From Draft NOtices, March-April 2001
The extent to which the U.S. military has to comply with environmental laws varies from statute to statute. There are generally three ways they get around compliance with these laws: direct exemption, sovereign immunity, and the Unitary Executive policy. They are exempt from many important environmental and public safety laws, such as the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and sections of the Clean Water Act, and naval nuclear reactors are not regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Even when the law does apply to military operations, regulators have no ability to assess fines, shut down polluting operations or otherwise enforce compliance with the laws that cover the military. Communities neighboring military bases have less environmental protection than other cities in the nation. Until the military is brought under complete regulation, our public health and safety, as well as our environment, will be at increased risk from military pollution.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, January-February 2001
— Ray Wolf
Imagine that communities all over a country are suffering from a multitude of war-related health problems. Imagine a community where girls as young as 13 years old are dying from ovarian cancer caused by military pollution. Imagine a community where 100% of the children are born contaminated by military toxic waste. Imagine a community where over 90% of adults and nearly 80% of children have multiple illnesses — including neurological disorders, respiratory problems, and lead contamination. Where would you guess these people live? Iraq? Yugoslavia? The former Soviet Union?
No, they live in the United States, and they are not the direct victims of a military attack. Instead, they are the victims of the U.S. government’s decades-long obsession with war preparations. They are the victims of contamination from U.S. military bases that has infiltrated and all but destroyed their communities. Predictably, the military denies responsibility. But now the residents have proof through independent testing and university studies, and they are fighting back.
From Draft NOtices, January-February 2001
— Mary Zepernick
"Their tragic loss reminds us that even when America is not at war,
the men and women of the military still risk their lives for peace."
Referring to the deaths on the USS Cole as a tragic loss, President Clinton spoke truer than he knew. My Webster’s defines tragedy as "a serious play or drama typically dealing with the problems of a central character, leading to an unhappy or disastrous ending brought on, as in ancient drama, by fate and a tragic flaw in this character, or, in modern drama, usually by moral weakness, psychological maladjustment, or social pressures."
Macbeth is a classic example, his greed and power-mania making him the agent of his own undoing. The men and women killed on the Cole do not fit this description, but tragedy almost always leaves victims in its wake.
So who is the central character in this drama? The bombers? If the efforts of U.S. intelligence agencies succeed, they will quite deservedly be undone by their deed. However, if we are to learn the lessons that tragedies invite, we must look closer to home.
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:
