LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!

[michelle]

"His recruiter promised him that because he scored so high on the ASVAB test, he would never see combat.... If I had the opportunity to get his name off the list, I definitely would have." -- Cindy Sheehan, mother of soldier slain in Iraq, in the Leave My Child Alone DVD

Dear Friends,

Public high schools across the nation are handing over databases of private student information to local military recruiters. The recruiters, under tremendous pressure to get "new bodies" and in the shadow of an ethics scandal, will relentlessly pursue our most vulnerable students with promises of money for college, signing bonuses and job training that most enlistees will never receive.

Some of these students will eventually be sent to Iraq where over 1,823 U.S. service members have been killed, 1,672 of them since President Bush's infamous "Bring 'em on" comment. Sadly, by the time you read this email, those numbers -- already too great -- may have regrettably grown larger.

If you act before it's too late, you can help protect our children from unwanted military recruiting and make sure our schools are primarily places for learning and not for opportunistic prospecting for the Iraq occupation. Please help Opt Out kids from Pentagon marketing run amok at www.LeaveMyChildAlone.org

Found at Leave My Child Alone:

Opt Out
OPT OUT of your school's military recruitment lists and the Pentagon's illegal database.


CLICK HERE TO OPT OUT YOUR CHILD
Co-Sponsor the Student Privacy Protection Act
SIGN ON as a citizen co-sponsor of federal legislation that will close the No Child Left Behind military recruiting loophole.


CLICK HERE TO BECOME A CITIZEN CO-SPONSOR
Get Extra Opt Out Forms
DOWNLOAD Pentagon and High School Opt Out forms that you can carry with you everywhere you go.


CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD FORMS & FLYERS
Write Letters
SEND letters to your school district superintendent, school board, and other officials who can help protect kids' privacy from Pentagon recruiters.


CLICK HERE TO GET LETTER WRITING RESOURCES
Adopt a School Board
TAKE ACTION by adopting a school board and organizing to enact optimum Opt Out policies for your school community.


CLICK HERE TO ADOPT A SCHOOL BOARD
Tell Your Friends
SPREAD THE WORD to parents, teachers, school administrators or others who might be concerned about this issue. We need your help because most people have never even heard about the military recruiting provision of No Child Left Behind.


CLICK HERE TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS

www.leavemychildalone.org/?mktcode=afc-3

Note to members and guests: Please add here any news stories of military recruiting, and comments you have. Also, if you write any letters, do share them with
us ALL. Your letters can add inspiration and direction for some.
Michelle

[DT1]

I seem to vaguely recall a day in high school.The entire school was unexpectedly assembled in the gym.The National Guard flew in,their helicopters touching down on our football field.They filed into the gym,then proceeded to open fire on us-with blanks.In the utter,shocked silence that followed,the leader of the group gave us a patrio-fascist pep-talk and they left,leaving a soldier at a table to recruit us.I had not thought of it in years...Until I read this thread.
With the Great Spirit(so named so as not to offend)
as my witness,I attest that this truly happened.
Chris

[michelle]

A response to "In Need of a Proactive Peace Movement"
by David Goodner
January 25, 2006

Rick Jahnkow's column on the critical importance of counter-recruitment campaigns to the long-term success of the anti-war movement is a worthy New Year's resolution and mission statement for peace activists in 2006. As he states, "...counter-recruitment organizing is the most practical way to tangibly affect current U.S. foreign policy." Hindering the government's ability to wage war, inciting a cultural shift away from militarism, and providing alternatives to military service to the community are a triangle of potential prizes that counter-recruitment campaigns offer.

The importance of reforming the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and putting an end to the rampant physical and sexual assault of women soldiers by their own troops are other important goals of counter-recruitment campaigns, and cannot be emphasized enough. Counter-recruitment campaigns offer opportunities to stand in solidarity with the feminist, GLBT, and youth movements. Counter-recruitment campaigns are multigenerational and can attract high school/college students and their influential Flower Power parents.

