There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Ben Franklin
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
Truth in Recruiting - "Don't Believe the Hype!"
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
lead story:
JROTC RUN AMUCK: Military Recruiters Now Targeting Middle Schoolers with their Soft Sell
quote & counter-quote:
“We want to reach students at that age before they make decisions that put them at risk.”
~Army JROTC director Col. John Vanderbleek, commenting on Wichita, Kansas program, without irony.
"Dying is not cool."
~Marcelo Salazar, 21, former JROTC cadet, in Maryland, deciding not to enlist after graduating high school
related story:
No Child Left Behind Allowed Recruiters to Collect Info on Millions of Unsuspecting Teens
--In the past few years, the military has mounted a virtual invasion into the lives of young Americans, using data mining in the class room
quote:
"To get to lunch in my high school, you had to pass recruiters. It was overwhelming. I thought the recruiters had too much information about me. They called me, but I never gave them my phone number."
~John Travers, 19-year-old African American from Wheaton, Maryland, starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University
page one:
Poverty Draft in Full Swing
In Midst of Downturn, All Targets Are Met
fact: The Army spends between $22,000 and $24,500 per recruit, in order to target, persuade, inveigle, dupe and contractually bind each individual signed up.
related facts:
On the plus side, Counter-Recruitment is Experiencing Successes Too
--Not surprisingly, more and more kids are opting out of having their information shared with recruiters under No Child Left Behind, using the "opt out" provisions of the legislation
featured radio interview
Military recruitment campaigns that play on the “coming of age” mythology
--Hey, Kids, Don't Join the Military
"All those things they tell you are lies."
~Aaron Emery, Iraq veteran who was recalled to the battle zone against his will, and forced to continue to serve in wars to which he vehemently objects.
Iraq veterans protest Afghan war
--protest in Olympia, not far from Fort Lewis, Washington State
quote:
"The President should end the conflict in Afghanistan and save the soldiers and their families the pain of deployments and more body bags coming back,"
~Seth Manzel, Iraq veteran, formerly in Ready Reserves, now refusing to deploy to Afghanistan
Military jet crash is grim reminder of risk
--midair crash of two F-16 fighter jets off the S.C. coast
--one pilot from Shaw Air Force Base and his airplane remain missing
Killing Innocent Afghan Civilians to "Save Our Troops"
--Eight years of horror perpetrated against the people of Afghanistan
--Women of Afghanistan protest continued occupation by the U.S./NATO
page two:
Atonement being made by a Republican who voted in Congress for war in 2003
--A conscience-stricken member of the House Armed Services Committee is writing a book called "My Daddy's Not Dead Yet"
--Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C. considers as "sinful" any vote cast to empower former President George W. Bush to invade Iraq
Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange, the toxic Vietnam-era weapon used by the U.S.
--V.A. adds Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia to the growing list of illnesses caused by Agent Orange
GI Benefits Elusive, Almost Half Await Check in Vain
--Roughly 30,000 of the 64,000 students enrolled through the GI Bill are still awaiting payment.
follow up on threat of military nuclear mishaps inside the domestic U.S.:
Missile commander ousted at ND Air Force base
--During his tenure, three ballistic missile crew members fell asleep holding launch codes in July 2008 and were discharged a year later.
--file under: war is boring
backpage:
Iraqi cancer figures soar, U.S. use of uranium weapons blamed
-- there is proof of a definitive link between cancer and depleted uranium used in radioactive uranium weapons in the U.S. arsenal
quote:
"In the last ten years, research has emerged that has made it quite clear that uranium is one of the most dangerous substances known to man, certainly in the form that it takes when used in these wars."
~Christopher Busby, a British scientist who has carried out research into the risks of radioactive pollution
Japan Threatening to Oust US Troops From Okinawa
--New Japanese govt seeks to force negotiations with U.S. military / U.S. Secretary of State
Israeli Students Refuse to Enlist Due to Occupation of Palestine
--Amalia Merkovitch, an 18-year old high school senior, classifies herself as a "future army refuser"
epigraph for this edition of "Truth in Recruiting"
quote:
"Nobody can say you volunteered to be disabled the rest of your life. Nobody can say you volunteered to die and leave behind your wife and children. It's wrong. It's colonialism."
