Youth served: Military recruiters pin hopes on high school students

[NVMojo]

Coincidently, today I had the unique opportunity of listening to a junior ROTC promoter talk to a group of local leaders on the merits of junior ROTC in a high school to serve Native American youth. The talk went much like what was here, no mention of Iraq, some mention of HS ROTC kids going on to become military folks. What disgusted me was the people, including the Army ROTC dudes waxing sentimental about how the Native American people have the highest rate of military enlistment for a group nationwide. Hmm, yeah, well the tribe in my town has more than a 70% poverty rate. We've done alot to create what it going on today and the best we have to offer is the military to our nation's poor youth from a disenfranchised group? Sorry if I offend....but is this the best we can offer living in Bushworld?


December 18 - 19, 2004

A federal appellate court last month struck down the Solomon amendment, a federal law that allowed the government to pull federal funding from universities that banned ROTC programs or military recruiters.

Left untouched was a little-noticed provision in a different law, the federal No Child Left Behind Act, that guarantees recruiters access to public high school campuses and student lists.

Military officials say high school campuses are a critical part of their recruitment effort, an effort that has increasing importance for the armed forces.

Standing at the front of a room full of Eldorado High School juniors and seniors recently, Sgt. 1st Class Darcy Tiedeman of the Nevada Army National Guard asked how many students knew what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives

snip...

And while the words "Iraq" or "Afghanistan" are never mentioned during the 50-minute presentation, Tiedeman tells the students the possibility of being called up always exists.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-gov/2004/dec/17/518002894.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. we have a bright shiny new recruiting center in the strip mall where

my store is

such pretty uniforms they wear

especially the Marines /sarcasm

[LizW]

2. They were hanging out in dress uniform today

at the mall outside Game Stop.

:scared:

[pinniped]

29. I saw a couple hanging out the Raiders store at a mall in Concord, CA.

They were young USMC dudes and they figured they would make out good because a lot of Raiders fans appear to be tough guys.

[IA_Seth]

31. LOL - I take exception to that!

I am a die hard Chokeland Raiders fan and I don't think I am such a tough guy...

Well maybe a little, but don't assume we are all crazies!

Well maybe we are...

DOH!

[saigon68]

9. Such Pretty Uniforms !!!! Especially after they are dead (graphic)

Its amazing to see how UPLIFTING and pretty it is to die for Halliburton and Exxon.





Here's Randi Rhodes photo of this dude's autopsy. (warrior)




DOESN'T LOOK SO ROMANTIC NOW--- EH CHILDREN !!!!

THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME ON THE SLAB.

[Paleocon]

16. Man... that's gruesome...

I was in the Army, and I know of what you speak, but that is NOT what I needed this morning to start my day...

Believe me, when I got out I tried to convince everyone in my unit to not re-enlist and get out as soon as they possibly could.

[rocktivity]

3. Did you catch the disco music

That Michael Moore played when the Marines entered the low-income strip mall in Farenheit 911?

:headbang:
rocknation

[NVMojo]

4. yeah, I remember that ...reeling em in to the disco beat ...

[Ian David]

5. When the fundies wax poetic about faith-based funding

Explain to them about The Solomon Amendment and recruiters on campuses.

[Sara Beverley]

6. Well, as dumb as many of HS graduates are, they would be prime targets

for recruiters. See how many home-schooled are approached and see how many of them sign up.

[Raster]

7. sara, maybe they need to throw in a splash of "gawd" to get those

...homeschoolers.

On edit: many of those homeschoolers are rabid fanatics. You certainly won't see their children enlist.

[AndyTiedye]

8. A Lot of Those Homeschooled Fundiekids are Raring to Go

Perhaps the Army will lower its standards to accomodate them:

(from the LA Times a while back, sorry no link)

Earlier this month, Hubbard had a young teenager who was refreshingly animated, chatty – almost personable. Hubbard reacted to the teenager with wild joy. “This is going to be our next soldier!” he announced, slapping the teenager on the back. Hubbard ran through the standard questions, and the teenager answered them all briskly, forthrightly. Then Hubbard said something about high school.

“I was home-schooled,” the boy said.

Say what?

Hubbard looked at the boy’s application. “Says here you went to Pine Lake High School,” he said.

“Yeah,” the boy said. “My mother made that name up.”

Hubbard sent the teenager to take the aptitude test, and hours later Hubbard got the phone call he was half-expecting. The teenager scored a 6. Thirty was failing – 6 was barely breathing. Hubbard put his hands over his face and rubbed his eyes.

[hadrons]

10. good that the home-schooled numbnut isn't sluring the name of a real HS

Hubbard looked at the boy’s application. “Says here you went to Pine Lake High School,” he said.

“Yeah,” the boy said. “My mother made that name up.”

[Paleocon]

17. If I had kids I'd homeschool them...

Maybe you think the state can raise your kids better than you...

I don't....

:)

[livinginphotographs]

19. I was homeschooled.

(for a brief period)

I'm neither a fundie nor a rabid right-winger. :shrug:

[NuttyFluffers]

24. 6!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!

dear god! is he left with a medulla oblongata (brain stem) and that's it?! dear lord! don't people have to TRY to get that low?! oh my freaking tapdancing christ on a crutch with gout! does he have spontaeous outbursts of gasping from forgetting to breathe!?

can't we send him anyways like a look-out or a landmine detector? i mean, he must have *some* sort of use, just don't give him a gun? :shrug:

whoa.... how would we possibly integrate osmeone like that into a functional member of society?! is there *any* career choice for him?

