Monday, February 16, 2009
Beware of unemployed young men!
The news yesterday reported on the 25% unemployment (almost certainly an underestimate as they always are) among young men ages 15-29 in Iraq. This is a "threat to stability," we're told, because:
U.S. and Iraqi military and political officials have said that young men in particular need to find work, or they will become vulnerable to recruitment by insurgents willing to pay people to plant bombs and commit other acts of violence.Which is totally different than unemployed young men in the United States, mind you. Because they're recruited by government employees in uniforms and are paid to drop bombs, not "plant" them.
Other than that, it's hard to see much difference. Although I'm willing to bet that those "U.S. and Iraqi military and political officials" would be aghast at the thought of such a comparison.
There is of course one other difference between the two groups of young men. One is being employed to occupy another country; the other to resist that occupation.