~U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, Orlando Democrat, the only from Florida to vote against further funding of the war in Afghanistan
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
lead story
Army targets middle-school students for recruitment
JROTC program already trains "cadets" not students, in Wichita
The Associated Press
Oct 12, 2009
WICHITA, Kan. — "The U.S. Army wants you!," middle school students.
The Wichita school district in south-central Kansas is one of a few nationwide offering middle school programs based on the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps "curriculum."
The Wichita program faced some opposition when it began in 1997 because of concerns about military influence and recruiting. But Army JROTC director Col. John Vanderbleek said little opposition is expected to the national program.
“If you get into the leadership program and see what it is, you lose suspicion that they are recruiting,” Vanderbleek said. “There’s nothing in the curriculum that focuses on military service.”
Top Army officials are studying its programs to see if they could be a model for others nationwide.
“We want to reach students at that age before they make decisions that put them at risk,” said Vanderbleek, who came to Wichita recently from Fort Monroe, Va., to see the Kansas program for himself.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/ap_army_jrotc_middle_school_1...
related story:
No Child Left Behind Allowed Recruiters to Collect Info on Millions of Unsuspecting Teens
David Goodman, for Mother Jones Magazine
September/October 2009 Issue
John Travers was striding purposefully into the Westfield mall in Wheaton, Maryland, for some back-to-school shopping before starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University. When I asked him whether he'd ever talked to a military recruiter, Travers, a 19-year-old African American with a buzz cut, a crisp white T-shirt, and a diamond stud in his left ear, smiled wryly. "To get to lunch in my high school, you had to pass recruiters," he said. "It was overwhelming." Then he added, "I thought the recruiters had too much information about me. They called me, but I never gave them my phone number."
Nor did he give the recruiters his email address, Social Security number, or details about his ethnicity, shopping habits, or college plans. Yet they probably knew all that, too. In the past few years, the military has mounted a virtual invasion into the lives of young Americans. Using data mining, stealth websites, career tests, and sophisticated marketing software, the Pentagon is harvesting and analyzing information on everything from high school students' GPAs and SAT scores to which video games they play. Before an Army recruiter even picks up the phone to call a prospect like Travers, the soldier may know more about the kid's habits than do his own parents
The military has long struggled to find more effective ways to reach potential enlistees; for every new GI it signed up last year, the Army spent $24,500 on recruitment. (In contrast, four-year colleges spend an average of $2,000 per incoming student.) Recruiters hit pay dirt in 2002, when then-Rep. (now Sen.) David Vitter (R-La.) slipped a provision into the No Child Left Behind Act that requires high schools to give recruiters the names and contact details of all juniors and seniors. Schools that fail to comply risk losing their NCLB funding. This little-known regulation effectively transformed President George W. Bush's signature education bill into the most aggressive military recruitment tool since the draft. Students may sign an opt-out form—but not all school districts let them know about it.
Yet NCLB is just the tip of the data iceberg. In 2005, privacy advocates discovered that the Pentagon had spent the past two years quietly amassing records from Selective Service, state DMVs, and data brokers to create a database of tens of millions of young adults and teens, some as young as 15. The massive data-mining project is overseen by the Joint Advertising Market Research & Studies program, whose website has described the database, which now holds 34 million names, as "arguably the largest repository of 16-25-year-old youth data in the country." The JAMRS database is in turn run by Equifax, the credit reporting giant.
Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says the Pentagon's initial failure to disclose the collection of the information likely violated the Privacy Act. In 2007, the Pentagon settled a lawsuit (filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union) by agreeing to stop collecting the names and Social Security numbers of anyone younger than 17 and promising not to share its database records with other government agencies. Students may opt out of having their JAMRS database information sent to recruiters, but only 8,700 have invoked this obscure safeguard.