[qwlauren35]

26. Keep in mind...

The child may be slightly retarded, and the parents chose to homeschool as an act of love...

Many scenarios are possible.

[NuttyFluffers]

28. and the military recruiter was excited to take them!?!?!?

that makes the story even worse! oh my god! how horrifying! to take the mentally challenged to throw them into a war situation when they have difficulty with regular challenges of everyday life?!?! how heartless and cruel! string up that recruiter! sending down-syndrome and autistic people into boot camp as cannon fodder -- the atrocity! and the mother! how could the mother allow the recruiter to fill her poor challenged child with such delusions!

no... either way it is a most galling situation. i just cannot manage the child being so challenged and the recruiter trying to lure him in. i'd be livid in the face of such manipulation and callousness.

[Swamp Rat]

11. We should show pictures of dead and maimed soldiers

to the same group of kids after the recruiters are done. How about video footage of interviews of soldiers with missing limbs, or others talking about bloated bodies, children splattered all over their own bedrooms, and dogs eating dead mommys and daddys?

"See kids! These Army guys didn't tell you about the horrors you will face and the debt you will pay during AND after the fighting is done. Plus, they earn points by SUCKERING YOU IN! Are you kids a bunch of dumbass fools or can you think for yourselves?"

[saigon68]

12. Here you go SW (graphic)

Not Having Fun for Halliburton # 3





A dead U.S. soldier is removed from his Humvee after an RPG attack.




A U.S. soldier lies dead on the kitchen floor of a house in Fallujah which was used as a base by
insurgent fighters. The soldier was shot and killed as he entered the room. Two other soldiers
were also wounded by the insurgents, who escaped.
(Photo: Stefan Zaklin / Sipa Press)

[Swamp Rat]

13. Rummy doesn't want you to see those photos!

[gratuitous]

20. Or bring in the boot project display

Hundreds and hundreds of empty combat boots, with a name and hometown tag affixed to each pair, makes an eloquent counterstatement to the recruiting pitch: There's a pair of empty boots that could have your name on it. And all because some soul-dead person in a uniform made you feel inadequate because you didn't know what you were going to do for the rest of your life at 17 years of age. I'm 46, and I don't know what I'll be doing the rest of my life, but it's damn sure not going to be killing people who are no threat to me and dying for the greater profitability of Halliburton.

[Swamp Rat]

21. Yes. Articles of clothing, eye glasses, shoes, etc.

These all made an impression on me when I visited Dachau, so I imagine empty combat boots with name tags would also. Couple that with images of Marines with their brains dripping out fractured skulls and protruding bones where limbs used to be, then we may see recruitment come to a complete halt. I'd rather offend the sensibilities of the sensitive than sit back and do nothing while young kids are sent to their deaths.

[Sugarbleus]

14. Thanks for this post...I almost forgot, I have to call my kids

school to tell them to stick their lists up their bung holes!

I'm very sorry to hear of the recruiters out doing their dirty work in the tribal areas! WHAT GALL!

You know, I'm not anti-military per se. I'm anti draft. I'm anti war that is begun illegally FOR NOTHING but profits and religious zealots.

I'm not opposed to the right to defend one's country in times of REAL THREAT. Many of us would take up arms to protect our society, our people....BUT they need to keep thier filthy hands off our youth for wars of profit using shameless propoganda

Why should ANYONE join the military and die when the country they leave behind is barely offering a damn thing for it's regular citizens? (rhetorical) SEND DONALD TRUMP'S and BUSH'S KIDS!

[Voltaire99]

15. Without innocence and ignorance, recruiters have no hope.

Look, during the coming years, for our sorriest school systems to be allowed to decay even further. Uncle Same wants cannon fodder. And he means to get it.

[truthisfreedom]

18. WHAT THEY WANTED TO DO WITH THE REST OF THEIR LIVES?

Sgt. 1st Class Darcy Tiedeman of the Nevada Army National Guard asked how many students knew what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives

OH MY FREAKING GOD. what rest of their lives? if they go into Iraq, there is no rest of their lives. only death and dispair.

darcy tiedeman, you will rot in hell for suggesting that a child should sacrifice his/her life for bushco's illegal war just because that child doesn't have fixed or serious plans for the next few years.

this question is pure evil in the context of an unwinnable war.

[saigon68]

22. kicking this bad boy

[AndyTiedye]

27. The Army Knows What IT Wants to Do To The Rest of Our Lives

They want to send us all off to war.
If we survive, they want to send us again.
And again.
Until we don't come back.

(That's also their real plan to "fix" Social Security)

[screembloodymurder]

23. What is the legal age of consent?

Can a 17 year old sign up and be held to it? I suppose the legal age varies, but I sure don't want my kids mind twisted into patriotic duty.

[saigon68]

25. 18 IS THE AGE

[VegasWolf]

30. Step right up, be the first to lose an arm or leg or life for bush's oops

and we'll give you 18,000 dollars and a brand new video game.