From Draft NOtices, January-February, 2005
— Rick Jahnkow
Despite 2005 being the start of a second presidential term for George W. Bush, this year may bring together a number of factors that will offer the antiwar movement an important opportunity to shorten the U.S. occupation of Iraq and begin to reverse the decades-long growth of militarism in this country. However, to take advantage of this opportunity, the antiwar movement will have to think critically about its emphasis on symbolic war protest and look more closely at strategies for interfering with the flow of human resources needed for war, especially through counter-recruitment organizing.
As the year began, it should have been clear to everyone that the neocon plan for the Middle East pursued by the Bush administration had run into a brick wall. The invasion and occupation of Iraq is now the quagmire that many predicted, and U.S. actions in the region have created less political stability instead of more. Meanwhile, total annual spending on war and the military has reached almost half a trillion dollars, which is being financed by running up major deficits and proposing budget cuts in domestic programs that will generate much anger in the coming months toward Bush and his Republican majority. The increasing reports of Republican realists publicly criticizing Bush policies — especially over Iraq — indicate that beneath the surface, opinion against the neocons is growing even within the conservative base of Bush's own party.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, January-February 2005
— Amy Wagner
Many people, including school staff, students, parents and activists have expressed concern about the presence of military recruiters in our high schools and on our college campuses. When deciding how best to address these concerns, it helps to understand just what recruiters do and how they present themselves to teachers and administrators to gain what seems like unfettered admittance to many schools. It may be productive to share this information with school staff. They may want to reassess their policy on recruiter access or incorporate a counter recruitment component.
The Army provides its recruiters with efficient and thorough training manuals on all aspects of their job, including one titled, "The School Recruiting Program Handbook" (USAREC Pamphlet 350-13).
This handbook contains many practical suggestions, including a monthly breakdown of activities and general advice about working productively with school staff, which are equally useful for planning a counter-recruitment campaign. In addition, it provides an inside look at how recruiters are taught to give the appearance of caring about the best interest of the students and the school, while systematically "penetrating their school market...to obtain the maximum number of quality enlistments."
From Draft NOtices, November-December, 2004
— Rick Jahnkow
On October 5, Representative Charles Rangel's proposal for a draft was brought to the floor of the House of Representatives under a procedure that bypassed the normal legislative committee process and gave little advance notice. Members of the House voted 402-2 against the bill, and even its author voted to defeat it.
What makes this move especially interesting is that no one close to the issue felt that the proposal was ever going to go anywhere, and even Rangel (D-NY) had said that he was not pushing his bill. Yet this issue is so explosive that merely having such a proposal sitting dead in the House Armed Services Committee was enough to create a wave of public concern that threatened to undermine the presidential campaigns of both major political parties.
Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS
When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:
