From Draft NOtices, January - February, 2004
— Shelley Gutiérrez
Military recruitment has experienced a downturn since the mid-1980s with heightened difficulty following the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Since planning for peace is not on the current administration's agenda, the Department of Defense (DoD) must take up the issue of how to attract more combatants to carry out its current and future wars. It is absolutely vital that objectors to militarism understand the elaborate demographic analyses compiled by think tanks at the request of the DoD to prepare military recruiters for swaying youth enlistment decisions. Activists and others involved in the work of (re)educating youth on militarism must know which youth are being targeted and which selling points are being used so sufficient energy can be allocated to compiling literature, videos, and classroom presentations that effectively respond to recruiters.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
From Draft NOtices, November - December, 2003
— Lorraine Demi
How many times have we recently heard and read that the U.S. military focus in Iraq has shifted to rebuilding and ensuring "security" for the people recently freed from an oppressive dictator? How many of us sat with mouths agape when we learned that the unjust war in Iraq has damaged the country so badly that U.S. taxpayers are being charged billions of dollars to "rebuild" that which most of us didn't want destroyed in the first place? And now news has broken that the U.S. troops aren't rebuilding Iraq, but ruining the livelihoods, property, food sources, and independence for Iraqi farmers — and, indeed, being oppressive and dictatorial.
From Draft NOtices, November - December, 2003
— Rick Jahnkow
Ever since the last draft ended in 1973, proposals to bring back conscription have lacked the support needed to win passage. However, several factors are developing that are adding momentum in Congress for the idea of forcing young people into the military, and the Bush administration may wind up revising its previously stated opposition to reactivating the draft.
A recent news report in the Washington, D.C. newspaper The Hill says that key Democrats in Congress are about to make another push for a military draft "as part of a critical barrage they are preparing to launch against President Bush over the length of troop deployments and the heavy reliance on reservists in Iraq."
One of the key Democrats is Rep. Charles Rangel (NY), who along with Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC) introduced a bill in January that would require that all males and females between the ages of 18 and 26 perform two years of "service." Under the Rangel/Hollings proposal, any draftees that were not needed by the military would be assigned to a civilian job that, "as determined by the President, promotes the national defense, including national or community service and homeland security."
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:
