Kandahar 3

I was at the Canadian gym, which is where I go just about every morning, and a couple of the trainers and I started talking. I don't remember exactly how we got on the topic, but one of them began telling me about how he's seen a bunch of US military guys down at the boardwalk who have gang tatoos: Latin Kings, Crypts, Bloods, MS13, etc. He plans on becoming a cop after he returns back to Canada, so he's a little more current on his gang ink than I am.

I guess he's been here before and worked as a medic at the hospital. Says that every couple of weeks someone would come in, worked over pretty good, usually females, but also some guys, who'd been raped and/or beat up, some of them gang raped. Turns out that South Park, as it's called, is one of the camps/compounds here on base. It's almost entirely Army troops, and it's where most of these assaults have occurred. He suggested not going down that way alone at night.

My curiosity peaked, I started reading some more. As it turns out, there is something of a gang problem in the military, mostly Army. In general, something like 0.02% of the US population belongs to gangs; in the US Army, it's thought to be between 1-2%, 50-100x as high and that estimate was 4-5 years ago. It's reasonable to think that it could be higher than that now. From what I read, there have been reports of drive-by shootings, drug trafficking, and other gang activity near some military bases, and even some gang activity that goes on overseas - setting up "franchises," if you will. There have been reports of some of these gang members who have stolen body armor and mltiary weapons from warehouses and sold them.

Now, I really try to be sympathetic to the idea that a lot of kids who grow up in unfortunate situations join gangs for various reasons, not least of which is a sense of belonging and family that they might not otherwise experience in their lives. And I know that many go into the miltiary because they don't have better options, which I think reflects poorly on a society that gives hundreds of billions in bailouts to already wealthy bankers rather than invest more in schools, infrastructure, after school programs, affordable daycare, student loans for college, and living wages so that parents don't need to both work, nor work so much, in order to make ends meet. I also think that military service can be a way for some people who don't have other options to get a job, pay taxes, get education, stay out of trouble, etc.

And I'm all for rehabilitation programs for all kinds of criminal offenders, particularly for those of lower socio-economic status and for nonviolent offenses. But, I'm not sure I'm OK with the idea of military service as a form of rehab for someone who's just been convicted of a crime and has gang affiliation. At least not immediately as a trade-off for jail time (although jailtime has its problems - I think I'm more in favor of work/education type programs).

Some of the articles I read further described how some of these guys get out of the military and now have training in warfare, particularly close quarter urban warfare considering the recent wars that have been fought, and they have some sense of discipline, all of which can be taken back and used to better organize and train other gang members - some gangs reportedly even actively send members into the military to that very end.

Some of the fault also lies with recruiters, many of whom are, if not outright liars, certainly less than fully honest, saying pretty much whatever it takes to get kids into the military and meet their quotas. They often don't inquire about or report gang membership of potential recruits if they think it would prohibit someone from joining. I'd say that's a very sinister and dangerous form of "don't ask, don't tell." For what it's worth, I'm infinitely more worried about gangbangers in the military than I am about gays banging in the military.