COMD: Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft

Countering the military in high schools: Read about COMD's successful lawsuit here.

Articles from Draft NOtices,
July-September 2010

ROTC and the Seduction of Liberal Militarism

— Sean Dinces

On April 20, representatives from the Naval War College met with students at Brown University to pressure the school’s administration to bring ROTC back to campus. Invited by a new student organization called Brown Students for ROTC, the meeting’s attendees lamented a longstanding policy at Brown and other Ivy League universities that prohibits military science departments on campus, denies credit for military science courses, and requires students who want to participate in ROTC to commute to a nearby university where the program already exists. ROTC units were eliminated throughout the Ivy League during the Vietnam War when faculty, under pressure from students, deemed that institutional support for the military implicated their universities in the violation of international law in Southeast Asia. -Full Article

The Peace Symbol: Fashion or Political Statement?

— Nancy Cruz and Paula Hoffman-Villanueva

They are everywhere! Peace symbols are on clothes, backpacks, jewelry, shoes, school supplies, towels and body parts! We started wondering what this means. Is it just a fad, in the same way that Che Guevara was a few years ago? Young people loved Che’s face on t-shirts, but many knew little more about him than what they had seen in Motorcycle Diaries. Or is the new popularity of the peace symbol more than just a fashion statement? A certain level of consciousness because of the wars? A real desire for peace? A new and growing generation of anti-war activists?-Full Article

Activists Shut Down Army Experience Center in Philadelphia

Protests, arrests, vigils, boycotts, and message force Army to retreat.

— Pat Elder

A coalition of about 30 peace groups has proven triumphant in its goal of shutting down the Army Experience Center (AEC) in a suburban shopping mall in Philadelphia. The Army announced on June 10 that it will close down the recruitment center on July 31, 2010, four months before its lease expires.-Full Article