The Pentagon also spends about $600,000 a year on commercial data brokers, notably the Student Marketing Group and the American Student List, which boasts that it has records for 8 million high school students. Both companies have been accused of using deceptive practices to gather information: In 2002, New York's attorney general sued SMG for telling high schools it was surveying students for scholarship and financial aid opportunities yet selling the info to telemarketers; the Federal Trade Commission charged ASL with similar tactics. Both companies eventually settled.
Recruiters are also data mining the classroom. More than 12,000 high schools administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a three-hour multiple-choice test originally created in 1968 to match conscripts with military assignments. Rebranded in the mid-1990s as the "ASVAB Career Exploration Program," the test has a cheerful home page that makes no reference to its military applications, instead declaring that it "is designed to help students learn more about themselves and the world of work." A student who takes the test is asked to divulge his or her Social Security number, GPA, ethnicity, and career interests—all of which is then logged into the JAMRS database. In 2008, more than 641,000 high school students took the ASVAB; 90 percent had their scores sent to recruiters. Tony Castillo of the Army's Houston Recruiting Battalion says that ASVAB is "much more than a test to join the military. It is really a gift to public education."
Concerns about the ASVAB's links to recruiting have led to a nearly 20 percent decline in the number of test takers between 2003 and 2008. But the test is mandatory at approximately 1,000 high schools. Last February, three North Carolina students were sent to detention for refusing to take it. One, a junior named Dakota Ling, told the local paper, "I just really don't want the military to have all the info it can on me." Last year, the California Legislature barred schools from sending ASVAB results to military recruiters, though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. The Los Angeles and Washington, DC, school districts have tried to protect students' information by releasing their scores only on request.
In 2007, JAMRS awarded a $50 million contract to Mullen Advertising to continue its marketing campaign to target "influencers" such as parents, coaches, and guidance counselors. The result: print ads that declare, "Your son wants to join the military. The question isn't whether he's prepared enough, but whether you are."
Not far from the mall in Maryland, I asked 21-year-old Marcelo Salazar, who'd been a cadet in his high school's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, why he'd decided not to enlist after graduating from John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 2005. Now a community college student, he replied that his mother was firmly against it.
Then, as if on cue, his cell phone chirped: It was a recruiter who called him constantly. He ignored it. "War is cool," he said, flipping on his aviator sunglasses. "But if you're dying, it's not."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/few-good-kids
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
page one
Poverty Draft in Full Swing
In Midst of Economic Downturn, All Targets Are Met
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 14, 2009
For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war.
The Pentagon, which made the announcement Tuesday, said the economic downturn and rising joblessness, as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to enlist.
Carr said strong recruitment was driven by economic conditions that have made civilian jobs scarce, along with other factors such as pay increases and investment in recruiting budgets.
The recession "was a force," Carr said, and, "given the unemployment that we had not directly forecast, allowed us to be for much of the year in a very favorable position."
Historically, there has been a strong correlation between rising unemployment and increases in "high quality" enlistments, according to Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accession policy.
Carr said the Defense Department spent about $10,000 on advertising, marketing, recruiters and other budget items per recruit, with the Army spending more than double that, at $22,000.
The military has not seen such across-the-board successes since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973, after Congress ended the draft following the Vietnam War. In recent years, the military has often fallen short of some of its recruiting targets. The Army, in particular, has struggled to fill its ranks, admitting more high school dropouts, overweight youths and even felons.
The active-duty Army this year admitted only 1.5 percent of recruits who scored in the lowest acceptable category on the standard qualification test; in recent years, that figure had reached nearly 4 percent.
In recent years, military officials cited the intensity of the fighting in Iraq as dampening interest in military service among 17-to-24-year-olds and, in particular, lessening the support of parents and other influential adults.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2...
On the plus side, counter-recruitment is experiencing successes too
--Not surprisingly, more and more kids are opting out of having their information shared with recruiters under No Child Left Behind, using the "opt out" provisions of the legislation
Only 5 percent of parents would recommend military service to their kids.
In New York City, the number of students opting out has doubled in the past five years, to 45,000 in 2008.
