Reply #25: 'Counter-recruiters' shadowing the military

[rodeodance]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=5&u=/usatoday/20050308/ts_usatoday/counterrecruitersshadowingthemilitary


'Counter-recruiters' shadowing the military

Tue Mar 8,11:49 AM ET



By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY

The Marines didn't have to recruit Greg McCullough. He signed a promise to enlist last year, while he was still in high school. But now McCullough has had second thoughts, and he's talking to a different kind of recruiter.

Jim Murphy is a "counter-recruiter," one of a small but growing number of opponents of the Iraq (news - web sites) war who say they want to compete with military recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people. (Related story: For Guard recruiters, a tough sell)

"I don't tell kids not to join the military," says Murphy, 59, a member of Veterans for Peace. "I tell them: 'Have a plan for your future. Because if you don't, the military has a plan for you.' "

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Anti-war activists such as Murphy charge that to fill their quotas, some military recruiters make promises they can't guarantee, such as money for college or training in a particular specialty, and give misleading descriptions of military life........