military recruitment

Tue

Mar

2016

Young and Desperate? I want you to fight my wars!

New translation available

Submitted by hannah

“Don’t join the Army.”

“Don’t do what? Don’t leave here? Don’t learn new skills?”

These are the words from the new recruitment advert from the British Army to recruit new members to its ranks. It depicts a...

Tue

Feb

Local-born doctor: Military structures young lives

Submitted by Gary on Tue, 24/02/2015 - 16:38

Asia Burns, left, and Arlonzo Chism stand in formation during ROTC at Woodlawn High School. (Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

A former Shreveporter who left a troubled family here to serve as a combat medic in Iraq, and who later served as a new doctor combating Ebola in west Africa, will speak in his home town later this week and sign copies of his new book.

"My mom was in prison most of my life, and my sister did time," says Antonio Webb, 32, who now is in his residency as an orthopedic surgeon in San Antonio, Texas. He grew up in the Allendale, Queensborough and Meadows neighborhood off Jewella Avenue.

"My dad did the best he could as a single parent to keep us isolated from what was going on. I was lucky in that I left Shreveport at an early age, 17, after I graduated from high school. If I'd have stayed in Shreveport there would have been a different outcome."

Mon

Feb

Military school in Austria

Submitted by antimili-youth on Mon, 23/02/2015 - 13:01

School life in army green

4 February 2015, by Stephan Löwenstein, Wiener Neustadt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Wiener Neustadt is home to a school run by the Austrian armed forces which offers pupils a “pre-military” education. But funding cuts are threatening the school’s future.

Mon

Feb

FARC bans recruitment of child soldiers

Submitted by hannah on Mon, 16/02/2015 - 15:46

Colombia’s largest rebel group, the FARC, vowed on Thursday to immediately and indefinitely ban the recruitment of child soldiers.

Until now, the FARC have formally only allowed the incorporation of recruits who are 15 and older. However, international humanitarian law dictates that no minor can take part in military activity.

To comply with international humanitarian law, the FARC announced to “no longer incorporate, from today on, minors of 17 [and younger] in the guerrilla ranks.”

The presumably ongoing recruitment of minors was a thorn in the flesh of human rights organizations and critics of the peace talks, who have been demanding the FARC to expand an earlier imposed unilateral ceasefire with abandoning the use of child soldiers and land mines.

Wed

Feb

America's Child Soldiers: JROTC and the Militarizing of America

Submitted by Gary on Wed, 04/02/2015 - 13:07

By Ann Jones

Congress surely meant to do the right thing when, in the fall of 2008, it passed the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA). The law was designed to protect kids worldwide from being forced to fight the wars of Big Men. From then on, any country that coerced children into becoming soldiers was supposed to lose all U.S. military aid.

It turned out, however, that Congress -- in its rare moment of concern for the next generation -- had it all wrong. In its greater wisdom, the White House found countries like Chad and Yemen so vital to the national interest of the United States that it preferred to overlook what happened to the children in their midst.

Mon

Feb

Hansel and Gretel at the Military Recruiter

Submitted by antimili-youth on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 17:08

Military recruiters must feel like Hansel and Gretel’s “wicked witch,” fattening up the children to eat them. With sexual violence, endless wars of occupation, fatalities, brain trauma, permanent disabilities and an epidemic of suicides, what they’re selling these days looks like a lot like a bad horror show.

With the chance of being sent into quagmires in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, etc. on one hand, the likelihood of being sexually assaulted on the other three-fourths and the specter of suicide among vets of all stripes¾you have to wonder how recruiters get anyone in the door. Newbies must not be reading the papers; all four active-duty services and five out of six reserve components met their recruiting goals in 2014, according to the Pentagon.

Fri

Jan

What Every Girl Should Know About the U.S. Military: Consider This – Before You Enlist

Submitted by hannah on Fri, 23/01/2015 - 11:52

What Every Girl Should Know About the U.S. Military: Consider This – Before You Enlist Co-published by the Women of Color Resource Center and the War Resisters League. Written for young women and featuring the voices of women veterans, this full color pamphlet is perfect for distributing at schools and community centers. Copies are available for $0.15 each plus 20% shipping from War Resisters League.

Download here

Thu

Jan

Veterans bring ‘military ethos’ to schools

Submitted by hannah on Thu, 22/01/2015 - 13:51

The pupils of year five at St Aloysius Catholic primary in Roby, Liverpool stand shoulder to shoulder, listening closely as the man in combat trousers and army boots outlines the task ahead.

Dressed in their blue PE shorts and white tops, they stand tall as the instructor speaks. First they have to imagine they are stranded in a desert and work out what they need to survive.

Bleak refugee camp life leads children to join armed groups

Submitted by hannah on Wed, 21/01/2015 - 16:16

(Mweso) January 20, 2015 — "I joined twice, because I had nothing to do," explains Pierre, a 17-year-old former child solider in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "The first time was in 2006. The recruiters in the camp promised me food, a job, and a military career. It didn't take much to get me to go into the bush and try my luck."

A humanitarian organization found Pierre two years later and sent back him back to a camp for the internally displaced persons (IDPs). When asked which organization, Pierre shrugs, "white people."

Read the rest of the article at Jesuit Refugee Service

Mon

Jan

Army recruitment office told to remove ‘God and Country’ poster

Submitted by hannah on Mon, 19/01/2015 - 12:24

By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times - Saturday, January 17, 2015

A poster with the message “On a mission for both God and Country” on display outside a recruiting station in Phoenix was removed Friday morning after it was brought to the attention of the the Army Recruiting Command.

Tue

Jan

Before You Enlist! The Real Deal in Joining the Military

Submitted by hannah on Tue, 13/01/2015 - 12:30

Straight talk from soldiers, veterans and their family members tells what is missing from the sales pitches presented by recruiters and the military's marketing efforts. Produced by Telequest, Inc with support from AFSC. See http://youth4peace.org for more info.

Source: http://www.beforeyouenlist.org/

Before You Enlist! The Real Deal in Joining the Military

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Countering Military Recruitment

WRI's new booklet, Countering Military Recruitment: Learning the lessons of counter-recruitment campaigns internationally, is out now. The booklet includes examples of campaigning against youth militarisation across different countries with the contribution of grassroot activists.

You can order a paperback version here.