Making Childen into Soldiers for Future Wars

Child Soldiers
(Image by West Point - The U.S. Military Academy)   Details   DMCA

Photographer Sarah Blesener visits a group of Young Marines...

...Sarah Blesener has been visiting patriotic youth groups around the country, from teens being trained as border guards in Texas, ROTC chapters in New York, a patriotic church camp in Utah... Her aim has been to explore how different combinations of religion, love of country, and military-style training come together in the teaching of “new Americanism,” which Blesener defines as a renewed embrace of the centuries-old theme of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny.

One group...which has 300 clubs around the country...open to boys and girls ages 8 and up...take part in a military-style boot camp, fitness drills, and weekend encampments...