From Draft NOtices, April - June 2006
— Michelle Gutiérrez
I recently viewed British director Sam Mendes’s 2005 film, Jarhead. Based on former Marine Anthony Swofford’s Gulf War memoir, the film depicts the experiences of United States soldiers. The film’s subject matter has a limited scope, but among post-Vietnam war movies (such as The Three Kings in 1999 and Black Hawk Down in 2001), Jarhead presents the most stinging critique of the effects of U.S. military culture on soldiers. By exposing the disillusionment of military life, soldiers’ lack of agency, and rampant homophobia and misogyny, Jarhead is the first film to lay bare the destructiveness of military culture since Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket in 1987. However, the filmmakers’ stance on the Gulf War and many problematic aspects of military training are portrayed ambiguously.
Mendes centers the film primarily on soldiers’ psychological wellbeing. The film begins and ends on this theme with a voiceover from Swofford stating, “A man fires a rifle for many years and he goes to war, and afterward he turns in the rifle to the armory and he believes he is finished with the rifle. But no matter what else he might do with his hands -- love a woman, build a house, change his son’s diaper -- his hands remember the rifle.” By encapsulating the film with this statement, Mendes communicates not only the long-lasting impact military training and war have on soldiers’ lives, but also the fact that soldiers are “regular” men who have jobs, wives, and children. Clearly, the constant harassment, teasing, and abuse by sergeants has a much more striking effect with this backdrop.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, January-March 2006
— Rick Jahnkow
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.
Peace organizations have been quick to add Murtha’s name to the growing list of those calling for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, but they’ve given scant attention to the true significance of his voice and the very potent implications of stories about military commanders’ dissatisfaction with their mission.
A more in-depth analysis of these developments and related issues can offer some important lessons on how the peace movement can hasten the end of the occupation and move proactively beyond the limited goal of ending one war.
From Draft NOtices, January-March 2006
— Michelle Gutiérrez
After the collapse of the Berlin Wall when militaries seemingly shrank in size, many military personnel from around the globe became part of the privatized military industry (PMI). PMI has grown to operate in more than 50 nations, generating over $100 billion in revenue annually. With a growing military presence around the world, recruitment difficulties, and public policy determined by war profiteers, the U.S. has become the largest consumer of PMI of any nation. While the official number of private contractors in Iraq has been recorded at 20,000, which represents 15% of the troop strength, this figure only accounts for security contractors, those who “carry arms.” Recent estimates of all private contractors have been as high as 100,000. Clearly, private contractors are essential for operations in Iraq, and U.S. military projects are fueling this growing business.
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:
