Gary Ghirardi | OpEd | June 2020 -Back in May of 2020, I caught an interview on Pacifica's KPFK radio on a morning program where a young woman was explaining the loss of her aunt that was a nurse engaging patients with the Coronavirus. She recounted her aunt telling her that she was not provided with masks or gloves and that a patient had sneezed in her face a week prior to her falling ill. All this culminated with a Zoom meeting with the family saying goodbye before she died. Later that day I passed a local hospital that had placed a large banner on the street honoring our heroes that were fighting the current epidemic.
In my work for The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth, I am constantly reminded of a similar refrain from those pushing back against our work of getting youth, with limited opportunities for their futures, to consider all the ramifications of serving in the United State's post 9/11 military. That push-back always invokes the heroic diatribes defending those who serve in our military branches and a forceful reminder of how dare we try to diminish the sacrifice of heroes who have served or are considering serving by revealing the harmful realities of military service. Of course we do not diminish their service but try to put it in context to a fuller and more accurate disclosure of what military recruiters manage to leave out of their enlistment appeals. The relationship between these two scenarios, and the contradictions inherent in both, stayed with me all week and encouraged this short OpEd.
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Militarization of our Schools
The Pentagon is taking over our poorer public schools. This is the reality for disadvantaged youth.
What we can do
Corporate/conservative alliances threaten Democracy . Progressives have an important role to play.
Why does NNOMY matter?
Most are blind or indifferent to the problem.
A few strive to protect our democracy.
The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)
Articles
Rick Jahnkow / Demilitarize Our Schools -
Legislation has recently been suggested that, among other things, would greatly expand the number of JROTC units and make military recruiting a more explicit, formal part of the program's stated purpose. It's part of the Inspired to Serve Act of 2020, which is being proposed by the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (NCMNPS). Below is the JROTC-related language (the commission is also recommending draft registration for women):
SEC. 304. EXPANSION OF JUNIOR RESERVE OFFICERS’ TRAINING CORPS PROGRAM
(a) EXPANSION OF JROTC CURRICULUM.—Section 2031(a)(2) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by inserting after “service to the United States,” the following: “including an introduction to service opportunities in military, national, and public service,”.
(b) PLAN TO INCREASE NUMBER OF JROTC UNITS.—The Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretaries of the military departments (as defined in section 102 of title 5, United States Code), shall develop and implement a plan to establish and support not less than 6,000 units of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps by September 30, 2031.
(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.
By Edward Hasbrouck / Resisters.info / COMD -
On March 25, the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (NCMNPS), after a three-year charade of stage-managed and largely one-sided public events accompanied by closed-door meetings and negotiations among the members of the Commission, released its final report. It recommends that Congress amend the Military Selective Service Act to require that young women, as well as young men, register for the draft when they reach age 18, and inform the Selective Service System each time they change their address until their 26th birthday.
The Commission's recommendations with respect to Selective Service registration are such a naïve fantasy, completely unfeasible and with no foundation in research or reality. The Commission kept its head firmly in the sand, carefully avoiding any inquiry into whether or how the current (unenforced and widely violated) registration requirement for men, much less an expanded registration requirement applicable also to women, could be enforced.
In the report’s 255 pages, there's no mention at all of compliance or noncompliance with draft registration. There's been no audit of the registration database since 1982, and the Commission didn't conduct or ask for one.
The Department of Justice is, and would remain, responsible for enforcement of the registration requirement; but nobody has been prosecuted for non registration since 1986, and in the years that have followed, the DoJ has made neither any estimate of the numbers of violators nor any plan or budget for how to identify, investigate, find, arrest, prosecute, or incarcerate them.
Gary Ghirardi, OpEd - A campaign by the Earth Democracy Project of the U.S. Section of the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, has given an additional argument to Truth in Recruitment activists which is the fact of military contamination health risks on U.S. military bases nationally and globally.
The recent movie, “Dark Waters,” increased public visibility to the dangers of PFOA/PFOS chemicals also used in fire suppression foam systems on military bases. A lack of concern for proper containment and disposal by the Pentagon coupled with the careless and rampant training with these foams by national and international military base operations, has caused a massive contamination of ground wells used by base inhabitants and surrounding civilian communities for drinking and general household uses. These cancer causing contaminants have been in use for many years now without the public being aware of the extreme health dangers of these chemicals. But some activist veterans, who have experienced mounting health issues are campaigning aggressively to put pressure on the Pentagon to create public awareness about the problem.
As Congress prepares to debate the issue of the military draft, anti-draft activists are calling on Congress to enact legislation to end draft registration entirely.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments March 3, 2020 in a case in which a Federal District Court judge has already ruled that the current requirement for men to register with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft is unconstitutional. A decision on that appeal could come at any time. The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (NCMNPS) will release its recommendations to Congress regarding the Selective Service System on March 25, 2020.
Nicole Goodkind / Fortune - Gone are the days when the United States Army plastered airwaves with recruitment advertisements that includes photographs of younger males parachuting out of Apaches, fording streams, and jogging throughout barren fields over the sober horns of Mark Isham’s “Army Strong.”
Today’s Army is taking a other approach: They’re going after Mom and Dad.
A sequence of new tv recruitment advertisements function moms and fathers in conflict settings, making an attempt to convince their kids no longer to sign up for the Army.
In one advert, titled “Warfighter,” a mom approaches her son who’s decked out in a ghillie swimsuit and aiming a gun. The mom, who’s dressed in a nightgown and housecoat, implores the younger guy to come again house.
“Michael,” she begs. “You can do anything you want. Why this?”
Michael remains robust. He tells his mother that he doesn’t need to be caught in the back of a table.
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