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NOTE: This article on the NNOMY website is not an endorsement of the NGYCP but rather an illustration of how marginalized U.S. American youth are directly profiled to fill the ranks of the military  services based on their vulnerability to the criminal and military societal complexes that exist within a vigorous financially based culture. Additionally, as indicated in this Brookings report, they are deemed available and thus "economically indispensable," for militarized vocations due to low achievement levels and their socio-economic conditions.

May 1, 2007 / Hugh B. Price / The Brookings Institution - Executive Summary: A decade ago, the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future issued a prescient warning in its report, entitled What Matters Most:

“There has been no previous time in history when the success, indeed the survival, of nations and people has been tied so tightly to their ability to learn. Today’s society has little room for those who cannot read, write and compute proficiently; find and use resources; frame and solve problems; and continually learn new technologies, skills, and occupations. . . . In contrast to 20 years ago, individuals who do not succeed in school have little chance of finding a job or contributing to society—and societies that do not succeed at education have little chance of success in a global economy.”

Demographic trends indicate that the U.S. economy will rely increasingly upon Latinos and African Americans because together they, and especially the former, will comprise a steadily growing proportion of the adult workforce. By 2020, roughly 30 percent of the working-age population in the United States will be Latino and African American. Yet these economically indispensable population groups, along with low-income youngsters, consistently lag farthest behind academically.

As recently as 2005, roughly half of fourth and eighth grade black and Latino students performed Below Basic in reading and math according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Actually, the imperative of boosting achievement transcends ethnicity. White students far outnumber those from other ethnic groups and constitute over one-third of all youngsters scoring in the lowest quintile. Compounding these academic gaps, distressingly large numbers of Latino and African-American youngsters drop out of high school.

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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 draft 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.

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March 1, 2006 / Sonia Nettnin / Media Monitors Network - The militarization of America’s youth is the U.S. military’s strategic device for recruitment into the armed forces.

Through authorization by the Supreme Court the military engages youth in middle schools and high schools through the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). A spokesperson for the Committee Against the Militarization of Youth (CAMY) reports that the Middle School Cadet Corps program proliferates a culture of militarization because it “…indoctrinates boys and girls (ages 11 –” 14) to use rifles and play video games.” As a result, the program is a discipline of teaching kids violence.

When youth learn about militarism through systematic instruction, then military principles mold their attitudes and thoughts about the armed forces. They become inspired to enlist after high school gradation. Therefore the program influences their decision to sign up for military service.

According to the American Friends Service Committee, 45 per cent of graduates from the cadet program join some branch of military service. However, the number of youth participating in the counter-recruitment movement is growing. Youth have integral, leadership roles in these social organizations. Through public forums and informational events youth talk with youth about how the military recruits them — especially in minority communities (African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans, Native-Americans, women, etc.). Young women and men share their beliefs about the military and their experiences with recruitment in schools.

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August 25, 2005 / Peter Rothberg / The Nation - In the new issue of The Nation, Karen Houppert investigates how the US military has gone beyond trying to recruit tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders and is now actively chasing children as young as eleven years old. Growing desperate amid repeated failures to meet recruitment quotas and empowered by provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, military recruiters are working the schools like never before.

Houppert shows how many parents are increasingly resisting these efforts. “A lot of people are concerned,” she quotes one Los Angeles parent as saying, “but don’t know what to do about it.” But now there’s a new coalition designed to aid parents–and all concerned citizens–alarmed by the military’s increasingly predatory efforts to woo teenagers into the armed forces.

Spearheaded by Working Assets, Mainstream Moms and ACORN, the Leave My Child Alone coalition is trying to raise awareness of the military’s often stealthy recruiting ploys and make sure that all parents know that the Pentagon has established a database with the names of 30 million 16 to 25 year olds as a recruitment tool and that their children can opt out of their school’s military recruitment lists and the Pentagon’s database.

The LMCA site offers a step-by-step account on how to opt-out as as well as a raft of educational and activist resources. Check it out and circulate word about this new coalition. (The Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities also offers good ideas on how to “demilitarize our schools.”)

Military programs move into middle schools to fish for future soldiers

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