Month: July 2017

British Army targets working class kids

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From The Guardian

British army is targeting working-class young people, report shows

Recruitment campaign’s audience is 16- to 24-year-old C2DEs despite MoD’s claim of targeting all socio-economic backgrounds, internal document shows

The British army is specifically targeting young people from working-class backgrounds in a glossy recruitment campaign despite claiming to aim advertising at all socio-economic backgrounds, an internal briefing document seen by the Guardian reveals.

A briefing document on the This Is Belonging campaign spells out that the key audience is 16- to 24-year-old “C2DEs” – marketing speak for the lowest three social and economic groups.

The document also makes it clear that while the campaign is UK-wide, there are “up-weights” to cities in northern England including Manchester and Sheffield and to Birmingham, Belfast and Cardiff.

Army chiefs insist they do not specifically target poorer people from deprived areas, but seek out talented and motivated youngsters of all social classes from across the country. However, the charity Child Soldiers International, which obtained the briefing document, said the strategy set out in them clearly showed this was not true.

Rachel Taylor, the charity’s director of programmes, said: “What’s very clear from the document is that the army is deliberately and strategically targeting young people from deprived backgrounds who have limited options in life.… Read more

The First Ambush: Effects of army training and employment

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A new report out today from Veterans For Peace UK details how the Army’s training process has a ‘forceful impact’ on attitudes, health, and behaviour even before recruits are sent to war.

The findings show that military training and culture combine with pre-existing issues (such as a childhood history of anti-social behaviour) to increase the risk of violence and alcohol misuse (details below). Traumatic war experiences further exacerbate the problem.

The report explains that the main purpose of army training is to mould young civilians as soldiers who will follow orders by reflex and kill on demand. It demands unquestioning obedience, stimulates aggression and antagonism, overpowers a healthy person’s inhibition to killing, and dehumanises the opponent in the recruit’s imagination. Recruits are taught that stressful situations are overcome through dominance.

The First Ambush? Effects of army training and employment (70pp) draws on veterans’ testimony and around 200 studies, mainly from the UK and US, to explore the effects of army employment on recruits, particularly during initial training.

Also, see our article Stripping the Civilian – how army training isolates, disorientates and dominates recruits
… Read more

Hidden in full sight: sex abuse covered up by cadet forces

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BBC Panorama has uncovered evidence of repeated cover-ups of historical sex abuse in Britain’s cadet forces.

Victims have spoken for the first time of senior cadet leaders covering up complaints, and pressurising families against going to the police.

Overseen by the Ministry of Defence, the cadets is one of the UK’s largest youth bodies with 130,000 members.

The MoD has paid more than £2m to cadet abuse victims, and says it has “robust procedures in place to protect cadets”.

According to Freedom of Information requests, in the last five years 363 sexual abuse allegations – both historical and current – have been made across the UK for the Army, Air and Sea Cadets.

Some 282 cases have been referred to the police and 99 volunteers have been dismissed.… Read more