Leave us out of Your Faith-Based War Machine

To the extent the Bush Administration gives any thought to African Americans it thinks about their service in the military, which forms a disproportionate share of the American military to population (about twice as large).

But as might be expected many african-americans are tired of being tools of a Republican War machine that takes it cue for what is important from the likes of the Heritage Foundation.

For years, black americans have formed the backbone of the all-volunteer US Army, filling a quarter of its ranks, though blacks account for only 13 per cent of the population. Blacks are more likely to treat the army as a lifelong career; a third of senior sergeants and non-commissioned officers are black. Suddenly, that is changing.

Apart from a sudden fall in the past two months in recruiting for the part-time National Guard, army recruitment as a whole has held more or less steady this year, with the help of increased enlistment bonuses and an early call-up for some youths originally due to enter basic training next year.

But the proportion of black recruits into the army was only 15.6 per cent, down from 22.3 per cent in the fiscal year 2001. In the part-time army reserve, the drop is sharper.

Army officials decline to speculate about the collapse in black recruiting, instead noting what they call a positive development, that army numbers will now reflect the make-up of society better.

Patriotism isn't the problem, if joining the military is the harbinger of patriotism (and the bloviators seem to think it is) then for years the nation's African-Americans have been more patriotic than the predominantly white Congress (or radio talk show hosts for that matter). The problem is the Bush Administration's policy has little to do with patriotism and everything to do with some twisted and failed vision of empire.