thedrifter
05-10-03, 09:10 AM
05-09-2003
Anti-Military Activists Campaign against Recruiters
By Michael P. Canzoneri
Never mind that the vast majority of Americans support and salute the men and women of the U.S. armed forces for their dedicated service in back-to-back military campaigns in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks: A major anti-war group has decided to launch its own war – against military recruiters visiting the nation’s high schools to inform students of the opportunities for service in uniform.
The American Friends Service Committee’s “National Youth and Militarism Program” wants to counter the Pentagon’s recruiting efforts in high schools across America.
An AFSC e-mail, announcing an organizing conference in Philadelphia in late June that was sent to DefenseWatch and other online publications, shows a picture of military men and equipment storming a picturesque school-like setting. The AFSC on its website accuses the military of brainwashing our youth with propaganda that distorts the true nature of the military and that lies about the true horrors of war.
Using rhetoric that equates the military with an attacking terrorist force, AFSC spokesman Oskar Castro warns of a dire threat to young people:
“The rising tide of US militarism is threatening to inundate our nation's public schools. Waves of soldiers are gaining access to the once hallowed halls of education with the proliferation of JROTC units in high schools and other military activities that are spreading throughout K-12 schools.”
The AFSC’s conference goal is to ”educate” people about the military’s “invasion” of American youth culture, and show people how “peace, social justice, and globalization” are linked with counter-recruitment activism.
While their aspirations seem noble, I respectfully suggest that the AFSC is living in a different universe than the rest of us. It is, of course, a universe where 9/11 was America’s fault and not that of radical Islam, and where by simply renouncing the evil of militarism (whatever that is), Americans can live in peace with everyone else.
That such programs are actually designed to undermine national security by spreading anti-American propaganda with the goal of turning young people against the idea of military service, is not acknowledged by the AFSC in its newsletter and website. Their thinking is flawed on so many different levels I almost do not know where to begin, but I will give it a shot.
Even a cursory reading will confirm that war has defined much of the history of this planet. The United States itself is literally a nation built by war. For the most part, the U.S. military throughout our history has had the reputation as a liberator, not an invading conqueror. As Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain told his men on the road to Little Round Top at Gettysburg, the U.S. Army – unlike armies of the past – was an army organized to set people free.
Today, a more than quarter-century after the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military is also one manned by volunteers. Wars are not fought by 60-70 year old men who are done with their professional careers and want a change in their lives. They are fought by able young men and women, who at a critical and often perplexing point in their young lives desire something more and see a way to reach their goals.
I know dozens of people who joined the military in search of a career, college money, and more importantly, a sense of personal direction and duty. The military gave them an option they might not otherwise have had. Many of them were from troubled backgrounds and needed direction and structure in their lives. When did it become wrong to strive for such things? When did it become wrong to better oneself? When did it become wrong to defend a country that guarantees your freedom?
Using the G.I Bill, particularly college tuition benefits, to entice young people into military service is one of the reasons why we have succeeded in building the greatest military force in history. We have well-educated people serving in dangerous and important positions. They make decisions that protect us from the oppression of evil dictators and terrorists, and they ensure the protection of our way of life.
Military engineers are helping rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq. They are rebuilding schools where both boys and girls can attend. Military doctors and nurses are tending to those in need of medical attention. Many of these people managed to obtain these skills using money they earned by serving in the military. These soldiers are helping people whose own rulers refused to help them. What could be wrong with this?
Thus, any effort to eliminate or even impede the recruitment of high school/college age men and women for military duty is to seriously compromise the effectiveness of the armed forces. And that is what the AFSC and its leftist allies really want to do.
The plain truth is people who organize programs like the “National Youth and Militarism Program” have an agenda that is at odds with their rhetoric. They do not like the military and the people who serve in it. According to their rhetoric, military people are oppressive warmongers who are searching to fulfill their Alpha Male egos by killing innocent men, women and children. They think the military is the government’s way of brainwashing the poor into submissive slaves. They believe that the death of each man and woman lost in the line of duty in Afghanistan or Iraq was for nothing, and that their lives were meaningless.
The military people who fought and died in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom did so in large part to give all Americans – including the anti-military zealots in the AFSC – the right to organize and protest. Despite their sinister motives against the U.S. military, the AFSC is breaking no laws with their rants against “militarism.”
But that doesn’t mean they should go unchallenged or proceed without being energetically debated. Those of us who believe military service is an honorable expression of American citizenship should hold workshops as well – to point out the dangerous illogic of those who would forcibly separate the U.S. military from young men and women in the name of a self-styled “peace.”
Michael P. Canzoneri is a Contributing Editor for DefenseWatch and he can be reached at dfwatch@hotmail.com.
http://www.afsc.org/militarismnews.htm
Sempers,
Roger
Anti-Military Activists Campaign against Recruiters
By Michael P. Canzoneri
Never mind that the vast majority of Americans support and salute the men and women of the U.S. armed forces for their dedicated service in back-to-back military campaigns in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks: A major anti-war group has decided to launch its own war – against military recruiters visiting the nation’s high schools to inform students of the opportunities for service in uniform.
The American Friends Service Committee’s “National Youth and Militarism Program” wants to counter the Pentagon’s recruiting efforts in high schools across America.
An AFSC e-mail, announcing an organizing conference in Philadelphia in late June that was sent to DefenseWatch and other online publications, shows a picture of military men and equipment storming a picturesque school-like setting. The AFSC on its website accuses the military of brainwashing our youth with propaganda that distorts the true nature of the military and that lies about the true horrors of war.
Using rhetoric that equates the military with an attacking terrorist force, AFSC spokesman Oskar Castro warns of a dire threat to young people:
“The rising tide of US militarism is threatening to inundate our nation's public schools. Waves of soldiers are gaining access to the once hallowed halls of education with the proliferation of JROTC units in high schools and other military activities that are spreading throughout K-12 schools.”
The AFSC’s conference goal is to ”educate” people about the military’s “invasion” of American youth culture, and show people how “peace, social justice, and globalization” are linked with counter-recruitment activism.
While their aspirations seem noble, I respectfully suggest that the AFSC is living in a different universe than the rest of us. It is, of course, a universe where 9/11 was America’s fault and not that of radical Islam, and where by simply renouncing the evil of militarism (whatever that is), Americans can live in peace with everyone else.
That such programs are actually designed to undermine national security by spreading anti-American propaganda with the goal of turning young people against the idea of military service, is not acknowledged by the AFSC in its newsletter and website. Their thinking is flawed on so many different levels I almost do not know where to begin, but I will give it a shot.
Even a cursory reading will confirm that war has defined much of the history of this planet. The United States itself is literally a nation built by war. For the most part, the U.S. military throughout our history has had the reputation as a liberator, not an invading conqueror. As Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain told his men on the road to Little Round Top at Gettysburg, the U.S. Army – unlike armies of the past – was an army organized to set people free.
Today, a more than quarter-century after the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military is also one manned by volunteers. Wars are not fought by 60-70 year old men who are done with their professional careers and want a change in their lives. They are fought by able young men and women, who at a critical and often perplexing point in their young lives desire something more and see a way to reach their goals.
I know dozens of people who joined the military in search of a career, college money, and more importantly, a sense of personal direction and duty. The military gave them an option they might not otherwise have had. Many of them were from troubled backgrounds and needed direction and structure in their lives. When did it become wrong to strive for such things? When did it become wrong to better oneself? When did it become wrong to defend a country that guarantees your freedom?
Using the G.I Bill, particularly college tuition benefits, to entice young people into military service is one of the reasons why we have succeeded in building the greatest military force in history. We have well-educated people serving in dangerous and important positions. They make decisions that protect us from the oppression of evil dictators and terrorists, and they ensure the protection of our way of life.
Military engineers are helping rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq. They are rebuilding schools where both boys and girls can attend. Military doctors and nurses are tending to those in need of medical attention. Many of these people managed to obtain these skills using money they earned by serving in the military. These soldiers are helping people whose own rulers refused to help them. What could be wrong with this?
Thus, any effort to eliminate or even impede the recruitment of high school/college age men and women for military duty is to seriously compromise the effectiveness of the armed forces. And that is what the AFSC and its leftist allies really want to do.
The plain truth is people who organize programs like the “National Youth and Militarism Program” have an agenda that is at odds with their rhetoric. They do not like the military and the people who serve in it. According to their rhetoric, military people are oppressive warmongers who are searching to fulfill their Alpha Male egos by killing innocent men, women and children. They think the military is the government’s way of brainwashing the poor into submissive slaves. They believe that the death of each man and woman lost in the line of duty in Afghanistan or Iraq was for nothing, and that their lives were meaningless.
The military people who fought and died in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom did so in large part to give all Americans – including the anti-military zealots in the AFSC – the right to organize and protest. Despite their sinister motives against the U.S. military, the AFSC is breaking no laws with their rants against “militarism.”
But that doesn’t mean they should go unchallenged or proceed without being energetically debated. Those of us who believe military service is an honorable expression of American citizenship should hold workshops as well – to point out the dangerous illogic of those who would forcibly separate the U.S. military from young men and women in the name of a self-styled “peace.”
Michael P. Canzoneri is a Contributing Editor for DefenseWatch and he can be reached at dfwatch@hotmail.com.
http://www.afsc.org/militarismnews.htm
Sempers,
Roger