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In
an effort to weaken America's national defense, in recent years a
number of influential peace organizations have initiated
counter-recruitment programs designed to hinder the U.S. military's
efforts to enlist new young people into the armed services. A leader
of this movement is the American
Friends Service Committee, whose Youth & Militarism Campaign
“provide[s]
youth with information about alternatives to military service, and
advocacy to reduce the influence of the U.S. military on the nation's
public schools.”
Another major player in the
counter-recruitment movement is Code
Pink: Women for Peace, which works
“to
counter the false promises of military recruiters with creative,
local, grassroots activism and offer real alternatives to military
service.” In
October
2007, Code Pink activists defaced the UC Berkeley recruitment
office and branded American troops in Iraq as assassins. In January
2008, Code Pink protesters chained themselves to the Berkeley
recruitment center in an effort to shut it down; they also defaced
the building's windows with bloody handprints and signs that
characterized recruiters as "death pimps."
In 2009,
the United
For Peace & Justice (UFPJ) antiwar coalition denounced
the “forceful
tactics and outright lies … used by the military to recruit the
hearts, minds and bodies of our youth.” “It is time,” UFPJ
added, “to participate in counter-recruitment campaigns in order to
stop the harvesting of human beings.”
According
to counter-recruitment activist and Gold
Star Families for Peace founder Cindy
Sheehan, the U.S. government sent young men and women “to
invade and occupy a country [Iraq] that posed no threat to the United
States.” “They were used recklessly and ignorantly by their
Commander in Chief [George W. Bush],” Sheehan adds. “... They
were all lied to by their recruiters, who will tell young people
anything to get them to enlist, then deliver nothing.”
The
War
Resisters League reports
that its own counter-recruitment work “provides young people with
the resources and training necessary to agitate against military
recruitment in their schools and communities.”
Other major
peace groups leading the counter-recruitment movement include the
following:
Journalist Michelle
Malkin has chronicled a lengthy list
of counter-recruitment direct actions that have been carried out by
various peace organizations and anti-war activists in recent years.
To view this list, click
here.
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