At some schools, 90 percent of students have opted out.
featured radio interview
Military recruitment campaigns that play on the “coming of age” mythology
Aaron Emery, Iraq veteran, member of the Campaign for Liberty, discusses the war-weary recalled soldiers who must choose redeployment or jail, how stop-loss acts as a backdoor draft, recruiting campaigns that play on a “coming of age” mythology and how an indoctrinated culture of combat defines a soldier’s self-worth.
MP3 here. (25:17)
rush transcript (excerpts only):
Antiwar.com: Did stop-loss happen to you? You had been discharged, you were back in the real world, and then they came and grabbed you again and made you go back?
Aaron Emery: I was in the Army, I was active duty for 5 years, and I decided that that was more than enough time, so I got out. I started doing civilian jobs and was enjoying not being in the army. In July of last year I was recalled, so I had to serve another 400 days. So I got sucked back in. Basically how this works is that anyone who serves in the military -- all branches -- is obligated to an 8-year commitment. So when you have a friend who signed up for 4 years, they really signed up for 8. They may be active-duty for only 4 years, and if they don't re-enlist they get out and do other things, but they are still obligated for the rest of that 8-year term. ... I would have a lot of younger guys, like Privates, come up to me and 'Aw, I didn't even know about this.' It is fine print and recruiters try to brush it aside and say it will never happen. They basically say, when the question gets raised 'Wait a minute, how does this recall thing work?' they basically say 'that will only happen if we have World War 3.' It's swept under the rug. They just pretend it's not there in the fine print. You know, 16- 17-year olds are not signing up for the potential of being pulled out of life and then being called back once they get out. I basically consider it a back-door draft. It's pretty much like a loop hole, something that's there in case we have an unpopular war like we do right now. You know, not enough people are signing up because they don't want to participate in the war. So they pull veterans back in who have already served.
I didn't want to be part of the machine, so I did my time and got out. And whether I'm opposed to the war or not --and I am vehemently opposed to it-- they still have that legal contract over me. They say: "Well, if you don't come back, you're going to jail."
Stop-loss is when they prevent you from getting out. I was already out, I was out for about a year, and they recalled me. You're sitting in that pool of veterans that are waiting to get out, a pool of veterans who have not quite completed their term, called the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR).
Antiwar.com: So when they recalled you, and told you 'You have to go back' and you had already changed your mind about the war, how come you didn't say, 'Nah...'
Aaron Emery: I told my sons and family that when they came to get me, and sure enough they did, that I'd stand on principle, and just would not go. When the time came, unfortunately, I lost my nerve. I was recalled with about 30 other guys, and a lot of them said, 'Yup, I just didn't wanna go to jail.' You know, they've got that legal contract hanging over you; just another reason why it's not very justified, to be honest. I wish I would have not gone, but I lost my courage. And you know, I was opposed to the wars even before they began. When it started I was just a dumb private, very fresh-faced to the world, but I knew that something was wrong. You can't expect everyone in the services to stand on principle alone, it's just not going to happen.
Antiwar.com: Well hell, at least you're a peacenik now, and a public one. [...] I mean I don't understand this mindset of 'well, I guess, give me a rifle and I guess I'll go,' I mean, we're talking about killing people, right?
Aaron Emery: People are stuck in this prisoner's dilemma, where if you don't do what the collective is doing, then your own self-interest is going to be detrimental to you. Unfortunately I lost my nerve.
Antiwar.com: And there should be a lesson for any young people listening. I mean, they say it's an 'All-Volunteer Army' but they mean only at the beginning, the day that you sign the thing [the contract]. And yet when one of their military guys wants to leave, and flees the army, he becomes a wanted man. This man's a fugitive now, and they going to find him and they're gonna grab him, and then force his ass back overseas to kill people again.
Aaron Emery: There have been tens of thousands of soldiers, just in the Army, who have been recalled, since 2003. It's very prevalent right now. It's happening a lot. Every week you have 20, 30 or 60 people showing up who have been recalled. I think it's very indicative of the low level of support for these wars among veterans, because they're not re-enlisting.
Antiwar.com: And when you look at the homeless on the side of the road, certainly more than half of them are veterans. You can read all about what really happens when American soldiers get home, with PTSD, the V.A. throws them in the garbage. They prefer that you blow your brains out than come to them for help. They don't want to 'make a man' out of you, they want to use you.
http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/10/11/aaron-emery/
rush transcript (partial transcription only), by TPF
Iraq veterans protest Afghan war
October 7, 2009
By LINDA BRILL / KING 5 News
LAKEWOOD, Wash. - Not far from Fort Lewis, Wash., sits a coffee shop for soldiers and veterans, with a twist.
Coffee Strong is an Internet café with an anti-war philosophy.
"We promote G.I. rights and G.I. resistance against these wars that are taking place now," said Seth Manzel.
Manzel was a Stryker driver and machine gunner, serving in Iraq in 2004. He was in the Individual Ready Reserves, but when he was ordered to go to Afghanistan, he refused. The Army didn't go after him.
Today, Manzel has words for Pres. Barack Obama.
"He should end the conflict in Afghanistan and save the soldiers and their families the pain of deployments and more body bags coming back," said Manzel.
Josh Simpson is another coffee shop regular and war resister. He left the Army after serving as a counter intelligence specialist in Iraq.
"I'm not just against the war in Afghanistan because I think it's unwinnable. It's because it's immoral," said Simpson.
Both men are taking part in Wednesday's anti-war rally in Olympia, urging Pres. Obama to listen to the activists who helped elect him.
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_100709WAB-iraq-vets-prote...
Military jet crash is grim reminder of risk
By CHUCK CRUMBO - ccrumbo@thestate.com
Oct. 17, 2009
The mid-air crash of two F-16 fighter jets off the S.C. coast offered a poignant reminder Friday that flying military aircraft is a dangerous business even during training missions.
One pilot from Shaw Air Force Base and his airplane remained missing Friday evening as a small fleet of military and Coast Guard vessels and aircraft, as well as law enforcement and commercial shippers, and even satellites searched the ocean 40 miles off Folly Beach near Charleston.
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/987054.html
featured op/ed
Killing Innocent Afghan Civilians to "Save Our Troops"
Eight Years of Horror Perpetrated against the people of Afghanistan
by Marc W. Herold
America's war in Afghanistan has been anything but a "precision" war executed with new, high-tech weapons. The fault lies less in the weapons themselves and more in how they have been used by American military personnel carrying out the policies of the Bush and Obama administrations. The metric of civilians killed to occupation soldiers killed, measures the relative lethality of the American-led Afghan war.
Table 2. Civilians Killed per 100 Metric Tons of Bombs Dropped (see PDF version of TPF update/digest for the table)
U.S aerial strikes were a chosen way of minimizing U.S casualties at the expense of Afghan civilian deaths and injured. In other words, a conscious self-serving U.S decision was made to impose undue harm upon Afghan civilians. That is a war crime. Moreover, as I have long argued and documented, some 60-70 percent of Afghan civilians killed by U.S and NATO forces have been women and children [16].
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15665
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
page two:
Atonement: I committed a Sin in casting My Vote for war, says Republican from North Carolina
Oct. 26, 2009
A conscience-stricken member of the House Armed Services Committee is writing a book called "My Daddy's Not Dead Yet" in hopes it will atone for what he now considers his sinful vote to empower former President George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003.
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., whose district includes the sprawling Marine base of Camp Lejeune, told me the title was inspired by a little boy who feared his Marine father would be killed in Iraq.
The setting for Jones' searing moment in 2007 was a classroom in the Johnson Elementary School at Camp Lejeune. He had been invited to read Dr. Seuss to the kids. Jones did that; then asked for questions.
"My daddy's not dead yet," said a little boy. "My daddy's not dead yet," the boy repeated. Jones said he reeled as if punched in the gut, a wave of guilt washing over him. The remark devastated him because he knew deep down that he had played go-along-politics with the life of the little boy's father instead of "listening to God" and voting against the House resolution in 2002 that authorized Bush to go to war in Iraq. "I profess to be a man of faith," Jones said, "but I didn't vote my conscience."
"My Daddy's Not Dead Yet" will set forth Jones' beliefs and concerns about America's out-of-control militarism and current spending spree. Any money his book makes will go to those treating the wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
"The American people have no idea of what's coming as it relates to taking care of those veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," Jones said.
