Counter-Recruitment Deserves Higher Priority on the Peace Agenda

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/24/73/

Counter-Recruitment Deserves Higher Priority on the Peace Agenda
by Pat Elder

The mainstream peace and justice movement is beginning to see that countering military recruitment deserves a higher priority and should be viewed in strategic, rather than tactical terms. Resisting the unprecedented and relentless militarization of American youth transcends the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Countering military recruitment confronts an ugly mix of a distinctively American brand of institutionalized violence, racism, militarism, nationalism, classism, and sexism. It gets to the root of the problem.

Confronting the work of military recruiters, particularly in the nation’s public schools will provide a catalyst for activists to shift gears from the traditional antiwar tactics of vigils, protests, sit-ins, and CD actions to the long-term strategy of opposing the militarization of youth. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. One however, treats symptoms; the other addresses causes.

Simply put, the strategy of the counter-recruiting movement is to put the imperial armed forces of the United States into a kind of vice that squeezes new recruits from the ranks. One end of the vice is the near universal rejection of the return of the military draft. Remember how the House voted 402-2 against reinstating the daft back in October of 2004? Bringing back the draft is unthinkable. Conscription would result in demonstrations of millions that would ultimately end the war and result in a political revolution. The crushing steel on the opposite side of the vice is the counter-recruitment movement, aided by an American public that increasingly recognizes illegal and immoral wars.

Counter recruitment activists are putting on the squeeze. They’re doing it by learning about high school policies that favor military recruiters and they’re organizing their communities to change it. They’re providing youth with training, employment and educational alternatives to military service. They’re engaged with community leaders and the press in promoting a greater awareness of encroaching militarism. And they’re being successful across the country.

The military is feeling the pressure. The Pentagon has seriously dumbed down its enlistment qualifications and lowered its monthly quotas. The Army is dredging the bottom of the barrel by dramatically lowering the bar for enlisting. The percent of all Army recruits without a high school diploma has risen to 18.8%, the highest level since 1981. The Army has also relaxed the minimum scores necessary on the standardized Armed Forces Qualification Test, (AFQT). The percent of soldiers who have been granted waivers for alcohol or drug abuse, criminal misdemeanors, and various medical conditions has been raised from 10% to 15%. The Army has also increased its maximum age for enlistment from 35 to 42. The vice is turning.

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[northamericancitizen]

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