Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

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From Draft NOtices, April—June 2010

– Pat Elder and Rick Jahnkow

 
On March 24, the Maryland Senate narrowly approved a measure that will prohibit the automatic release of aptitude test results to military recruiters by public schools. The vote was 24-23.

Earlier, the Maryland House of Delegates passed the same measure 102-37. Supporters of the Student Privacy Protection Act expect Governor O’Malley to sign the bill into law [see postscript].

Opponents argued that the bill was unpatriotic and anti-military, particularly in a "time of war." Senator Jaimie Raskin, who introduced the legislation, said the measure was needed because the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) was being administered in Maryland's high schools without parental consent, and results from the test were being forwarded to military recruiters. To correct this, the bill requires the selection of ASVAB Recruiter Release Option 8 for all Maryland students taking the test. Option 8 allows students to be given the test without the results being released to recruiters.

The ASVAB is the same test given to new recruits to determine their suitability for various jobs in the military. When given in high schools, it can provide recruiters with extensive personal information on students that is then used to sell them on enlistment. Currently, hundreds of thousands of high school students are tested by the Pentagon during school hours each year, frequently without the recruiting purpose of the test being revealed to students or parents (see January-March 2010 Draft NOtices).

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From Draft NOtices, April—June 2010

—Miriam Clark


This was the title of a book written by Major General Smedley D. Butler after spending 34 years in the U.S. Marine Corps.  At the time he wrote it in 1935 he was the most decorated military person in the history of the United States.

In his book he presented an exposé and condemnation of the profit motive behind warfare.  His views on war were summarized in the following passage from a 1935 issue of “the non-Marxist, socialist” magazine, Common Sense – one of Butler’s most widely  quoted statements:

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.  In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.  I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914.  I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.  I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.  I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts, I operated on three continents.”

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From Draft NOtices, January—March 2010

–Jorge Mariscal with Mónica Jaúregui


For the thousands of young people brought to the United States as children of undocumented immigrant families, a pathway to legalization deferred one more day is a pathway deferred far too long. As we have reported in previous issues of Draft NOtices for almost a decade multiple attempts to pass federal legislation that would legalize these youth have failed. The so-called DREAM Act, or Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, still lingers in the halls of Congress. But Democratic Party concerns about the 2010 elections, especially in the wake of the health care reform fiasco, may delay further progress on any immigration reform. In the meantime, supporters of the DREAM Act continue to hope. For many, their desperation increases day by day.

The DREAM Act’s most recent incarnation is found in two bills sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Representative Howard Berman of California. Both Senate bill 729 and H.R. 1751 propose to “permit States to determine State residency for higher education purposes and to authorize the cancellation of removal and adjustment of status of certain alien students who are long-term United States residents and who entered the United States as children, and for other purposes.” Last March, the Senate bill had only 32 co-sponsors and is now stalled at the Committee on the Judiciary; last May, the House bill with 106 co-sponsors was referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education.

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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:

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