Some physicians who have studied the extent and cost of treating the mentally wounded have told me it will overwhelm both the government and private medical systems.
The little boy's stinging remark also has compelled Jones to look hard at President Obama's plans for combating the Taliban in Afghanistan and stabilizing that fractured country. There will be no go-along vote for Jones this time.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/foa_20091026_5206.php
Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange
By JAMES DAO
October 12, 2009
Under rules to be proposed this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to add Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia to the growing list of illnesses presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used widely in Vietnam.
The proposal will make it substantially easier for thousands of veterans to claim that those ailments were the direct result of their service in Vietnam, thereby smoothing the way for them to receive monthly disability checks and health care services from the department.
The most common of the three illnesses, ischemic heart disease, restricts blood flow to the heart, causing irregular heartbeats and deterioration of the heart muscle.
Parkinson’s disease is associated with a loss of cells that secrete dopamine, a brain chemical essential for normal movement. Patients develop tremors, rigid posture, impaired balance and an inability to initiate movement.
Hairy-cell leukemia, a rarer condition, is a slow-growing cancer in which the bone marrow produces too many infection-fighting cells, lymphocytes, that crowd out healthy white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.
Agent Orange, named after the color-coded band on storage drums, was the most common herbicide used in Vietnam to clear jungle canopy and destroy crops. It contained one of the most toxic forms of dioxin, which has since been linked to some cancers.
The new policy will apply to some 2.1 million veterans who set foot in Vietnam during the war, including those who came after the military stopped using Agent Orange in 1970.
The veterans department already recognizes more than a dozen conditions as being presumptively connected to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam, including Hodgkin’s disease, prostate cancer and Type 2 diabetes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/us/politics/13vets.html?_r=1&...
Even With Check in Hand, GI Benefits Elusive
By Ed O'Keefe
October 7, 2009
The Department of Veterans Affairs' problems with the Post-9/11 GI Bill's benefits seem to linger, no matter what the government does.
Tens of thousands of veterans, active-duty servicemembers and their dependents have been waiting for promised higher-education benefits from VA since fall classes began last month.
Roughly 30,000 of the 64,000 students enrolled in the Post 9/11 GI Bill are still awaiting payment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/06/AR2...
Missile commander ousted at ND Air Force base
By James Macpherson, Associated Press Writer – Oct 14 2009
BISMARCK, N.D. – The missile wing commander at North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base was relieved of his command Wednesday after a series of missteps at the unit, including two crashes of vehicles carrying missile parts in just more than a year.
Col. Christopher Ayres' was not ousted for any misconduct or wrongdoing, but the Air Force said it had lost confidence in his ability to command the base's 91st Missile Wing given recent incidents, which also included three ballistic missile crew members falling asleep while holding classified launch code devices.
The 91st Missile Wing oversees 150 Minuteman III missiles, sunk in hardened silos, in central and western North Dakota.
Also in July 2008, a vehicle carrying a rocket booster for an unarmed Minuteman III ballistic missile overturned while being transported from the base to a launch facility in northwestern North Dakota. The military estimated it spent about $5.6 million to recover the rocket from a ditch. And this August, a semitrailer carrying rocket engine parts from the base overturned when the driver became distracted by an insect that flew in a window and landed on the driver's back, the military said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091014/ap_on_re_us/us_missile_commande...
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
backpage:
Iraqi cancer figures soar, U.S. use of uranium weapons blamed
Interview on video, available on demand: Abdulhaq Al-Ani, author of Uranium in Iraq.
Doctors in Iraq are recording a sharp rise in the number of cancer victims south of Baghdad. Sufferers in the province of Babil have risen almost tenfold in just three years.
Locals blame depleted uranium from US military equipment used in the 2003 invasion. Some 500 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2004 alone. That figure rose to almost 1,000 two years later.
In 2008, the number of cases increased sevenfold to 7,000 diagnoses. This year, there have so far been more than 9,000 new cases, and the number is rising.
