By Melissa McEwan
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/mcewan/39449/



My what a big profile you have! All the better to recruit you with, my dear.

So far, over 12,000 Web surfers have signed on as friends of the Corps in response to the latest military recruiting tactic. Other military branches may follow.

...The Marine Corps MySpace profile -- featuring streaming video of barking drill sergeants, fresh recruits enduring boot camp and Marines storming beaches -- underscores the growing importance of the Internet to advertisers as a medium for reaching America's youth.

Perhaps I'm a total hypocrite, because I don't believe this would bother me so much if we weren't currently at war. But we are, and soldiers have a real chance of dying, getting catastrophically injured, or coming home physically safe but seriously fucked up -- and the recruiters don't really use those possibilities as a selling point, if you know what I mean -- so, at the moment, this does bother me, especially as recruiting tactics have been getting increasingly predatory (and unethical).

In any case, I'm not the only one who's bothered. Punkass Marc delivers with the snark:

I applaud the UMSC for acknowledging their true intent. No one preys on the young in this country quite like the Corps, and creepy stalkers know myspace is the place to start looking for fresh meat. So for anyone who likes long hard objects that shoot quite a load should make a friend with the Marines today.

...[And] you can keep the oral fixation satisfied with the military