Class Action November 2006 Book of the Month!

Class Action’s theme this month is about class and the military. October was one of the bloodiest in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. is deeply divided over the war and the appropriate role the U.S. and our military should play in the world.

We wade into this emotional topic catalyzed by a new book, AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes From the Military –and How It Hurts Our Country by Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer. (See our review below). The book challenges the classist attitudes about people who serve in the military – and makes the case for broader representation of the wealthy in the military as a way to prevent deep divisions within society

In the World War II generation and throughout U.S. history, military service was not class segregated. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s sons all served in the military when FDR was commander-in-chief. Today, in the post-Viet Nam generation, it is hard to find a member of Congress with a family member in uniform.

For over a generation, the U.S. has had a volunteer military –and even recruiters acknowledge that enlisting young people in elite colleges and institutions is virtually futile. The military is for “other people,” in code: poor and working class people.

What does it mean that the voluntary military is largely made up of working class recruits? Is there a danger when the political elite is wealthy and disconnected from the experience of military service?

Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer, AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes From the Military –and How It Hurts Our Country (New York: HarperCollins, 2006).

AWOL is an important book –and there is something to offend everyone in it. If you only read opinions by those you agree with, don’t venture into this book for it is challenging, maddening and poignant.

The authors, Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer, both consider themselves “straddlers” between the lives of those in U.S. society with deep connections to the military and the elites who exist a million mental miles from military base life. Roth-Douquet’s husband is a Marine pilot serving in Iraq and Schaeffer’s son served as a Marine. As witnesses to the class gap between those who serve and everyone else, they’ve written a useful cross-cultural guide.

There is presently an enormous strata of upper-middle and wealthy class communities that have no family members or know not a single individual serving in Iraq. But if you ask students at any urban or rural public high school how many have family members serving, half the people in the room will raise their hands.

The central premise of AWOL is that the absence of wealthy people in the military is a bad thing –that it reinforces existing class divides –and fosters a disconnected foreign policy where elite decision-makers and pundits (with no military service) decide the future.

Take the matter of poorly armored Humvees patrolling the streets of Iraq. The authors write,

If the daughters of, say President Bush and Bill Clinton had been patrolling the streets of Baghdad, with say, the son of the CEO of the New York Times, they likely would have been provided with German or South African-made armored cars designed for patrolling insurgent controlled hostile territory –rather than sent out in our woefully under-armored carriers. And it is possible that the civilian leaders who did not listen to the warnings that the Iraq War would turn into a protracted conflict within an insurgency might instead have put together a plan B, just in case their hope-for outcome of happy Iraqis taking over the running of their country didn’t pan out. One tends to take a worst-case scenario rather seriously if you son or daughter will be on the receiving end.

The book is not a commentary on the Iraq war. Rather, it is about the class and culture rift that opens up when only a small segment of the society makes all the sacrifices, regardless of one’s opinion of the foreign policy of the day. It is about how working classes in the military still have a culture and ethic of service, obligation and sacrifice –and how elite classes exist in a sub-culture of individualism and free choice.

With elite universities banishing ROTC recruiters, the children of the wealthy don’t even have the opportunity to be asked to consider military service.

The authors find that elites have a classist attitude toward those who serve –believing recruits are manipulated and have no other options than to enlist solely for educational and college benefits. It is inconceivable that some are choosing to serve out of family tradition or as a way of “giving back” to country for their freedoms and opportunities.

AWOL is too quick to dismiss opposition to U.S. foreign policy as classist and elitist. People of all classes are deeply opposed to the Iraq War – and yet support those who have chosen military service and wish them to be out of harms way. People of all classes have delineated the moral difference between a U.S. military serving as an extension of a rational and humane foreign policy rather than current imperial designs of the Bush presidency. But the authors point out that we will need a robust military in the decades to come –and it will be called on for a variety of peacekeeping and disaster relief. As our military exists in a democracy under civilian and political control, the authors believe people of all classes should serve. What we do with our foreign policy is all of our responsibility to shape through the political process –not through class defection.

The authors rightfully point out that the military serves an important mixing function in U.S. society, giving people of different races, classes and backgrounds an opportunity to work together for a common purpose. But there are other institutions that can fulfill this goal.

The flaws of the book are worth wading through to get to the heart of the class matter –and possible solutions. The authors differ over whether a draft should be reinstituted. But they both believe that there should be some form of obligatory military or civilian service for all classes.

View previous Class Action Book of the Month selections...

October Book of the Month: Class Passing

September Book and Video of the Month: Beyond Silenced Voices and Declining By Degrees

August Books of the Month: Human Cargo and Gathering the Sun

July Book of the Month: The Overworked American by Juliet Schor

June Book of the Month: More Money Than God by Steven R. Leder

May Book of the Month: Global Class by Jeff Faux

April Books of the Month: Classified and Strapped

March Book of the Month: Welfare Brat, A Memoir by Mary Childers

February Book of the Month: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

January Book of the Month: Invisible Privilege: A Memoir about Race, Class, and Gender by Paula Rothenberg

View last year's Book of the Month selections...

You can buy this book through Powells online bookstore. When you shop through this link, you are supporting Class Action directly.

Download our Annotated Class Action Bibliography on Class issues

This resource list has been prepared by Class Action with input from many friends and allies. We welcome your additions and suggestions; Submit a Resource if you like.