United States of America

Mon

Jan

2015

There Is No Future in War: Youth Rise Up, a Manifesto

New translation available

A peace sign printed on the American Flag is raised during a protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Archive / History Channel)

Submitted by Gary

Statement written by Ben Norton, Tyra Walker, Anastasia Taylor, Alli McCracken, Colleen Moore, Jes Grobman, Ashley Lopez / Codepink -

Once again, US politicians and pundits are beating the drums of...

Tue

Jan

Alternatives to the Military – Lincoln

Tue

Jan

Truth and Alternatives to Militarism in Education

Truth and Alternatives to Militarism in Education (TAME) mission is to raise awareness of the ways by which militarism encourages violence, consumes resources, and threatens our well-being.

We present critical perspectives on the role of the military and the idealized portrayal of war to youth in particular, parents, educators, and the public in general.

We work to expose the negative aspects of a military presence and an ongoing recruitment in our educational institutions, including the system of promises and inducements used to entice young people into the military.

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

Wed

Dec

Counter-recruitment Resources

Submitted by hannah on Wed, 17/12/2014 - 15:47

DOWNLOAD THE KIT

The kit is a catalog of basic material useful to educating young people and school personnel about the realities of military enlistment and war. The catalog also includes some information on alternatives to enlistment, as well as items written for organizers seeking to reach out to local schools.

All of the material in this catalog was carefully reviewed for relevancy and accuracy as of the summer of 2014. A task force of knowledgeable organizers did the research. It does not include all of the available literature on this topic because much of what exists is out of date or is no longer being produced by the original sources. Consequently, we focused on identifying items that we felt were basic and most useful for effective organizing and educating. New items may be added to future kits as they become available.

Wed

Dec

Hollywood’s role in recruiting for US military

Submitted by hannah on Wed, 17/12/2014 - 12:34

WATCH THE VIDEO

American teenage children are being tracked, targeted, and sometimes captured by a global military industrial media complex.

Parents of teens are seldom aware of how their children are at the rising risk of being systematically targeted, manipulated and psychologically remodeled for use within the war-machine.

Across the military, there is a wide-speared belief that positive media images correlate with higher recruitment and retention rates.

In this edition of the Hollywood Cut, we will examine the role of Hollywood in recruiting for the US military.

AY/MHB

Source: PressTV

Thu

Dec

Football, the military and one Florida high school student’s difficult choice

Submitted by Gary on Thu, 11/12/2014 - 15:05

In the Florida Panhandle, football and military seen as ways out. Marine Recruiter Master Sgt. Newton McPherson addresses students during a visit to a JROTC class at Jefferson County Middle/High School. COLIN HACKLEY/For The Washington Post

By Kent Babb -

MONTICELLO, Fla. — The binder sat open on his adoptive mother’s lap, turned to the page where the scholarship papers lay in a transparent sleeve.

Nik Branham said nothing, holding the phone in its camouflage case close enough that his face glowed. The woman supported her 17-year-old’s plan to join the Army, but she didn’t understand it. These papers were a miracle, as she saw it, college at least partially paid for because of the hell he had survived, a chance at an education and maybe a few more years of football, the game he once loved.

Mon

Dec

Call of Duty: gaming's role in the military-entertainment complex

Submitted by hannah on Mon, 08/12/2014 - 11:32

How a writer on the world’s biggest shoot-’em-up has come to advise Washington on the future of warfare

Six months after Dave Anthony left his job as a writer and producer on the video game series Call of Duty, he received an unexpected phone-call from Washington DC.

That week, the caller, Steve Grundman, a former Pentagon official who served in a succession of appointments at the US Department of Defense during the 1990s, had been watching his son play Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. “Grundman told me that he’d been struck by the realism and authenticity in the game and in particular the story,” says Anthony. “So struck by it, in fact, that he’d been compelled to track me down.”

Wed

Nov

Principals learn about Army opportunities

Submitted by Gary on Wed, 26/11/2014 - 01:46

Command Sgt. Maj. Willie Clemmons, U.S. Army Recruiting Command, talks about the Army core values as he addresses National Association of Secondary School Principals and U.S. Army Leadership and Professional Development Symposium participants Nov. 13 at the Lewis and Clark Center. Photo by Prudence Siebert/Fort Leavenworth Lamp

By Jennifer Walleman / Fort Leavenworth Lamp -

Note: The military claims that it does not focus on recruiting low-income people.

The National Assn. of Secondary School Principals partnered with the Army to sponsor this symposium at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, in the United States. The principals were chosen because they are from schools serving students living in poverty. Notice the final quote at the end from one of them:

“Now that I have a better understanding of what the Army can offer, I’m going to sit down with the recruiter back home, and I’m going to have him be a little bit more aggressive with our kids and give him more opportunities to (reach) kids and explain to them how and why the military might be a good solution to actually help them be a success.”

Wed

Nov

Anti-war group decries USF's ties to military

Submitted by Gary on Wed, 26/11/2014 - 00:07

Gage Lacharite, center, head of the local branch of Students for a Democratic Society, prepares to hand out “counter-recruiting” fliers at USF's Marshall Student Center. JAY CONNER

by Jerome R. Stockfisch / Tampa Tribune

TAMPA — Counter-recruiting. Demands that the university break ties with the military. A mass die-in.

It may not be the 1960s, but Students for a Democratic Society is dusting off the old playbook to launch an anti-war, anti-U.S. military campaign at the University of South Florida.

SDS, perhaps the largest and most influential radical student organization of the 1960s, is springing back to life in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. SDSers from USF have scheduled a news conference today to demand that the university sever memorandums of understanding it has entered into with U.S. Central Command based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, and U.S. Southern Command based in Miami.

Thu

Nov

Bundeswehr ties to put best boot forward

Submitted by hannah on Thu, 20/11/2014 - 12:13

In the middle of Berlin, the German defense minister is opening a new showroom. The aim is to bring more young people into the Bundeswehr's barracks - but there were a few uninvited guests at the grand opening.

Jörg Jankowsky of the Bundeswehr's career center explained the purpose of a new showroom the German military opened in an unassuming office in the middle of Berlin. It is on the ground floor, near the capital's Unter den Linden boulevard with its fast-food restaurants, fashion shops, and bakeries. In between a shoe shop and a pharmacy, the new military showroom offers free information about career opportunities in the German armed service.

'Advertising death'

Inside the new information center, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen is talking to a group of 10th grade students from a Berlin school, and her handlers don't want the press disturbing them as they have their pictures taken with the politician.

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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.