From Draft NOtices, July-September 2013
— Oskar Castro
Once again it is summer blockbuster season. Along with incessant pleas for us to spend hard-earned dollars to see the flick claiming to have the biggest explosions and the most seamless CGI, we are also inundated with advertising tie-in campaigns on screens big and small. This, of course, is nothing new. But what many people are unaware of is that the military has been in on this game of working with Hollywood filmmakers for even longer than the retailers have been playing the game. And, like most things, with age comes experience.
Operating collaboratively since World War II, the military has deftly been working with Hollywood to mold a consciousness of patriotism by slipping propaganda messages into films. The Pentagon assists filmmakers by providing authentic military hardware or personnel to enliven scripts. Therefore, it really should come as no surprise that right-wing director Zack Snyder would embrace the partnership that the U.S. National Guard has forged with Warner Brothers to make the new Superman movie, Man of Steel. His newly produced National Guard recruitment video and all the patriotic hyperbole around it is worthy of closer examination.
While the iconic Superman has long been known as the Boy Scout on steroids — championing truth, justice and the so-called American way — we haven't seen him being used to sell war and recruit people into wars since WWII. Sure, we've seen him in comic books and in animated cartoons where he fills the power void and supports the military when it comes to battling super-powered villains or extra-terrestrials bent on global conquest. But it's been decades since we've seen him used to blatantly sell a pro-military message.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, July-September 2013
— Kathy Gilberd
The military is once again in crisis over sexual assaults. In recent weeks, it has become more apparent than ever that the military’s sexual assault policy is a failure and that sexual assault in the services has become epidemic.
In early May, the Department of Defense (DoD) released new figures showing a significant increase in reported and unreported assaults. DoD estimates that more than 26,000 servicemembers were assaulted in 2012, with only 3,374 of these cases reported to the military. Just as the figures were released, the Air Force was rocked by news that the head of its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program had been arrested for sexual battery. More recently, the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator for Ft. Hood was charged with sexual assault and pandering. On May 12, the Washington Post published an article recounting a number of incidents of sexual misconduct and sexual assault of potential recruits by military recruiters. All of this came not long after two separate cases of officers with court-martial convening authority who, against the advice of their own attorneys, granted clemency to officers convicted of sexual assault at courts-martial. Meanwhile, at Lackland Air Force Base, a series of courts-martial of instructors for sexual misconduct or assault with students wound down.
- Paula Hoffman-Villanueva
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Army Report Analyzes Decreasing Popularity of High School Military Testing
From Draft NOtices, July-September 2013
— Paula Hoffman-Villanueva
We hear a great deal about the over-use of tests in schools, but one test that we all need to pay more attention to is the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery). The ASVAB is purported to be a series of vocational interest and academic skills tests, and the emblem of the sponsoring Department of Defense is intentionally downplayed on the testing materials. Since 1968, millions of high school students have taken the ASVAB and, as a result, have unwittingly given the military access to their personal information. This information is then turned over to recruiters, raising serious legal concerns regarding privacy rights and protections.
Recently the Army Command and General Staff College published and approved for distribution a 2012 graduate thesis by Major Gregory V. Humble, who examines the question: "Why do schools choose to not release ASVAB scores to military recruiters?" Such studies are sometimes circulated to inform military policy and practices, and this one contains some valuable information, including statistics, that the public does not usually have easy access to.
In Humble’s thesis, we find some revealing observations. Although the military clearly tries to downplay the extensive use of the ASVAB as a recruiting tool, Major Humble writes, "The military benefits, especially when scores are released to recruiters because the scores help determine who is eligible for military service." Also: "The ASVAB is marketed as a career exploration program."
We are encouraged to find that Project YANO, along with other like-minded organizations that are mentioned in the thesis, have clearly made important progress in the struggle to keep recruiters away from our nation's youth. The numbers reported in Major Humble's thesis indicate that actions taken by peace activists, conscientious school districts and a few state governments are having an effect. In 1990, 1,006,957 students took the test, while in 2011 the number was 670,561. Although the total number of high school students has increased, the percentage of high school students participating in the ASVAB declined from 10.8 percent in 1990 to 5.7 percent in 2011.
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:
