MilitarisationBrutalisation of military personnel and the impact on personnel and the local community raises questions
Brutality is a fact of life for soldiers who are forced to carry on training in full battle dress, with a hat, rifle and pack. In the USA 11 servicemen died from heat exhaustion in the past decade and 400 were injured. Brutality and negligence by officers of the USSR military have claimed the lives of an estimated 15,000 soldiers in the period 1985-90. In 1993 it was claimed that in Russia some 5,000 soldiers a year die from what is termed "non-combat causes".
Bullying
Bullying by officers and sergeants, together with appalling living conditions, have been responsible for a very high level of suicides among recruits, with 3,900 dying in 1989 alone. It is claimed that thousands 
have died or been maimed because of negligence or dangerous exercises with live ammunition. Cruelty and bullying may be exacerbated by racial tensions between soldiers of different ethnic origin. In 1992, a former UK Artillery officer claimed he suffered a mental 
breakdown and attempted suicide after continuous abuse by 10 other colleagues, who, in one incident, tore his clothes off and tied him to a cannon at the barracks
Most military units have a tradition of imposing some sort of informal initiation test on new recruits. This may range from efforts to get them drunk or to undertake some degrading task. A vicious element may be added if the process involves sexual humiliation, whether coating the genitals with some substance, performing with a specially hired prostitute, or the rare, but well-publicized, instances of buggery with a broomstick.
Torture
Allegations of torture by British squaddies in Iraq could point to a culture of humiliation and brutality pervading military bases at home. War had exposed a deep-seated culture of sexual harassment and violence in the Army in peacetime.
Assults
Alcohol plays a prominent role in almost all cases reaching courts martial and contributed to many violent offences. Dozens of soldiers have been imprisoned in the past year for assaults, some of which involved knives, iron bars and wooden sticks. 'There is a culture of very heavy drinking in the services,' said Gilbert Blades, a lawyer who deals with many military cases.
Sexual assults, Rape
A recent survey revealed that one in 10 women cadets at West Point, the premier US military academy, had been raped or had suffered sexual assault.
According to Amnesty International, and other women’s rights groups working with it on this campaign, there has been an alarming rise in the number of rapes and sexual assaults against women in uniform, especially in Iraq. Who is raping American women soldiers in Iraq? Not Baath party loyalists, or the Al Queada terrorists allegedly pouring into the country – but their fellow American soldiers
We have to ask what 1. What impact huge numbers of predominately male military personnel will have on our communities. 2. Will it lead to increased incidences of drunkenness and related violence in our city and town centres. 3. Will it lead to increased assaults on women? And 4. If so, what will be the cost to the community of resources to deal with increased crime and disorder.
Mindsets Nationalism and militarism are both ideologies (mindsets), and practices that flow from them. Now if you think about it, the inequalities and distortions of gender in a patriarchal society are very characteristic of social systems we call militarist and nationalist. They are kind of 'brother' ideologies, and have very similar scenarios for women and men, for gender relations. They model an active, aggressive, public kind of man and masculinity. This 'real man' is sharply differentiated from the proper woman, whose femininity features passivity, domesticity and loyalty. In all three of these mindsets, the male (father, patriot, soldier) is ascribed much higher value than the female.
Women in most social classes and most countries experience disadvantage and inequality as a sex, and that sometimes brings them together. One aspect of this is that women often experience personal sexualised violence perpetrated by men. So we get to see a connection between violence, militarism and certain masculine cultures in which men learn violence and bond together as men around disrespect for women. What will this do to our communities when there are 10,000 trainees at St Athan?
A future based on militarism
Professor J Paul Dunne and Dr Sam tell us that there has been a massive expansion of Britain's offensive military capability in a form that seems to have little value for national defence or for peace support operations. Instead it provides capabilities for attacks on nation states as part of US-led coalitions. Something the most recent Defence White Paper treats as a very serious possibility. So what we are talking about is a dangerous resurgence of British militarism in which the principle purpose of Britain’s military forces is global power projection, involving pre-emptive strikes – not excluding nuclear strikes – on so-called ‘rogue’ nations. A dangerous reliance on security based on military might, and indeed on aggressive power projection rather than more targeted defence. The new aircraft carriers and the Trident replacement are major pillars of this policy.
It is also expensive £75.5 billion up to 2042 or we could have • 1.25p off the basic rate of income tax • The capital and running costs of around 200 new hospitals
• The capital and running costs of around 1130 new secondary schools
in moderate/high cost areas, with 1,000 pupils each• A real increase in the basic state pension of £11 per week. Is there a negative effect on the economy with out this spending? The sustained decline in defence spending with the end of the Cold War, from the mid 1980s to the end of the 90s, was much greater than any likely reduction that would result from the cancellation of the Trident replacement.
Aggressive Militarism or Security: By Professor J Paul Dunne and Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman 08/04/2007
Miltary spending negative effects on economix productivity
Military spending leads to a serious distortion of educational and occupational structures and negative effects on economic productivity, and their low-yield contribution of jobs and incomes for ordinary people, when compared with the same levels of non-military government spending. To support economic militarism is to give support to big business and right wing policies for all dimensions of our existence.
It is argued that Britain doesn‘t have the kinds (or size) of armed forces to engage in large scale of prolonged warfare – designed to participate in political actions?
There should be a rigorous and extensive investigation to determine the effects , requirements of launching such a major and complex enterprise on communities at St Athan, Barry and Cardiff.
