From Draft NOtices, September-October 2000
- Molly Morgan
A decade after the official end of the Cold War, the Pentagon budget is still astonishingly bloated and Congress routinely gives it more than they ask for. Military spending takes up over half of the discretionary federal budget — $305 billion in 2001. The next largest category, education, is only $42 billion. The U.S. military not only has the most advanced weaponry with the biggest stockpiles, but outspends every other country by an enormous amount. The combined military spending of Russia, China, and the seven "states of concern" is still much less than half that of the United States. While global military spending continues to decline, the U.S.’s share continues to increase; in 1998 it was up to 36%.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
- -Ray Wolf
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VIEQUES: "Hey, how about some beads and a blanket for that island?"
From Draft NOtices, July-August 2000
-Ray Wolf
It has been over one year since David Sanes was killed by an errant U.S. Navy bomb on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques (see Draft NOtices, July/August, 1999). The killing brought to a head decades of frustration and resentment from the residents of Vieques and other Puerto Ricans throughout the islands and the mainland United States. Tired of being treated like a colony, tired of being exposed to toxic metals and chemicals, tired of having their lives endangered by stray ordnance, and tired of being treated as second class human beings, the people of Vieques, and Puerto Rico as a whole, united in an effort to force the U.S. Navy from their homeland. For a moment, there seemed to be a faint glimmer of hope for success. President Clinton ordered the suspension of military operations on the island while a study was conducted to determine if the Navy needs to continue operations on Vieques. Hopes were high. But it was not to be. The U.S. Navy resumed bombing operations with "inert" weapons on June 24, 2000.
From Draft NOtices, July-August 2000
Orange Glen H.S. backs down on its counter-recruitment ad ban after getting letter from COMD's attorney.
With only one issue of the student newspaper left in the school year, the Orange Glen High School administration apparently decided it could not defend an earlier decision to reject a counter-recruitment ad submitted by COMD (see May-June 2000 issue of Draft NOtices).
The ad, sponsored by Orange Glen alumni Gary Ghirardi and Michael Boone, was submitted to the school newspaper staff in February. It was similar in theme to dozens of other ads COMD had placed in high school papers over the last 18 years. In the center was a photo of an injured soldier being helped on a battlefield, and above it was the headline: "College on the G.I. Plan." The rest of the text said: "Before you enlist, contact us to find out what military ads and recruiters might not be telling you. We can also give you information about educational and job training alternatives." Rather than allow the students to decide whether to accept this ad, the journalism advisor and school administration intervened and sent COMD a rejection letter. Attached was a copy of a school district policy that prohibits schools from distributing "materials" that promote any particular commercial, religious or political interest. Another part of the policy prohibits "advertisements which are inconsistent with school objectives or do not reasonably relate to the educational purpose of school-sponsored publications."
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:
