From Draft NOtices, July—September 2011
— Ernie McCray
I was asked to see if I could rekindle (though I can barely keep a campfire going) energy for leafleting our high schools with information to help students understand and respond to attempts to militarize them. They encounter this not only in their schools but also in their communities and beyond, as anyone can see in commercials, video games, and every form of media.
Well, it should be obvious that there's a tremendous need for us, especially those of us who dare to refer to ourselves as "community activists." We look out for our children when Uncle Sam comes after them with his zest for war, even though some of the organizations and activities that counter the militarization of young people are shrinking nationwide.
For instance: the American Friends Service Committee no longer has staff in its national office working full time on youth and military recruitment. The work of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO) ceased in 2008 when the venerable, decades-old organization folded. And, for a brief while, Project YANO (Youth and Non-Military Opportunities) recently had to cut its sole paid organizer's position to half-time.
As I settle into my rekindling assignment, I do so with thoughts of children on my mind and I find myself humming and singing lines from my favorite song of all time: "War! Hunnh! Good God! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" Truer lines were never sung.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
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Legislation Introduced to Limit Selective Service Registration to “National Emergencies”
From Draft NOtices, April—June 2011
[The following is compiled from information sent by the Center on Conscience and War, http://centeronconscience.org]
Representative Mike Coffman (R-Colorado) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives in February that would suspend the Selective Service System and draft registration for young men. HR 621, the National Emergency Selective Service Act of 2011, would deactivate SS, except during a national emergency declared by the President. While this leaves a potential loophole for continuing SS, the agency itself sees this bill as a threat, believes it may pass, and therefore is trying to stop it. If it became law, it would retroactively excuse persons who have failed to register with Selective Service.
- Kathy Gilberd
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Bradley Manning: Army Whistleblower Now Charged with Capital Crime
From Draft NOtices, April—June 2011
— Kathy Gilberd
Think of yourself as a soldier. Working at a desk job, you see shocking messages, reports and pictures about military activity that seem wrong and sometimes horrifying. And then, one day, you see a video recording of U.S. soldiers laughing as they shoot unarmed civilians from a helicopter.
If you’re like most soldiers, you didn’t receive much training on the rules of engagement or the law of war, but there’s little doubt that what you’ve seen and read are war crimes. And you know, as most soldiers do, that reporting the problem to your superiors would get you in a lot of trouble and never go any farther than that. What is a person of conscience to do?
Someone in this situation decided that the reports and images had to be seen by the public. Bradley Manning, who allegedly had access to the information, is accused of releasing the helicopter video and thousands of reports and messages from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks, who posted a portion of the reports and the helicopter video on the Internet.
The Army has not released any information linking Manning to the documents or showing that he was the person who gave them to WikiLeaks, although the military commonly does this in high-profile cases. But the Army has clearly made up its mind on the matter -- enough to charge Manning with a death penalty offense and to keep him in maximum confinement at Quantico Marine Corps Base under conditions echoing Guantanamo’s isolation and humiliation of confinees.
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:
