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by Minister of Information JR Valrey
The United States of America has not saw a military draft since the era between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, but based on recent facts released by the United States Pentagon, there may be reason to ring the alarm, especially among the people in the Black community, because the U.S. government may be forced to implement a draft to appear war-ready, as the war with Russia and NATO intensifies and the constant rumors and maneuvers of war rage on in the South Pacific with China.
Put another way, if the U.S. government successfully implements a draft, and drafts Black young people into war with Russia and/or China, history tells us that hundreds of thousands of us will die, with millions handicapped in the prolonged conflict.
In July, U.S. President Biden has authorized the military to deploy 3,000 reservists to Europe to support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in its war against Russia. NATO, led by the U.S., is currently engaged in a proxy war that is euphemistically called the Russia vs. Ukraine War.
The Pentagon has reported that the U.S. Army is predicted to be 15,000 recruits short of its 65,000 recruitment target at the end of the year. The Navy is 10,000 recruits short of its 38,000 recruitment goal. The Air Force is 3,000 short of its 27,000 recruitment target. The Marines are the only branch on par with their recruitment goals.
The Pentagon also reports that the suicide rate for veterans is 16.8 dying every day, traumatized by what they did and/or what they experienced while engaged in protecting U.S. interests.
It was also reported that only 9% of young people in the U.S. would consider a career in the U.S. military, down from 13%.
In the NATO vs. Russia proxy war, 400,000 Ukrainians have been killed in the conflict already and over 2 million are wounded. Media pundits from around the world are reporting on how Ukraine is being flattened and the people decimated.
Ukraine and Russia have a territorial conflict in Eastern Europe that has nothing to do with us. Why should our young people be drafted to fight and die for the U.S. military and their interests?
So as a community, we have to take an anti-draft and anti-war stance and begin to be very vocal about it. Black people and other people who are in the lower income brackets cannot continue to let our blood be the gasoline for the imperialist war machine’s agenda in other countries. The children of the rich and government elite don’t go to war; they send our youth overseas to die. Remember that, before you encourage our youth to join the international military mascot of imperialism, the U.S. military.
JR Valrey, journalist, author, filmmaker and founder of Black New World Media, is also the editor in chief of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. He teaches the Community Journalism class twice a week at the San Francisco Bay View newspaper office.