Mosab Jasim reports that Iraqi researchers believe radiation is responsible for the increase in cancer and birth defects in the country, but he says the US and British militaries have sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium.
However, Christopher Busby, a British scientist and activist who has carried out research into the risks of radioactive pollution, said there is proof of a definitive link between cancer and depleted uranium.
"I made this link to a coroner's inquest in the West Midlands into the death of a Gulf War One veteran ... and a coroner's jury accepted my evidence," he told Al Jazeera.
"It's been found by a coroner's court that cancer was caused by an exposure to depleted uranium."
"In the last ten years, research has emerged that has made it quite clear that uranium is one of the most dangerous substances known to man, certainly in the form that it takes when used in these wars."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/20091012122745...
Japan Threatening to Oust US Troops From Okinawa
New Japanese Govt Seeks to Force Negotiations
by Jason Ditz, October 07, 2009
US bases (in red) cover much of Okinawa
Faced with their first major change in governance since World War 2, Japan’s new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ruled government is seeking to relieve long-standing grievances regarding the massive US military presence.
The DPJ is reportedly playing hardball now, however, threatening to kick the US military off the island of Okinawa, which is where the bulk of their presence is situated. The islanders have long complained about the major burden of tens of thousands of US soldiers occupying a large chunk of their island.
The U.S. is involved in a 60+ year long military presence in Japan.
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/07/japan-threatening-to-oust-us-tro...
Students refuse to enlist due to 'occupation'
Traditional letter signed by high school seniors slams Israel's 'oppressive policy in occupied territories'
Daniel Edelson
10.12.09 / Israel News
Dozens of students signed this year's high school seniors' letter, which has traditionally attempted to challenge Israel's mandatory army service policy. Similar letters have circulated every few years since 1979, all calling on teens to object to IDF service.
"We Jewish and Arab teens from throughout Israel hereby announce that we object to Israel's oppressive policy in the occupied territories and within the state of Israel, and therefore we will refuse to take part in these activities, which are carried out in our name by the Israel Defense Army," says the letter, signed by 80 students.
"The occupation has led the Israeli army to violate time and time again the international accords Israel has signed, UN resolutions, international laws, and the constitutional laws of Israel itself."
The letter concludes by stating, "Our refusal to be soldiers of occupation derives from our fidelity to the values and society that surround us, and is part of our continuing battle for peace and equality, a battle whose Jewish-Arab character proves peace and coexistence are possible."
Amalia Merkovitch, an 18-year old high school senior, classifies herself as a "future army refuser", and says that she and three friends plan to be taken to military prison on the day of their mandatory enlistment until it is canceled.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3788962,00.html
Tulsa Peace Fellowship's counter-recruitment update/digest for Nov 2009
masthead
who we are:
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship is the activist wing of the peace movement in Eastern Oklahoma. TPF offers citizens and community groups tools and resources to participate personally in our democracy, to help shape federal budget and policy priorities, and to promote peace, social and economic justice, and human rights. TPF is a registered non-profit organization and a non-partisan group, loosely affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration, north side of Tulsa.
"Waging Peace One Person at a Time".
TPF meets monthly @ Peace House in Tulsa inside the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration at 1314 N. Greenwood Ave, in Tulsa, close to corner of Pine & Greenwood, just north of the OSU-Tulsa campus
If you have not already done so, please join the new social networking tool for TPF on Ning, in lieu of TPFtalks on yahoogroups, which has fallen into disuse Thank you! You can check out our new tool here: http://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/ (new for 2009) Also still going strong: our announcement list on yahoo! tulsapeace@yahoogroups.com (since 2002) Go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/ and search for "tulsapeace"
Through its counter-recruitment task force, TPF is a member of the National Network in Opposition to the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) representing some 188 counter-recruitment groups in cities and towns across the country. On the web: http://www.nnomy.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=v...
Tulsa Peace Fellowship is open to 3rd parties, progressives, Dems, libertarians, etc.
Peace House-Tulsa is an incubator for peace and justice. The Peace House office inside the UU Church of the Restoration can host a wide range of activities: classes, discussion groups, meditation, music-making, social gatherings, retreats, etc. While some activities may be limited by the size and amenities of this building, our imaginations need not be limited!
