Just graduated from high school? Can’t afford college? Having trouble finding a job that pays a living wage?

You’ve got lots of company. So maybe you’re thinking of doing your duty to your country and enlisting in the military, where you can learn a skill while also serving the land that has done so much for you. And with all that free room and board, and medical and dental care, you can save up enough for college later.

What a great idea! So let’s crunch the numbers. A U.S. Army private with less than two years of service currently earns a base pay of $21,420, or about $2,017 per month. Since your expenses are practically nil, that sounds pretty good to you 18-year-olds, doesn’t it?

Well, it’s not bad . . . not bad at all. But you shouldn’t grab the first offer that comes your way. Check this out.

Vladimir Putin has doubled the up-front payments for volunteers to fight in Ukraine. Doubled! Sign a contract with the army, and you will receive a signing bonus of 400,000 rubles, or $4,651. And the government has recommended that regional authorities match this payment with at least the same amount, so you could be talking about $9,302 before you’ve even been fitted for a uniform.

Hold on, there. Did you read that right? Rubles?!! Well, yes. We are talking about the Russian army, after all. But, moving on . . .

There’s also your monthly salary. For a private participating in Russia’s “special military operation” (we’ll talk about that later), the minimum annual wage in the first year of service has been increased to 3.25 million rubles (or the equivalent of $37,791). In Russia, that makes you a millionaire! In rubles, of course.

And if you enlist in Moscow, you qualify for the additional up-front payment of 1.9 million rubles recently authorized by the mayor (another $21,777), bringing your total first-year pay to . . . WOW! . . . a whopping 5.2 million rubles (or around $60,320 in real money).

So, you say there’s got to be a catch, right?

Well . . .

Remember I mentioned that “special military operation”? Have you been paying attention to the news for the past 2-1/2 years? That’s what Russia calls its war in Ukraine — its brutal, bloody, barbaric invasion of a peaceful sovereign nation in which an estimated 10,500 civilians have been killed thus far.

And you don’t even want to know about the half million or so Russian military casualties.

No, seriously . . . you don’t want to know, because that’s where they’ll be sending you: into the meat grinder they call a “special military operation,” because they’re afraid to let their people know what it really is. And you? You’re just more meat.

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So what’s my point? Well, first, it’s that money is not always the most important consideration. What good is a fat bank account when you’re dead?

And second . . . Okay, I confess: this little lesson wasn’t really aimed at high school graduates. They’re not reading my blog anyway. It was just another example of the state of things in Russia vis-a-vis its military misadventure in Ukraine. They can’t get enough volunteers — enlistments so far this year have numbered only about 190,000 as compared with 490,000 in 2023 — not even enough to replace the casualties. And they’re rightfully concerned about popular reaction if they even consider staging another nationwide mobilization.

How strange: no one wants to go to war. Well, except for a few hard-core criminals who think that even coming home in a body bag would be better than life in a Russian prison. And from what we’ve learned recently from the former hostages, they’re probably right.

So the government is buying live bodies, both at home and in friendly countries abroad. That has to be tough on the economy . . . but perhaps all the precious metals and gems their mercenaries are hauling out of Africa will help.

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Well, now — what’s that all about? Do we have a lead-in to my next post, or what? We’re talking about Russian mercenaries, African mine workers, governments trading who-knows-what behind closed doors so that Vladimir Putin can keep his “special military operation” going.

I wonder: If Louis Armstrong were alive today, do you think he’d still be singing “What a Wonderful World”?

Because from everything I’m seeing, I’m not so sure it is.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/6/24