As the author notes, sooner or later the Iraq war will come to an end, and we are likely to see a kind of "Iraq syndrome" as the aroused public consciousness acts as a brake on the runaway train of American foreign policy. But a return to the covert policies of the Reagon/Bush/Clinton era isn't much of a victory either. And as Jahnkow also points out, "Iraq syndrome" is not guaranteed. A new terrorist attack on American soil could see renewed public support for costly military interventions.

Jahnkow argues (and Howard Zinn before him) that a true victory for the anti-war movement will only come when we put an end to all wars. To do this, our tactics must go beyond symbolic protesting, and they must address strategic, long-term political and cultural goals. Towards this end, I propose two refinements to the national counter-recruitment campaign:

1) An increased emphasis on protesting Junior ROTC, ROTC, and other military programs institutionalized in our high schools and colleges. For example, at my school the University of Iowa, hundreds of students are enrolled in ROTC programs and have a presence on campus everyday. In contrast, military recruiters looking for enlistees are 'outsiders' and have much less of an influence, as they are only on campus a few times a year. We will be more successful at curing the cultural cancer of militarism if we focus on removing the tumor of ROTC from our schools, instead of treating the symptoms of an occasional heart-ache inducing recruiter visit.

At the high school level, counter-recruitment campaigns are best left to students and their parents. However, initiatives like the Campus Antiwar Network's "Adopt a High School" program are crucial to jump-starting the high school movement in some areas, and similar mentoring programs should be rolled out nationwide to connect younger activists with more experienced role-models.

Attacking class-based systems like J-ROTC and ROTC, which train some to become officers so they can order others to fight and die, may also have additional benefits for transplanting a culture of peace into the organs of the mainstream.

2) An anti-war movement that balances polite civil discourse with serious political disruption. A counter-recruitment protest or alternative-presence educational on Career Day are two good direct actions, but a nuanced approach that mixes traditional tactics with more disruptive ones like trespassing on National Guard sites or blocking ROTC offices from opening provide everyday opportunities for the kinds of accelerated resistance that is now needed.

How a proactive peace movement can organize to end all wars is an exciting new discussion that all activists should now take up and contribute to. Let's stay mobilized through the midterm elections, indeed, through the next presidential elections, and work on crafting and implementing our own agendas.

David Goodner is a 25 year old International Studies major at the University of Iowa and a copy editor and reporter for College Not Combat, the national newspaper of the Campus Antiwar Network. He may be reached at [e-mail] or 319-339-4821.

www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=9591

[michelle]

Some see Army pitch in preteen magazine
Editors of Cobblestone say that wasn't intent
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | July 3, 2006

WASHINGTON -- What began as an attempt to educate middle-school students about the military has set off a string of complaints from parents and teachers that new learning materials designed by a New Hampshire publisher for 9- to 14-year-olds amount to little more than an early recruiting pitch for the Army.

The latest issue of Cobblestone magazine, distributed nationwide to schools and libraries, is dedicated to the Army, a first for the popular periodical.

Titled ``Duty, Honor, Country," the issue depicts a soldier in Iraq manning a machine gun on its glossy cover and includes articles ranging from what it's like to go through boot camp -- ``You're in the Army Now" -- to a rundown of the Army's ``awesome arsenal," to a detailed description of Army career opportunities.

But most controversial has been the pair of teacher's guides prepared in conjunction with the magazine, which is touted as meeting national middle school performance standards for English and language arts. The classroom guides suggest that teachers invite a soldier, Army recruiter, or veteran to speak to their class and poll students on whether ``they think they might someday want to join the Army."

``Some of the teachers were like `Holy cow, look at this,' " said Francis Lunney , a sixth-grade English teacher in Hudson who said he found a copy in his school mailbox in May and quickly lodged a complaint in a telephone call to Carus Publishing in Peterborough, N.H. ``It looked exactly like the [official recruiting] material you get in high school. It didn't seem to be that different the way it was packaged."

