So far this year 154 of our working class youth active in the military have committed suicide. This is a rate of nearly one each day. This number is greater than the number of troops dying in battle. It sets a record annual high since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan more than a decade ago. (Associated Press.)
The tragic suicides show the demoralization of the troops. What are they fighting for? Who are they killing for? The armed services are made up, for the most part, of youths who have no prospects of a decent job or who cannot afford to continue into higher education. So with no alternatives, de facto, they find themselves drafted into the armed services.
Why are the youth in such dire straits? Why is this happening? The electronic driven production of goods and services is eliminating the labor of workers. More and more jobs are being automated or done by robots. This has resulted in a growing unemployment, and the new young workers have been hard hit. They haven’t even joined the workforce for lack of jobs, and now they find themselves unemployed without ever holding a job. Or they are working but they are part of the sector of the working poor in America.
The failing capitalist economy is at the heart of the youth movement here in the United States and worldwide. The ruling class has no future for the youth, but to use them as cannon fodder in their wars. So the youth in America are rising, and the war veterans are part of that youth movement against capital and for their future.
At the head of the huge antiwar protest in Chicago on May 20, were about forty-five Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. They sent a powerful message to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) ministers when, one by one, standing on the stage in front of thousands of supporters they threw their War on Terror medals toward McCormick Place where the NATO ministers were meeting.
What follows are quotes from a few of those veterans.
“Our enemies are not 7,000 miles from home. They sit in board rooms. They are CEOs. They are bankers, they are hedge fund managers. They do not live 7,000 miles from home. Our enemies are right here, and we look at them every day. They are the millionaires and billionaires who control this planet, and we’ve had enough of it. So they can take their medals back.” (Veteran on stage)
“A Navy veteran showed up just to see what we were all about. During the ceremony, he couldn’t hold back his tears. He realized that he could connect with us because he lost five other service men to suicide. He ended up becoming part of our organization, realizing that there is a movement, and that the GI’s do have a voice.” — Alejandro Villatoro, Iraqi Veterans Against War (ivaw.org)
