From Draft NOtices, July - August, 2004
— Shelley Gutierrez
Cynthia Enloe, a research professor in the Government and International Relations program at Clark University in Massachusetts, has been a leading scholar of militarism on an international scale. Probing into how militarism utilizes and functions within the lives of people of color and women, Enloe has offered important insights to students of militarization since the publishing of Ethnic Soldiers: State Security in Divided Societies in 1970. While this text focuses on the state's usage of the political and manpower benefits of mobilizing and deploying ethnic soldiers, her more recognized and influential body of work focuses on the ways in which women's lives and identities play a role in and are shaped by international relations and the global political economy (The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War, 1993; Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, 1989; and Does Khaki Become You?, 1988).
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, May - June, 2004
— Lorraine Demi
Apparently, deploying troops to Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and Europe simultaneously is beyond what the U.S. military can do. Yet they're doing it — by holding thousands of soldiers and reservists long past their release dates, against their will, with serious detriment to their health, careers, families and morale.
The Army has begun offering bonuses of up to $10,000 for soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait who will re-enlist for more time in the military. At the same time, though, thousands of soldiers are not being allowed to retire or leave the military for up to 90 days after returning to their home bases. The Army has blocked 40,000 soldiers from leaving the ranks, with about 16,000 of those being National Guard and reservists who were eligible to leave this year. As of December 31, 2003, the Pentagon reported 187,746 National Guard and Reserve troops had been mobilized. Approximately 20% of U.S. troops initially sent to Iraq were reservists or Guard members. This number is expected to double soon. David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland, said, "We have stopped treating the reserves as a force in reserve. Our volunteer army is closer to being broken today than ever before in its 30-year history."
From Draft NOtices, May - June, 2004
— Rick Jahnkow
If you were thinking "relief" is spelled K-E-R-R-Y, think again. John Kerry could be just as bad on the issue of militarism — more specifically, the militarization of young people — as the previous several administrations.
Besides the fact that Kerry advocates enlarging the military (imagine spending more on war making than we already are!) and supports continuing the occupation of Iraq, Kerry has a plan for national service that could be an intermediate step in the direction of mandatory civilian/military service.
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:
