Tuesday, April 14, 2026 / yes! Solutions Journalism -  A bolder antiwar movement is desperately needed at this moment to prevent the US-Israeli war in the Middle East from escalating further. While slogans against militarism were heard at the historic No Kings protests, we also need to build something more enduring, localized, and concrete to bring the genocidal attacks on Lebanon and Iran to a halt.

Veteran organizing was key to ending the U.S. war on Vietnam. While the movement against the Iraq war did not succeed in preventing the U.S. operation, veteran organizing planted the seeds for long-term efforts to turn youth against war. Writing for YES! in 2023 on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Ruben Abrahams Brosbe reported on efforts by veterans "to counter both the narrative and incentives that military recruiters offer young people" and "share the truth about traumatic personal experiences as well as practical information":

"I think it's super trippy, that there are children who are old enough to be in the military and being deployed to Iraq, who were not born when the war started. That is something that is just devastating and tragic to me," Damiani says. "It fuels my fire to keep talking to the kids, because they need to know." – Ruben Abrahams Brosbe 

Amid war build-up, Selective Service System sends the White House its plan to identify and locate potential draftees

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April 9, 2026 / Edward Hasbrouck / Antiwar.com - On March 30th, the Selective Service System (SSS) sent the White House its proposed regulations for “automatic” [sic] draft registration for review and approval before they are made public. This is the first visible step in the transition from trying to get young men to sign themselves up for a military draft, to trying to sign them up “automatically” by aggregating data requisitioned from other Federal agencies.

This year-long process began with the enactment of the SSS proposal for “automatic” registration in December 2025. The new scheme is supposed to go into operation in December 2026.

The SSS has been keeping a low profile to avoid calling attention to its attempt to lay new groundwork for a draft in the middle of a major military escalation. The SSS hasn’t issued a press release in the four months since the enactment of the “automatic” registration law, has no details of its plans for “automatic” registration on its website, and has delayed responding to my FOIA request for those plans. This has led to hasty and credulous reports in the last few days by journalists who saw the notice of the proposed rules but hadn’t followed the legislation, didn’t know to expect this next step in the process, and weren’t aware of the widespread and increasingly organized opposition to this plan.

  español - This segment aired on April 8, 2026 on Here & Now.

April 8, 2026 / Indira Lakshmanan, Ashley Locke, & Grace Griffin / wbur.org - During the Vietnam War, nearly 500,000 men in the U.S. applied for conscientious objector exemptions to avoid the draft. But since the country moved to an all-volunteer military force in 1973, those applications have dropped significantly.

Until now.

The nonprofit Center on Conscience and War, which advises service members on filing conscientious objections, says the number of conscientious objector applications has increased sharply since the U.S. and Israel launched war on Iran in late February.

He said in a typical year, the center sees about 50 conscientious objector applications from active-duty military personnel. But that number has sharply increased since the U.S. and Israel launched the war in Iran in February.

Since this war started,” Mike Prysner, an Iraq War veteran who is the executive director of the Center of Conscience and War, said, “we fielded hundreds of calls from active-duty military who do not want to participate and are strongly opposed to the war.”

The nonprofit Center on Conscience and War, which advises service members on filing conscientious objections, says the number of conscientious objector applications has increased sharply since the U.S. and Israel launched war on Iran in late February.

He said in a typical year, the center sees about 50 conscientious objector applications from active-duty military personnel. But that number has sharply increased since the U.S. and Israel launched the war in Iran in February.

Since this war started,” Mike Prysner, an Iraq War veteran who is the executive director of the Center of Conscience and War, said, “we fielded hundreds of calls from active-duty military who do not want to participate and are strongly opposed to the war.”

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April 08, 2026 / Fabiola Cardozo / The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) - I am a mother who wakes up every morning with the firm conviction to keep going, to do what's best for my daughter, to contribute through my daily work to building a less violent world. Unfortunately, when I check the news, I am disappointed once again. The world is cruel, and the U.S. government continues with its war plans. The military budget leads to social disinvestment, leaving young people vulnerable to military recruitment from many quarters. War and violence are sold as the spectacle of the year through movies, online games, and every other way imaginable. I swim against the current, I stay alert all day long; violence is becoming normalized. Those of us who are in favor of peace smell the terrible scent they use to lull us into a false sense of security. They want us to be on their side, to not perceive their subtle strategies to convince us that they are saving the world. It's a lie. They are putting everyone at risk, especially young people—yours, mine, ours. There are no victors, no winners…

Executive Outcomes and the making of the modern mercenary

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April 2026 / Benjamin Fogel / The Baffler - Mercenaries have become an inescapable part of today’s landsce of conflict and disorder. Guns for hire now cover the globe. Rechristened outside of Ukraine as the Africa Corps after the demise of its director, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russia’s Wagner Group has popped up everywhere in Africa, from Burkina Faso to the Central African Republic. Elsewhere on the continent, the United Arab Emirates has sent the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to secure access to gold mines in Sudan. In the Western Hemisphere, Colombian mercenaries return from a stint in Ukraine’s international brigades to Mexico to spread the gospel of drone warfare to cartel sicarios, and the Trump administration schemes to secure Venezuela’s oil assets not with U.S. troops but with private military contractors, or PMCs, as they’re usually known.

Placing profit over ideology, modern mercenaries are as at home in the boardroom as on the frontline. Their companies are registered in the appropriate tax haven, like the City of London, and operate through shell firms. They are contracted by international humanitarian organizations that regularly employ PMCs for protection from East Timor to Haiti as part of their missions; by global shipping firms to ward off pirates along the coast of Somalia; or by governments of troubled states, such as Mali, to train their militaries. Contracting PMCs is not limited, however, to so-called failed states and countries short of military-age men (and citizens) like Qatar and the UAE. Offering more than just frontline troops for hire—services provided now include everything from organizing logistics to running troll farms—these companies form an essential component of the most powerful militaries in the world. Wagner has in effect been nationalized by the Kremlin, and the United States has channeled billions of dollars to PMCs over the course of the twenty-first century, beginning with the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.