Remember how the "US mainstream news media" and its
propapunditgandists, taking its talking points from
Rove, etc., blathered on during the 2000 campaign
about how Bush could "speak Spanish" (slightly better
than he can ride a horse, which is not at all?) and
how he was making in-roads into to the Democratic base
among Hispanics...Well, now the _resident is reduced
to having "exclusive interviews" with Faux News to
react to Sen. Edward Kennedy's charges of fraud and
bribery without fear of a follow-up...I doubt he will
be pressing flesh in the Barrio in the upcoming
election campaign...Of course, his minions won't be in
any rush to count absentee ballots from the US
military either...
"What can we say of the young Latino men who sacrificed their lives in Iraq? That they fought without knowing their enemy, played their role as pawns in a geopolitical chess game devised by arrogant bureaucrats, and died simply trying to get an education; trying to have a fair shot at the American Dream that has eluded the vast majority of Latinos for over a century and a half."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0922-02.htm
Published on Monday, September 22, 2003 by the Inter
Press Service
Hispanic Soldiers Die in Greater Numbers in Iraq
by Miriam Kagan
WASHINGTON - One of the first U.S. soldiers to die in
Iraq, Jose Gutierrez, was an orphaned Guatemalan who
at the time of his death was not even an American
citizen.
What can we say of the young Latino men who sacrificed
their lives in Iraq? That they fought without knowing
their enemy, played their role as pawns in a
geopolitical chess game devised by arrogant
bureaucrats, and died simply trying to get an
education; trying to have a fair shot at the American
Dream that has eluded the vast majority of Latinos for
over a century and a half.
Jorge Mariscal, a professor at the University of
California, San Diego
As U.S. casualties in Iraq continue to mount, so does
the worry in the country's Latino community that its
children are dying in unusually high numbers and are
being lured into dangerous service with targeted
recruiting by the Armed Forces.
Many in the community worry that Hispanic men and
women are being disproportionately exposed to risk and
sent to the front lines.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, while Latinos
make up 9.5 percent of the actively enlisted forces,
they are over-represented in the categories that get
the most dangerous assignments -- infantry, gun crews
and seamanship -- and make up over 17.5 percent of the
front lines.
These worries have been exacerbated during the recent
conflict in Iraq. As of Aug. 28, Department of Defense
(DOD) statistics show a casualty rate of more than 13
percent for people of Hispanic background serving in
Iraq.
The casualty rate for Hispanics during the Iraqi
engagement has been ''unfortunate and tragic'', says
Teresa Gutierrez, of Act Now to Stop War and End
Racism (ANSWER).
''The people who are fighting the war are youths who
cannot find jobs or afford university fees because
there is an economic draft in the army that is
particularly relevant to Latinos,'' she told IPS.
Recent census numbers reveal why the U.S. government
might be interested in specifically targeting Latinos.
According to the 2000 Census, Latinos have surpassed
African Americans as the largest minority group in the
country. Hispanics now comprise 12.5 percent of the
U.S. population, and are the fastest growing minority.
In 2000, one in seven 18-year-olds was of Hispanic
origin, a number that is expected to climb to more
than one in five during the next 15 years, found the
census.
Also, more than 50 percent of the Hispanic population
(almost 18 million people) lived in Texas and
California, states that are historically large
recruitment centers for the Armed Forces.
While DOD officials denied knowledge of any program
specifically targeted at Latinos, past actions by the
U.S. government paint a different story.
According to 'The Army Times' newspaper, in 2001 Army
Brigadier General Bernardo C. Negrete told a DOD
audience, ''we've made significant improvement by
going after Hispanics in a manner we've never done
before''.
''We're giving our recruiters goals to meet in order
to bring the Hispanic population in the Army on par
with the general population in the country.''
Negrete's plans called for achieving that parity by
2006.
Another tactic suspected of targeting Hispanics is an
executive order signed by U.S. President George W.
Bush in July 2002, expediting naturalization for
aliens and non-citizen nationals who serve in
active-duty status during the administration's ''war
on terrorism''.
The order, effective for all military personnel who
enlisted after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001,
allows non-citizens to apply for citizenship
immediately upon arrival at their first military base,
rather than having to wait the usual three to four
years.
According to Bush, persons ''serving honorably in
active-duty status in the Armed Forces'', do a service
to their new country so they should be granted
citizenship more quickly than via regular channels.
DOD numbers reveal 35,000 non-citizens currently in
the active Armed Forces, 15,000 of whom became
eligible for expedited naturalization under the
executive order.
Department officials strenuously denied that the order
was targeted at the Hispanic population.
While two army recruiters in the Washington area
denied using the expedited citizenship order as a
selling point during recruitment pitches, both told
IPS that they mention the ''benefit'' as one part of
the recruitment package.
But both recruiters insisted that no potential
recruits had asked for expedited citizenship and that
Latinos who express interest in joining the military
do so for ''patriotic reasons''.
One recruiter did say that since the executive order
was passed his office had seen a sharp increase in
applications from people of Hispanic background. But
both recruiters denied targeting Latinos, and said
they were unaware of any policies specifically
targeted at that group.
A Defense official told IPS that while he was not
''aware of any particular effort to recruit any
particular ethnic group, there are programs that
appeal to certain groups''.
Gutierez said that any DOD official who denies the
existence of targeted ethnic recruiting needs only to
''check their own website and promotional materials''.
While only 12 percent of Latinos in the United States
ever qualify for a university education, she lamented,
many are recruited into the Armed Forces with promises
of financial help and job security.
According to Gutierrez, once recruited, many qualified
applicants stay in the military, foregoing college.
''What can we say of the young Latino men who
sacrificed their lives in Iraq?” asked Jorge Mariscal,
a professor at the University of California, San
Diego, in the Apr. 18, 2003 issue of 'Counterpunch'.
”That they fought without knowing their enemy, played
their role as pawns in a geopolitical chess game
devised by arrogant bureaucrats, and died simply
trying to get an education; trying to have a fair shot
at the American Dream that has eluded the vast
majority of Latinos for over a century and a half.''
© 2003 Inter Press Service