Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

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From Draft NOtices, July-September 2022


Once again, a legislative proposal has been made to require women to join men in registering with the Selective Service System for a possible future military draft. As of this writing, it is contained in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s draft of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2023. The bill must now go to the full Senate for a floor vote.

The House Armed Services Committee’s draft of the 2023 NDAA does not include the Senate committee’s language regarding registration of women. There is still a possibility that such a provision could be added as an amendment during the upcoming House floor debate on the bill. Even if such an amendment is not added at that point, it could still happen when the House and Senate versions go to a joint conference committee to iron out any differences. The resulting bill would then go back to the full House and Senate for approval.

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From Draft NOtices, July-September 2022

— Lauren Reyna Morales

In the summer of 2020, I was recruited by the non-profit Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO) to review core textbooks used by the U.S. military in the high school Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) program. Project YANO organized a team of 15 reviewers that consisted of individuals with backgrounds in either classroom teaching or education activism, or with special knowledge of subjects that JROTC claims to address in its curriculum (e.g., U.S. and world history, geography, leadership methods, etc.).

In total, eleven Army, Navy, and Marine Corps JROTC texts were reviewed. The reviewers included current and retired teachers, military veterans, and several educators with post baccalaureate credentials. I myself have been a classroom teacher for five years. I’m credentialed to teach English and Social Sciences in the state of California, and I also earned an M.A. in education from the University of Colorado, Denver. I personally reviewed an Army JROTC textbook titled, Leadership Education and Training (LET 3). I was eager to investigate the kind of curriculum JROTC utilizes to influence over 550,000 students at approximately 3,400 high schools. What, I wondered, is the U.S. military teaching to youth in their places of learning?

What I found inside the JROTC Army text I reviewed was awful. I’m not sure how any educator could review this textbook and give it a positive evaluation: at best, it is a compilation of stunningly deficient and problematic lessons. My assessment, however, is not nearly as passive nor forgiving. Broadly speaking, I found that the LET 3 text actively supports Eurocentrism and white supremacism by way of the values, concepts, and narratives that it enforces. The text also intentionally promotes the suppression of critical thinking and consciousness. Furthermore, it seriously fails to provide an accurate representation of what service in the military is like and does not give sufficient resources for students to explore other options for themselves.

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From Draft NOtices, July-September 2022

— Branko Marcetic

For years, the ever-increasing militarization of U.S. police forces has been cast by its defenders as an indispensable tool for dealing with large-scale violence and mass-casualty events. Since the Uvalde massacre last month, that rationale lies in tatters.

In November 2014, as Americans watched heavily armed and armored police bear down with tanks on unarmed, mostly black protesters in Ferguson, the House held a hearing on the militarization of U.S. law enforcement. Congress was starting to rethink the 1033 program that led police officers of the small city on the outskirts of St Louis to suddenly look like invading troops, while law enforcement representatives insisted on the need to keep that military equipment flowing.

“A principal function of the police is to respond to the public safety threats that face our communities,” said Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation. “Adequate and updated equipment is a necessity to keep both officers and our citizens safe. . . . I urge you to consider the program’s local public safety benefits.”

The executive director of another police association, the National Tactical Officers Association, explicitly cited the 1999 Columbine shooting as the reason the program had to continue.

“Minutes and even seconds count in an active shooter situation,” he said. “Lives are at risk if immediate police actions do not occur quickly and effectively. No longer can police departments wait for specialized units to respond to active shooter incidents.”

The hearings didn’t come to much. Barack Obama signed a landmark but flawed executive order restricting the weapons transfers, which Donald Trump quickly rescinded. “Much of the equipment provided through the 1033 program is entirely defensive in nature . . . that protect officers in active shooter scenarios and other dangerous situations,” read Trump’s proposal.

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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:

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