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“The Ground Truth”

Directed and produced by Patricia Foulkrod, distributed by Focus Features.

Suzanne, Sara, and Military Sexual Trauma

Sara Rich wore her thick, remarkably red hair in a long braid down her back for decades. Just a few days ago she cut it all off. A luxurious twelve-inch braid will now be donated to Locks of Love. When I interviewed Sara and asked why she did it, she said, “For my daughter, Suzanne.” - Full Article

High school students across the country are greeted with this message when they log on to the March2Success.com Web site hosted by the U.S. Army. March2Success, a popular, Web-based, 30-hour course designed by Educational Options, The Princeton Review, and Kaplan, Inc., is ostensibly a program that provides training in test-taking strategies and problem-solving skills and teaches students how to improve their math and English knowledge.- Full Article

At the time of this writing in early July, California Assembly Bill 1778 had passed the full state assembly, been approved by the senate education committee, and was on its way to a final vote this summer in the full senate.

AB 1778 says that if a school district collects emergency information for its high school students, the information card must include a notice that informs the parent or legal guardian and pupil of her or his right to request that the student’s name, address and phone number not be released to military recruiters or institutions of higher education.
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A teacher’s response to the military in her school.

Some important stories have appeared recently about disagreements between military commanders and the Bush administration over whether to begin a significant withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in 2006. A related development is the recent call for an immediate withdrawal by Rep. John Murtha (D-PA). Murtha is a decorated combat veteran who is also considered a military hawk and one of the closest congressional allies of the high-level officer corps.- Full Article

On October 7, 2005, at the Anaheim, California, Convention Center not far from Disneyland, the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Corporation hosted an awards luncheon for approximately 500 people including more than 300 middle school, high school and college students. The featured employer at the luncheon was the Department of Defense.- Full Article

Nobel Prize Winner is a Conscientious Objector and Fierce Counter-militarism Advocate

The Swedish Academy says playwright, poet, and polemicist Harold Pinter “uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms.

An East London boy, son of working-class Jewish immigrants, is sent away to rural England on a traumatic separation where he immerses himself in reading. The reason for his sojourn is to escape bombs falling from the sky; it is the Battle of Britain and the Nazis are terrorizing the civilian population of London. The boy returns to find a devastated urban landscape. This experience would forever impact and alter the consciousness of this boy named Harold Pinter.- Full Article

It is encouraging to observe the contemporary anti-war movement's recent shift toward giving greater attention to military recruiting. This means that a growing number of individuals and organizations now understand that there is an organizing strategy that can be employed with much more effectiveness than the symbolic protest that has characterized most anti-war activism since September 11, 2001. People are finally looking deeper into the issues and understanding that no matter how frightening and uncontrollable the Bush administration may seem, it has a very reachable Achilles heel when it comes to needing human resources to wage its wars.- Full Article

It is an axiom among activists working in the area of counter-recruitment that the enlistment contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on. What this means in practical terms is that whatever a recruiter promises to deliver to a new recruit — specific jobs or assignment, length of service, benefits, or even citizenship — can be withdrawn or changed at any time.- Full Article

Proposal Would Restore Privacy Rights Surrendered to the Military

Representative Michael Honda, a Democratic member of Congress from San Jose, California, has introduced legislation that would require written permission from a parent before any secondary school that receives federal funds could release a student's name, address and phone number to military representatives.- Full Article

Military Lies

I give everyone the benefit of doubt. I'm probably one of those "pushovers" that used-car salesmen like. As a matter of fact, I've been taken in by my fair share of them. I usually chalk it up to "live and learn" and vow not to let it happen again. We expect certain types of behavior from used-car salesmen. We know in advance that they will say anything to make a sale. My apologies to the sincere and honest used-car salespeople out there in the world. I know you are the exception, not the rule.- Full Article

March-April, 2005
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Uncle Sam Goes to College:

Military Recruiters Target Community College Students

Mainstream media outlets have long compared activist demonstrations to street theater, both as a way of emphasizing the decentralized, grass-roots, and live nature of activists' tactics and as a way of ridiculing activism as outdated, obnoxiously "in-your-face," and melodramatic. This portrayal was certainly clear in The San Diego Union-Tribune coverage of those San Diegans protesting Bush's January 20, 2005, presidential inauguration. The article began by stressing the rudimentary nature of the protesters' rally: "People banged pots and pans and waved banners and chanted and cheered, but none of that was in celebration," staff writer Michael Stetz wrote. - Full Article

The Interpretation of Dreams

Covert recruitment strategies in the DREAM Act

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, has received strong support from Latino activists across the country. Throughout the month of September, numerous groups staged rallies and fasts in over fifty cities. What advocates and the media have ignored are the potential consequences of the military service component of the proposed legislation.- Full Article

The controversy surrounding presidential candidate John Kerry's service in Viet Nam raises a number of difficult issues for peace and antimilitarism activists.

