costs.

During this long war, opposing political factions have held power, each one has contributed to the perpetuation and expansion of the war, none have made a genuine effort to end the war. This “War on Terror” is just business as usual for a country dominated by the War System.

The mouthpieces of the War System muddy the waters:

• They vilify regimes for human rights abuses whilst feting others as important allies.

• They call for military action as the one-size-fits all solution to the complex problems we face in the 21st century.

• They respond to some attacks with screams of outrage whilst ignoring other attacks that would undermine claims to be better and more humane than others.

It does not have to be like this.

The War System relies on the daily participation of thousands and thousands of individuals to function. We can end this madness by refusing to participate at every level. It is time for us to abandon the War System.

Image of injured soldiers courtesy of the Daily Express