اهلا و سهلا

In less than 10 days I ship off to BCT in OK.  After 9 weeks I go to GA for 14 weeks of OCS.  In September I finish, and will be sent to AIT, though I don't at the moment know what/where that will be.  At the moment, I'm sitting in SoCal enjoying wine from a box and wondering what has happened that brought me here.

You see, I oppose war, I oppose much of what the military does.  I oppose the American grab for empire.  I oppose the vast dedication of our budget to the military while our schools are under funded.  I have strong feelings about the vicious ways in which we undervalue education while extending "hero" status to the military.  Yet, I joined the "volunteer" military.  I did so for complicated reasons, though I don't expect you to understand.

I've already had many strangers extend sincere expressions of "thank you for your service" to me.  At an Oakland Raiders football game I attended with several Army recruits, one drunk white guy told me he wanted to, "buy a fucking beer" for me, because of my "service."  Service?  Perhaps that's apt, it turns out.  I'm more alarmed by this country than most fascists I know, and I know many.  I think the Left (such as they exist) have avoided this organization to their detriment; the war hawks do what they want to.  Still, I've told none of my close friends (such as they exist) that I joined the Army.  I'm just not prepared for more "good luck with that" speeches, like those I endured before I moved to the Middle East for my dissertation fieldwork.

I expect the next six months to be as ridiculous as my time in the ME, though at least I'll be able to speak English.  However, I expect I'll never be fed maglooba.

Nevertheless, I've been surprised to see who joins the Army.  Perhaps this uneasily indicates the upper-middle class status I've enjoyed, but I was surprised when I went to MEPS in Los Angeles in the summer 2009 and met other recruits.  Most of the young (17-18 year olds) folks I talked with did not enjoy the same advantages I did; they were joining for the G.I. Bill, because they wanted to go to college, but had no parents like mine to write the checks for their under graduate degree.  They were smart, they were willing to put their lives on the line, they were willing to let the MEPS civilians act like total unprofessional assholes toward them in order to get there.  In short, they were fucking cool.  They acted like adults, unlike many the 18 year olds I taught at the U of C.  Completely prepared to take responsibility for their futures, they joined the military, and, like me, had to at one point plan their own funerals.  I was freaked out enough to do that at age 35; they did it at 18.  We stood in a room with carpet on the walls and pledged never to engage in sodomy, or beat our spouses, and to die for the nation if necessary.

What a world.