Stopping the War Machine: Military Recruiters Must Be Confronted, By Ron Kovic

[Echo In Light]

Stopping the War Machine: Military Recruiters Must Be Confronted
by Ron Kovic

As a former United States Marine Corps sergeant who was shot and paralyzed from my mid-chest down during my second tour of duty in Vietnam on Jan. 20, 1968, I am sending my complete support and admiration to all those now involved in the courageous struggle to stop military recruitment in Berkeley and across the country.

Not since the Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s has there been a cause more just than the one you are now engaged in. Who knows better the deep immorality and deception of military recruiters than those of us who, decades ago, entered those same recruiting offices with our fathers, believing in our hearts that we were being told the truth — only to discover later we had been deceived and terribly betrayed? Many of us paid for that deceit with our lives, years of suffering and bodies and minds that were never the same again. If only someone had warned us, if only someone had had the courage to speak out against the madness that we were being led into, if only someone could have protected us from the recruiters whose only wish was to make their quota, send us to boot camp and hide from us the dark secret of the nightmare which awaited us all.

Over the past five years, I have watched in horror the mirror image of another Vietnam unfolding in Iraq. So many similarities, so many things said that remind me of that war 30 years ago which left me paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for life. Refusing to learn from the lessons of Vietnam, our government continues to pursue a policy of deception, distortion, manipulation and denial, doing everything it can to hide from the American people their true intentions and agenda in Iraq.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/28/9255/

[elizfeelinggreat]

1. recruiters

are big at many schools here in Texas. I find it sad and infuriating that they send these guys in their fatigues to act "cool" at the schools. High school kids always want to hang out with the older guys, don't they? It really, truly bugs me that they do this; I think it's shameful behavior.

And what p-t job could a high schooler get that pays $1,000 a month!?!


The Dallas Morning News | Karin Shaw Anderson | November 09, 2007

High School Seniors Get a New Incentive to Join the Army

<>
The Army designed the program for high school seniors. It's brand new. Promotional materials haven't been printed yet, but recruiters are talking it up at schools.

The program pays students $1,000 for each month between signing the commitment contract and leaving for basic training after completing high school. The Army pays an additional $1,000 for high school graduation.
<>
Federal law requires schools to give military recruiters the same access they give to college or corporate recruiters.

Many area districts allow military recruiters to set up tables outside lunchrooms or in school common areas. Recruiters also work booths at college fairs.

[T Monk]

2. recruiters do it to their own

[Echo In Light]

3. Bump