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...

Fri

Oct

‘That’s all I ever wanted’: Uncle Sam needs American youths

Submitted by hannah on Fri, 10/10/2014 - 15:14

by Ehab Zahriyeh

“If something happens with Russia,” said one cadet to his classmate at Fishburne Military School, “I’m pretty sure all of us are a little bit, you know, maybe not excited but ready. Because that’s what we want to do.”

Another cadet chimed in, saying, “For our whole lives … since I was a little kid, that’s all I ever wanted to do.”

Harold McCoo, however, was less sanguine about the prospects of the battlefield and his schoolmates’ eagerness to enter war. “I don’t want to see them on one of those plaques that we have over in the foyer for former Fishburne cadets who have passed away,” he said.

Thu

Oct

US Uses Video Games to Recruit Drone Pilots as Young as 12

Submitted by hannah on Thu, 09/10/2014 - 14:51

New documentary exposes U.S. disturbing U.S. tactics for hiring drivers of killer unmanned aircrafts.

Gamers as young as twelve years old have been targeted for recruitment as U.S. drone pilots, a new documentary reveals.

According to director of DRONE Tonje Hessen Schei, video games and virtual reality have been a U.S. Army recruiting tool for a while now, including the invention of their own game America's Army.

Gamers as young as twelve years old have been targeted for recruitment as U.S. drone pilots, a new documentary reveals.

According to director of DRONE Tonje Hessen Schei, video games and virtual reality have been a U.S. Army recruiting tool for a while now, including the invention of their own game, America's Army.

Mon

Oct

'War is the Antithesis of Motherhood:' A Voice From Puerto Rico

Submitted by hannah on Mon, 06/10/2014 - 11:29

Photo: Dr. Sonia Santiago, founder and director of Madres Contra la Guerra/Mothers Against the War. (Photo: Jovanni Reyes)

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, along with allies from various peace and justice organizations, congregated at the Woodbine Ecological Center in Sadalia, Colorado last month to attend the 2014 IVAW National Convention and commemorate the 10th anniversary of the post-9/11-era anti-war veteran led movement. Ironically, this date fell on the week after the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War—a war that devastated Europe and was supposed to end all wars—and coincidentally at a time when the Obama Administration authorized another round of aerial attacks on the people of Iraq. This brought ill memories of the last war on the people of Iraq by U.S. forces, leaving many of the combat veterans attending with mixed feelings, self-reflection and, for some, sentiments of despair.

Tue

Sep

Children's rights groups urge Defense program to stop giving school cops military hardware

Submitted by hannah on Tue, 23/09/2014 - 10:48

Photo: The 2013 Caiman MRAP acquired by the San Diego Unified School District Police Department with decals rendered by an artist. San Diego Unified School District

Update, Sept. 18, 10:54 a.m.: Following complaints, the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department announced Tuesday it will return three grenade launchers but keep an anti-mine armored vehicle and 61 M-16s it acquired through a Department of Defense program. The surplus automatic M-16 rifles were converted to semi-automatic, the department said.

Wed

Sep

Army Makes Case Against Enlisting

Submitted by hannah on Wed, 17/09/2014 - 10:08

Remarkably, the U.S. Army War College has published a report (PDF) that makes an overwhelming case against enlisting in the U.S. Army. The report, called "Civilian Organizational Inhibitors to U.S. Army Recruiting and the Road Ahead," identifies counter-recruitment organizations that effectively discourage young people from joining the military.

Army Makes Case Against Enlisting

Tue

Sep

Playing War: How the Military Uses Video Games

Submitted by hannah on Tue, 16/09/2014 - 12:27

Hamza Shaban, October 10 2013

A new book unfolds how the “military-entertainment complex” entices soldiers to war and treats them when they return.

Photo: A screenshot from America’s Army

Fri

Sep

They're students, not recruits

Submitted by hannah on Fri, 12/09/2014 - 15:42

Keep the military's base of operations out our education system

As the school year begins, parents and guardians across the [U.S.] are getting to know new teachers, bus routes, routines and worrying increasingly about violence and bullying as we send our children into the semi-unknown. It’s a busy, nervous time of year.

Parents of school-aged children in Syria and Iraq have other worries. An August 2014 United Nations Human Rights Council report states that both state and non-state armed groups in the region have been recruiting children for combat and non-combat support roles in violent conflict, [including] ISIS.

Sat

Sep

Immigration Reform and the Military

Submitted by Gary on Sat, 06/09/2014 - 18:55

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy

Jesus D. Mendez Carbajal, Project YANO Intern:

Under the Obama administration there have been more than two million deportations to date, an average of 1,100 people every day, which is a higher rate than that for any other president in the history of the United States. More than 100,000 of those have come from California. Deportations have been facilitated in California via the implementation of the Secure Communities policy in 2009, which established the sharing of the fingerprint database between local law enforcement and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The proposed immigration reform bill’s halt and continued deportations have sparked community organizers and activists nationwide to mobilize and stage several nonviolent civil disobedience actions calling for the stopping of all deportations and the shutdown of ICE.

Wed

Sep

How the Military Collects Data on Millions of High School Students

Submitted by hannah on Wed, 03/09/2014 - 14:45

By Charles Davis

April 27, 2014 | 1:45 pm

This article originally appeared on VICE.

The calls started when I was a junior in high school — always in the evening, always after The Simpsons and always with an older gentleman on the other end of the line.

“Charles, there's someone who wants to speak you,” my mother would yell from the kitchen.

She showed no concern as she handed me the phone, no alarm in her eyes over all the calls she was getting from strange middle-aged men looking to chat up her vulnerable teenage son.

That's because these creepers called themselves “colonels” and “sergeants,” which lent authority to their predation. These men were military recruiters — and the bed they wanted to get me in was housed in some barracks.

Tue

Sep

Subvertisers' gallery

In this gallery we're collecting examples of the military's messages being 'improved' / changed by those who want to undermine their attempts to make war sounds good!

Some people call this billboard improvement, some people call it graffiti, some call it subvertising. Whatever you call it - we think it's a good idea!

Also see this video of an action in Belgium to alter the army's messages on Valentine's day...http://antimili-youth.net/videos/2014/09/make-love-not-war

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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.