The roughly dozen complaints come at a time when the military is struggling to meet recruiting goals and has undertaken more aggressive efforts to draw the interest of youngsters. For example, the Army has funded the development of video games to bring its message to teenagers across the country. But it has been criticized by some groups for its allegedly manipulative sales tactics, and has even faced attempts -- unsuccessful so far -- to bar recruiters from some high schools.

Cobblestone's editors insist that the idea for the special issue was theirs alone, though they requested and received permission to use Army photos. They also received more extensive help from the chief historian of the Army Historical Foundation, Matthew Seelinger . The foundation, based in Arlington, Va., is a private, nonprofit organization and is independent of the military.

``We are not part of the government; we are not part of the Army," said Seelinger. ``They contacted us."

Still, he said it was the first time the foundation had been asked to prepare learning materials for children. ``I have never written for a children's magazine before," Seelinger said, adding that Cobblestone paid him about $500 for his contributions.

Cobblestone is one of a family of award-winning children's magazines published by Carus. It was started by two teachers in 1979 to promote reading and history. It grew into six themed magazines that cover American history, geography, world cultures, world history, science and space, general studies, and reading.

The magazine ``strives to educate and entertain through a creative mix of articles, primary source documents, photographs, and illustrations, as well as fun activities, puzzles, and cartoons," according to its website. ``Cobblestone Publishing works with consulting editors, writers, historians, professors, museum curators, teachers, and others who are noted authorities in their fields of study."

Cobblestone has a national paid circulation of 30,000, but managing editor Lou Waryncia said its reach is far greater because one issue could be used by dozens of students -- either in the classroom or in school libraries.

While previous issues of Cobblestone have dealt with the Civil War and other military conflicts, the recent issue is somewhat of a departure, said Waryncia, noting it is the first time that the Army was a focus by itself.

``We planned to do this well over two years ago," Waryncia said. ``It just happened to come out at a time when the country's feelings are in a certain place" about the war in Iraq.

To some teachers and parents, the content appeared to be inappropriate for students who have yet to enter high school, where the military traditionally begins recruiting.

The issue includes an interview with Army Colonel Michael J. Davis , commander of the 52d Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group. He is asked questions such as ``What made you decide to join the Army?"

The magazine discusses careers offered by the Army, including arts, media, computers, construction, engineering, intelligence, medical, aviation, legal, and transportation.

One of the teaching guides -- written by Mary B. Lawson , a teacher in Saint Cloud, Fla. -- goes much further, suggesting that a writing exercise be undertaken in which students `` pretend they are going to join the Army. Have them decide which career they feel they would qualify for and write a paper to persuade a recruiter why that should be the career."

Some complaints have centered on the fact that little attention is paid to the combat role of the Army -- its risks and sacrifices.

Waryncia said the magazine did not intend to recruit for the Army, but will reconsider future issues in light of the criticisms, which he said were greater than for any previous issue.

He said the magazine has not yet decided its lineup for 2008, but is considering issues dedicated to the Marines Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. He acknowledged that he would pay much closer attention to both the content and the teaching guides in light of the complaints.

Virginia Schumacher , a retired teacher and visitor services manager at the History Center in Ithaca, N.Y., who wrote another teaching guide, defended the issue.

``Joining the military is a career option for any child," she said. ``That doesn't suggest they should or should not. Recruiters go into the high school all the time. Part of the curriculum in New York state is career options and how to make wise choices. In that magazine, I felt they gave a wonderful portrayal of jobs that are not what everyone thinks of when they think of the Army. It was not meant to meant to offend anyone."

Bryan Bender can be reached at [e-mail].

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Source: tinyurl.com/m3vd4

[michelle]

Ain't Gonna Study War no More: Bravo to this coalition of teachers and students! Please refer to the begining of this thread for information on how you can help protect our children from unwanted military recruiting and make sure our schools are primarily places for learning and not for the Pentagon's opportunistic prospect marketing....Michelle

Junior ROTC Takes a Hit in LA
By Sonia Nazario
Los Angeles Times
February 19, 2007

At Roosevelt High, a coalition of teachers and students works to end the program, and its numbers are dropping.

First Sgt. Otto Harrington — tall, muscular, his head cleanshaven — has soldiered through battles in Bosnia, Kuwait and Somalia. He has patrolled Korea's DMZ. None of that prepared him, though, for the attacks he has faced as senior teacher in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, where students and teachers have launched a crusade against military recruiting and JROTC.

Harrington blames their campaign for cutting the number of cadets at Roosevelt by 43% in four years, from 286 to 162. Some teachers urge students not to sign up for JROTC, he said, and have worked to end involuntarily placement in the program. "They seem to think I'm some evil, horrible soldier down here trying to sacrifice our kids to Iraq," Harrington said in describing the increasing tensions on the Eastside campus.

The program's critics see JROTC as a Trojan horse targeting students in low-income minority schools with high dropout rates. "We are a juicy target," said Roosevelt social studies teacher Jorge Lopez. At Roosevelt and other schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the anti-JROTC movement has helped drive a 24% drop in enrollment since 2003-04, Harrington and his critics said. The decline runs counter to enrollment nationwide, which grew 8% to 486,594 cadets between 2001 and 2006, fueled by a 57% jump in federal funding, according to the Department of Defense.

Roosevelt's "Rough Rider Battalion" was once among JROTC's finest, a powerhouse that routinely bested rivals in citywide competitions. In 1990, when the program had 400 cadets, the battalion's girls' drill team won the national championship. JROTC students have uniforms and attend one cadet class each day, learning skills that include financial planning, map reading and how to give a PowerPoint presentation.

The Department of Defense-sponsored program, which is in 30 of L.A. Unified's 61 high schools, also includes physical education, target practice and marching drills. JROTC participants have no obligation to join the military, but students who complete the program are entitled to higher starting pay if they enlist.

Roosevelt 11th-grader Jesse Flores said that as recently as his freshman year, students didn't think less of kids for being in JROTC; some even stopped cadets to admire ribbons and medals pinned to their uniforms. "Now," Jesse said, "everyone says JROTC is bad."

Teacher opposition

Many teachers are openly hostile toward JROTC, Jesse said, and some wear T-shirts that say "A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind." Arlene Inouye, a speech therapist formerly at Roosevelt, said she thinks anti-military advocacy by teachers is a counterbalance to a strong military presence on campus. She said she once counted 14 recruiters approaching lunchtime crowds of students in Roosevelt's quad, handing out "Join the Army" book covers and promising adventure, travel and money for college.

In 2003, concerned that students weren't hearing the other side, she founded the Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools. The group has spread to 50 Los Angeles-area schools, providing member teachers with literature, speakers, films and books. Their efforts are possible in part because of a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 1986 that requires public schools that allow recruiters on campus to give counter-recruiters a shot at addressing students.

At Roosevelt, the coalition teamed with United Students, a group of students and teachers working to improve education on the Eastside and get more Latinos into college. United Students' 100 Roosevelt members began keeping track of when military recruiters were scheduled to visit so they could conduct counter-recruiting the day before.

At its annual Education Justice Week, students in the group invite college recruiters to campus and encourage students to continue their schooling rather than enlisting. They also have presented in 60 classrooms a program called "Students Not Soldiers," which aims to expose the dark side of military life. Nearly two dozen teachers have also shown the films "Arlington West," put out by Veterans for Peace, and "The Ground Truth," a documentary in which veterans condemn the war in Iraq and their treatment by the military on their return home.

Lopez, the social studies teacher, keeps a stack of glossy brochures propped on his chalkboard titled "Don't Die in a Dead-End Job! Information for Young People Considering the Military" that show a soldier saluting flag-draped coffins. Prominent on his wall is a poster called "Ten Points to Consider Before You Sign a Military Enlistment Agreement." "I want to see more Latinos go to college," Lopez said.

Lunchtime maneuvers

The warren of six JROTC rooms at Roosevelt is decorated with drawings of tanks. On the front wall of Harrington's classroom is a row of brown- and gold-framed photographs of the chain of command, from President Bush to the secretary of defense to JROTC instructors.

At lunch, cadets stream in, grab unloaded Springfield rifles from four gun racks and practice spinning them. The four people in the color guard, wearing white gloves and chrome helmets, maneuver their rifles in unison. Teacher Gillian Russom said this kind of training instills the wrong values: following orders, dressing the same and relying on rote memorization rather than critical thinking. "That's necessary for a successful military, but does it create the kind of citizens we want?"

A 1999 Center for Strategic and International Studies report, the last comprehensive assessment of JROTC, found that about 40% of students who graduated from high school with two or more years of JROTC ended up in the military. Harrington said few of his Roosevelt students join the armed services. Only 5% of his cadets would even qualify to enlist, he said, because the rest are in the country illegally, couldn't pass the military aptitude test, are in trouble with the law or are overweight. "This is the worst school on the planet for a recruiter to come and think they will be successful," he said, adding that only three Roosevelt cadets in three years have enlisted out of high school.

Still, many Roosevelt students and teachers are angered that JROTC programs are concentrated in low-income, primarily minority communities, and they tell potential cadets that JROTC is a thinly disguised effort to make more Latinos cannon fodder. Nationwide, 59.9 % of JROTC participants are students of color, according to a study by Cal State Northridge. In Los Angeles, the program is in nearly half of the city's high schools, but none on the affluent Westside.

Teachers who oppose JROTC are also dismayed that despite a zero-tolerance policy on weapons, 10 Los Angeles high schools, including Roosevelt, have JROTC firing ranges. "This is learning to shoot at a target, preparing a mind-set to be able to kill," said Inouye, the founder of the Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools. Harrington said the air rifles, which shoot pellets, are used as a sport, not for combat training. "Some people," he said, "don't understand shooting an air rifle isn't shooting an M16."

Opponents of JROTC say it drains resources from more important courses. Although the Defense Department pays half of JROTC instructors' salaries, L.A. Unified pays the rest, as well as benefits, for a total of $3.1 million this school year. That money, United Students said, should instead be spent adding more of the 15 academic courses students need to go to college. Those classes make up 52% of the offerings at Roosevelt. But many JROTC students can't imagine Roosevelt without the program.

A second chance

"For some students, the biggest reason to come to school is for JROTC," said Harrington, noting that his students often come in at 6:30 a.m. even when they are on vacation. Daniel Segura, a soft-spoken 16-year-old with a mop of brown hair and an easy smile, is one of them. He said his grades spiraled after his father died of diabetes two years ago. "I felt there was no point," he said.

He started ditching class to go to the Santa Monica Pier and failed half his classes. Urged by a counselor to enroll in JROTC, he was at first resistant and defiant during class time. Harrington told him not to attend the program, then agreed to give him another chance if he followed the rules. Slowly, Harrington gave Daniel more responsibility, putting him on the flag and armed drill teams and on JROTC's courtesy patrol, which helps translate for parents at teacher conferences. Hoping to be named to the JROTC staff and earn more responsibility, Daniel said, he plans to pass all his classes this semester and is getting a B in English.

Roosevelt students tell him he is being brainwashed to go into the Army, but he said he thinks they don't understand what the program really is. It has taught him leadership and discipline, he said, and he has thrived on its boundaries and rules. In a bewildering school with nearly 5,000 students, JROTC has been a beacon, a place to belong. "JROTC made me try again," he said. Several JROTC cadets describe feeling as if they are under hostile fire from anti-military teachers.

Last year, Jesse, the 11th-grader, a master sergeant and JROTC flag detail commander, was the only student wearing a JROTC uniform in Martha Guerrero's first-period world history class. He said that Guerrero, who often wears a "War is not the answer" T-shirt and has a flag of the revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara hanging in her classroom, sometimes asked him pointed questions in the middle of class.

"Jesse, are you going to go to Iraq and die?" she asked. "Why are you wearing a uniform? Aren't you embarrassed?" Jesse said he felt singled out by the question and told his JROTC instructor about it. Angered by what he saw as bullying of his student, he confronted Guerrero, who apologized to Jesse. She said she wasn't harassing the student. "I just tell them things I know are right or wrong. I stand against war, against JROTC."

In July, after hearing about a United Students talk in the classroom of social studies teacher Carlos Castillo, Harrington was fed up. He stormed into Castillo's classroom. "I have a problem with you calling me a recruiter," he told the other teacher. A flier handed out in Castillo's class contained distortions, Harrington said, adding that he believes Castillo shouldn't be allowed to discourage students from enrolling in his class. Castillo told Harrington that JROTC's only purpose was to promote the military.

Ground rules

Principal Cecilia Acosta Quemada told the two sides they had to get along. She also established ground rules: Working against enlistment of students was acceptable; overtly telling them to drop JROTC class was not.

But the battles are likely to continue. Some Los Angeles activists are pushing to follow in the footsteps of San Francisco and Lowell, Mass., both of which have taken steps to abolish JROTC. "I want to get them completely off campus," Castillo said. If that happens, Harrington won't be around to see it. Sick of the battles, he is leaving Roosevelt — and JROTC — at the end of the school year.

[michelle]

THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE
Alternate title to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. And many thanks to the wife of his friend, Mary, who's anger at using children to fight old men's wars gave Vonnegut this title...reread the book if you don't remember. It is disgusting that our children are used this way. And if you think that 18 year olds are in complete control of their faculties, think again; their brains are still developing at this time. They are extremely vulnerable to manipulation. I keep thinking of Master Jesus' words: if you harm one hair on my children's head...Michelle

Americas Child Soldier Problem
By Terry J. Allen
May 15, 2007

Congratulations: You have lived long enough to cringe at the bad decisions you were seduced, dared, bullied, inspired or stoned enough to make as a teenager.

Thousands of America’s children, however, are not so lucky. Almost 600,000 of America’s 1 million active and reserve soldiers enlisted as teens. The military lures these physiologically immature kids with a PR machine that would make Joe Camel proud.

While the age of legal and cultural adulthood can vary, science is now able to determine the physiological markers of maturity. A recent study headed by Jay Giedd of the National Institutes of Health using MRI scans shows that the brain of an 18-year-old is not fully developed, with the limbic cortex-brain structures, the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex still undergoing substantial changes.

As of March 31, the U.S. military included 81,000 teenagers. Its 7,350 17-year-olds needed parental consent to enlist, and only this April were all barred from battle zones.

But the military aims even lower, marketing itself to children as young as 13 with multimedia videos, school visits and cold calls to teens’ homes and cell phones. In Junior ROTC, kids get uniforms, win medals, fire real guns and play soldier, while adults trained in psychological manipulation steer them toward the army. The Army’s JROTC website lists such motivating activities as “eating at concession stands.”

A mature prefrontal cortex, “the area of sober second thought,” is vital not only to deciding whether to enlist, but also to choices made under the stress of deployment and the terrors of combat. But the prefrontal cortex, “important for controlling impulses, is among the last brain regions to mature,” according to Giedd, and doesn’t reach “adult dimensions until the early 20s.”

Teenagers’ brains simply lack the impulse control that can prevent a lifetime of regret, psychological and physical disability, and preventable deaths—their own, their fellow soldiers’ and those of civilians.

The child soldier problem is global and so is America’s role in it. More than 300,000 children around the world, some as young as seven, serve as soldiers, or, in the case of girls, as military sex slaves. The State Department reports that 10 countries are violating international treaties against child soldiers. Washington provides military assistance to nine of these outlaw nations: Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda.

The reason the United States and other militaries target children is their need for cannon fodder, coupled with the vulnerability of youth. In 2002, almost half of Marine recruits were 17 or 18. A Pentagon survey found that “for both males and females, propensity [to enlist] is highest among 16- and 17-year-olds.” That “propensity” quickly declines with age.

A 2004 Pentagon database listed the number of 16- and 17-year-olds who applied for active service enlistment at 69,000 and 18-year-olds at 73,000. By 19, the count had dropped to 49,000 and by age 24 had plummeted to 9,700.

The Department of Defense (DoD) spends more than $4 billion a year on recruiting, with $1.5 billion for advertising and maintaining the recruiting stations staffed by more than 22,000 recruiters.Much of that money goes to convincing children to become soldiers.

A recruiters’ handbook discusses creepy seduction techniques with all the subtlety of predatory stalking. Adult recruiters skilled in “projecting credibility” lurk in snack joints, set up laptops playing action-packed videos, proffer rides and promise friendship and fatherly advice. With blacks particularly skeptical of the war effort, the military is aggressively targeting Hispanics with multimillion dollar marketing campaigns that include chatting up mothers and attending church. Recruiters get non-English speaking parents to sign enlistment papers for 17-year-olds by letting them believe that service is mandatory, or that they were approving blood tests, according to the New York Times.

Recruiters also try to win over high school guidance counselors with offers of “extended tours, VIP trips (‘A day in the life of a sailor’) or workshops.”

A DoD training manual instructs recruiters to appropriate the techniques that pharmaceutical salespeople use to convince doctors to prescribe the most profitable drugs: “Pharmaceutical representatives court doctors and provide incentives to them in exchange for listening to a sales pitch and considering their products.” DoD advises following the pharma model by offering “personalized incentives in exchange for some of their time (bring food when asking favors).”

The manual suggests bribing teachers: “Provide lunch for teachers in exchange for information.” It quotes an anonymous teacher: “Giving teachers pencils and calendars lets us know that you understand our needs and support us. We, in turn, are more likely to support your efforts in the future.”

“Chiefs of warfare reach out to children precisely because they are innocent, malleable, impressionable,” says Olara Otunnu, the U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

The science is clear: Turning children below the age of brain maturity into soldiers, whether in the United States or Sudan, exploits that vulnerability.

Contact Terry J. Allen at [e-mail].

Source: www.inthesetimes.com/article/3199/

[michelle]

Subject: Support the High School Student Protesters
Date: 11/8/2007 11:25:54 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: [e-mail]


Dear World Can't Wait Supporter,

Last Thursday, dozens of students at Morton West High School in Berwyn, near Chicago, staged a protest in the school cafeteria against the Iraq war, and specifically against the military recruiters who have set up shop inside the school. The students were threatened and cajoled into moving the protest out of the cafeteria, with the promise that punishment would be minor. But they were suspended for up to ten days, and 37 are now facing expulsion by the superintendent, Ben Nowakowski.

Immediately, parents went to the school to protest the suspensions. 60 people spoke in support of the sit-in last night at a raucous school board meeting. Because people are resisting the punishments, the story has been in the NY Times, Chicago Tribune, and on the local news. Parents report that in meetings with school officials, they have been pressured to get their children to "turn in the ring-leader".

The father of a suspended student, wrote this about the protest, "The Army recruiters continue to aggressively hunt down every Hispanic male student as they enter the front door of the high school (since the school is 80% Hispanic) to promise them the world and then send them to Iraq or Afghanistan to get killed for Bush's Oil, but a peaceful protest, in which the students cleaned up after themselves, is bad and worth losing their high school education over."

This is exactly the time for people around the country - YOU - to weigh in for the Morton HS Students who protested.

Endorse & forward In Defense of the Morton West Antiwar Students Petition to the Morton West School District. [see below]

Most importantly, get on the phone Friday and call the superintendent's office. Tell him there
Should be NO punishment for the students protesting military recruiters who prey on the youth.

Dr. Ben Nowakowski, Superintendent District 201
2423 South Austin, Cicero, IL 60804
[e-mail]
[phone]

Mr. Lucas, Principal Morton West High School
2400 S. Home Avenue Berwyn, IL 60402
[e-mail]
708-222-5901

Let me know what response you get and we will keep you posted on what happens.

Sincerely,
Debra Sweet,
The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Morton West School District
In Defense of the Morton West Antiwar Students

We are writing in defense of the students who now face excessive disciplinary actions at the hands of various Morton West school administrators. Our sympathies lie with the courageous and moral struggle that the students have taken up, and with their parents who still support them. The struggle for a peaceful and just society absent of war should not be met with punishment, but should be supported by the community as a whole, especially from within the educational setting. Furthermore, It is our firm belief that an injury to freedom for students anywhere is an injury to freedom for students everywhere. This is why we urge all Morton West administrators to drop all disciplinary action against the said students, and to remove any indications of said events from their permanent records. We urge you to respect these students right to free expression now and in the future.

(Written by Columbia College Chicago Students for a Democratic Society)

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Sign the Petition:
www.petitiononline.com/mortonw/petition.html

[michelle]

"I am NOT Your Soldier" Tour
Starts November 19, Atlanta GA

What? A nationwide effort, beginning November 2008, to reach high school students with the truth about military recruiters and the wars that they are recruiting for, and give them the arguments and tools to talk to their peers. We are looking for teachers and students to help arrange classroom presentations and school assemblies which include:

* a short presentation by a World Can't Wait youth organizer and either an Iraq/Afghanistan war veteran or a military family member;
* an open discussion;
* a 10-minute video clip of testimony by Iraq veterans from the March 2008 Winter Soldier hearings about what they witnessed and perpetrated.
* footage of high school students protesting military recruiters.
* a short survey that students would take to give us all a sense of what they think.

Why? Over 1 million Iraqis have been killed, according to John Hopkins University, 2006 and over 4 million have been forced to flee their homes. Almost 5,000 US military have been killed in combat; with tens of thousands of grave injuries. Both presidential candidates are promising to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and US Special Forces have recently killed civilians in Pakistan and Syria. Iran and other countries are projected targets of the global War on Terror begun by the Bush administration. The war crime of torture is being carried out by U.S. forces under the direction of the highest levels of government.


Both Senators McCain and Obama promised to increase active duty US military by around 90,000 troops. Where are they going to get these troops to fight all this? They are in high school now.


Parents and students tell us that in high schools across the U.S. military recruiters are given free reign to prey on the youth. They pull up in their hummers, walk right into classrooms and give presentations that make war seem like a video game. They stalk students at school and at home, making false promises and even (as has been documented recently on Democracy Now!) threatening students with jail time if they decide not to enlist. In particular they target poor and rural youth, inner city youth of color and immigrant youth (with promises of citizenship). In fact, all this is mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act which requires high schools to give students' personal information over to the military.


People recruited into the U.S. military know about the lies recruiters told them about the job skills training and education benefits that enlistees will never receive. Recruiters don't tell youth about the one third of female GI's that report being raped while in the service, or the post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide rates of the returning veterans. The U.S. armed services will spend over $5 billion dollars in 2008 for recruiting. According to the ACLU, "The U.S. military's recruitment policies, practices, and strategies explicitly target students under 17 for recruitment activities on high school campuses."


But what this tour aims to expose is even bigger. What are youth being recruiting to do? Is the U.S. military of 2008 spreading freedom and democracy? What does it mean to be "patriotic" and "support the troops"? How can you prioritize the lives of people in one country, or the world? Is the military the place to be if you're looking to "have an experience," "get some discipline and structure," "give your life a purpose,"? Or is joining the military harmful to oneself and to people throughout the world?


These are the questions the tour will explore with high school students. We want to learn from the students and we know we will have many different points of view in the audience. We look forward to stirring up some debate which all too often gets doesn't happen, in the name of being "balanced" and avoiding controversy.


If you find this situation unacceptable and think that schools should be places of learning and not cheap labor depots for the U.S. military, then help bring this tour to your school! Help bring this tour to your campus and be part of awakening the consciousness and activism of a new generation struggling to figure out what to do with their lives.


For more info or to set up a classroom presentation, school assembly, or debate at your school, contact us at:

Write the tour or call Emma Kaplan at 347 385 2195

Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime

World Can't Wait - [e-mail] - 866.973.4463 - 305 W. Broadway #185, NY, NY 10013