Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

: Edward Hasbrouck; Articles Archive; 15 April 2020; Hits: 2448

National Commission Recommendation

National Commission Says Expand Draft Registration

to Include Women

— Edward Hasbrouck

On March 25, the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (NCMNPS), after a three-year charade of stage-managed and largely one-sided public events accompanied by closed-door meetings and negotiations among the members of the Commission, released its final report. It recommends that Congress amend the Military Selective Service Act to require that young women, as well as young men, register for the draft when they reach age 18, and inform the Selective Service System each time they change their address until their 26th birthday.

The Commission's recommendations with respect to Selective Service registration are such a naïve fantasy, completely unfeasible and with no foundation in research or reality. The Commission kept its head firmly in the sand, carefully avoiding any inquiry into whether or how the current (unenforced and widely violated) registration requirement for men, much less an expanded registration requirement applicable also to women, could be enforced.

In the report’s 255 pages, there's no mention at all of compliance or noncompliance with draft registration. There's been no audit of the registration database since 1982, and the Commission didn't conduct or ask for one.

: Paula Hoffman-Villanueva; Articles Archive; 06 August 2019; Hits: 3794

The Military’s Collateral Damage: Mother Earth

From Draft NOtices, April - June 2019

-- Paula Hoffman Villanueva

We all know what collateral damage means to the military, but this casual reference to supposedly unintended death can, tragically, be applied to an immensely larger victim: the Earth and life that exists on it. The U.S. military creates more hazardous waste than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined, contaminating the planet with jet fuel, defoliants (e.g., Agent Orange), lead, depleted uranium, nuclear waste, oil and many more toxic chemicals, to create millions of acres of barren wasteland and contaminated ground water. The facts and the health risks are staggering, and we are only partially aware of the truth.

Most recently, in a February 2019 report by Julie Turkewitz of The New York Times, we learned that military families and other residents living near five military bases in Colorado are speaking up about illnesses related to contaminated water systems. The man-made chemicals in question, which are used in firefighting foam, are called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). They have been linked to kidney and testicular cancer and other serious health problems. The chemicals do not break down, but rather stay in the water system and in the human body indefinitely. “Forever chemicals” is the term used by many scientists.

Although the dangers of PFAS have been known by the EPA for years, the military continued to use them until recently. In 2000, 3M stopped producing the foam containing PFAS, but the military found other companies willing to continue production -- after all, landing a contract with the Department of Defense is extremely lucrative. Not until this February did the EPA announce that in the future there will be regulatory action and restrictions regarding PFAS. But it was too little, too late. PFAS are now found in the ground and in water systems on military bases and in nearby communities around the globe.

: M. Matsemela-Ali Odom; Articles Archive; 10 July 2019; Hits: 4900

U.S. Militarism Leads to Gun Violence: The Teachings of the Late Michael Zinzun

From Draft NOtices, July - September 2019

-- M. Matsemela-Ali Odom, Committee Against Police Brutality, San Diego

The United States of America has a serious gun problem. That gun problem is deeply embedded in the nation’s history of slavery, settler colonialism, and imperialism. The deepening economic crises of the past five decades have hastened this problem. In the popular media, this is seen in the evidence of increased mass shootings.

There are multiple definitions of mass shootings. One definition defines them as events where four or more people are killed in an event not formally linked to a crime or terrorist organization. Another definition describes mass shootings as events where four or more people are shot. Using the former definition, there have been nearly 200 mass shootings in the last 50 years. Using the latter definition, there have been over 2,000 mass shootings in the last six years -- one per day. While devastating, those numbers pale in comparison to the overall numbers of people killed by gun violence. Since 1968, 1.3 million people have been shot to death in the U.S. That is twice the rate of other forms of death and 25 times the rate of gun deaths in all other Western nations.