Fueled by television attack ads featuring U.S. Navy Swift boat veterans who claimed Kerry lied about what he did in Southeast Asia as a Navy officer, the controversy exploded in the media in mid-August. On August 20, the Washington Post exposed links between the anti-Kerry vets, the Republican Party, and long-time Bush operatives. On August 21 William Rood, a former officer who served with Kerry, corroborated Kerry's account of how he won a silver star and disputed the claims made by the anti-Kerry group.- Full Article

Held Against Their Will: U.S. Military and Reservists

With Kerry as President, Our Work Would Be Just as Urgent

Organizing to Demilitarize Schools in the Greater Los Angeles Area

Fernando Suarez del Solar: Letters from Iraq

Rebuilding? Iraqi Farms Bulldozed by U.S. Military

Will A Draft Be on the Government's Agenda in 2004?

Ever since the last draft ended in 1973, proposals to bring back conscription have lacked the support needed to win passage. However, several factors are developing that are adding momentum in Congress for the idea of forcing young people into the military, and the Bush administration may wind up revising its previously stated opposition to reactivating the draft.Full Article

An American Hero from South of the Border

Air Force Academy Rape Trials Begin

One in Five Female Cadets and a 7th Grader Sexually Assaulted

Dear Mr. Bush,

I'm writing you this letter as a United States citizen, Navy veteran and parent. I have several questions to ask you. I've paid attention to what you and members of your administration have said concerning Iraq. However, I've found considerable information that seems to contradict much of what you've said about the necessity of attacking Iraq. I've also found information that suggests that your goal is something other than the disarmament of Iraq.Full Article

November 30, 2002, will mark the 92nd anniversary of the death of American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more commonly known as Mark Twain. While many are familiar with Twain for his fiction, most notably Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, his political writings comprise a significant and important part of his work. Twain's incisive and scathing speeches, essays, and sketches on America's imperialistic and militaristic practices - and the support drummed up for them in the name of patriotism - drew widespread attention both in this country and abroad. - Full Article

America's Army: The Latest Front in the Battle for Hearts and Minds

As the nation celebrated the July 4th holiday this year, there was another patriotic celebration going on that you may not have been aware of. While many were waving the national ensign at military parades and attending fireworks displays, the most die-hard, patriotic citizens of this great nation were at their computer terminals anxiously downloading the "free" debut release of the Army's latest recruiting gimmick entitled, "America's Army." - Full Article

For Those Who Believe We Need a Draft

Every now and then we hear people talk about wanting to bring back conscription. Sometimes it comes from conservatives and militarists who would like to see a larger military force so they can expand U.S. bases abroad and conduct warfare in more places simultaneously. - Full Article

Socialization Messages in Schools and the Culture of Militarism

July - August 2002
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Are we in some kind of Nuclear Time Warp? Feels like it, but it's no joke. The Bush administration's Nuclear Policy Review (NPR), leaked to the Los Angeles Times in early March, revealed dangerous major changes in U.S. nuclear policy. - Full Article

From May 31 to June 2 I attended the Radfest conference in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where I heard Zoltan Grossman speak. Grossman, a long-time peace activist who recently received his doctorate in geography, shared with conference participants his insights about a largely ignored consequence of U.S. military interventions in the last decade.
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May - June 2002
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Less than one month after September 11, 2001, the Bush administration launched a military campaign to establish political and economic control over the geopolitically strategic country of Afghanistan. The cover story invented by the White House for this illegal action is the so-called "war on terrorism."
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In recent months, a growing number of Israeli soldiers dubbed "refuseniks" are refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories. As the violence in the current Intifada has escalated, more young men are stating their opposition to the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem by refusing to carry out their compulsory military service . . .
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