If you enjoyed this news digest and/or found this update useful, please consider making a donation of time, money, or effort to the Tulsa Peace Fellowship. Details on tax status available.
info for TPF counter-recruitment-- contact by phone 918 906 0828
The next monthly anti-war demo in Tulsa is scheduled for
Saturday Nov 7th, 2009, 12noon to 2pm
Details online: http://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/events/out-of-afghanistan-1
The next regularly scheduled business meeting of the Fellowship will be held
on Thursday, November 12h 2009, 6:15 PM – 7:30 PM
--including members from other local non-partisan groups such as the Tulsa chapter of “Season for Non-Violence,” the Tulsa University chapter of Amnesty International, ImpeachOK1.org, TulsaTruth.org, the Center for Racial Justice in Tulsa, the Tulsa Interfaith Allliance, Pax Christi, and the Quakers
Come join us! Especially parents, guardians, and students in the Tulsa Public Schools system who are interested in countering the presence of military recruiters on school grounds.
An archive of TPF counter-recruitment updates and other related TPF material is available to members online:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tulsapeace/
You must sign in to yahoo! groups to see the archived "message history"
TPF messages have been archived online since 2002
TPF was founded some 30 years ago.
Current membership online: 692 subscribers
The information provided in this digest/update herein is for non-profit use only, according to "fair use" doctrine. Copyright and all commercial exploitation rights remain with the various authors/publishers cited above. The Tulsa Peace Fellowship does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in the articles appearing herein.
further information
IN ACCORDANCE WIT
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
lead story:
JROTC RUN AMUCK: Military Recruiters Now Targeting Middle Schoolers with their Soft Sell
quote & counter-quote:
“We want to reach students at that age before they make decisions that put them at risk.”
~Army JROTC director Col. John Vanderbleek, commenting on Wichita, Kansas program, without irony.
"Dying is not cool."
~Marcelo Salazar, 21, former JROTC cadet, in Maryland, deciding not to enlist after graduating high school
related story:
No Child Left Behind Allowed Recruiters to Collect Info on Millions of Unsuspecting Teens
--In the past few years, the military has mounted a virtual invasion into the lives of young Americans, using data mining in the class room
quote:
"To get to lunch in my high school, you had to pass recruiters. It was overwhelming. I thought the recruiters had too much information about me. They called me, but I never gave them my phone number."
~John Travers, 19-year-old African American from Wheaton, Maryland, starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University
page one:
Poverty Draft in Full Swing
In Midst of Downturn, All Targets Are Met
fact: The Army spends between $22,000 and $24,500 per recruit, in order to target, persuade, inveigle, dupe and contractually bind each individual signed up.
related facts:
On the plus side, Counter-Recruitment is Experiencing Successes Too
--Not surprisingly, more and more kids are opting out of having their information shared with recruiters under No Child Left Behind, using the "opt out" provisions of the legislation
featured radio interview
Military recruitment campaigns that play on the “coming of age” mythology
--Hey, Kids, Don't Join the Military
"All those things they tell you are lies."
~Aaron Emery, Iraq veteran who was recalled to the battle zone against his will, and forced to continue to serve in wars to which he vehemently objects.
Iraq veterans protest Afghan war
--protest in Olympia, not far from Fort Lewis, Washington State
quote:
"The President should end the conflict in Afghanistan and save the soldiers and their families the pain of deployments and more body bags coming back,"
~Seth Manzel, Iraq veteran, formerly in Ready Reserves, now refusing to deploy to Afghanistan
Military jet crash is grim reminder of risk
--midair crash of two F-16 fighter jets off the S.C. coast
--one pilot from Shaw Air Force Base and his airplane remain missing
Killing Innocent Afghan Civilians to "Save Our Troops"
--Eight years of horror perpetrated against the people of Afghanistan
--Women of Afghanistan protest continued occupation by the U.S./NATO
page two:
Atonement being made by a Republican who voted in Congress for war in 2003
--A conscience-stricken member of the House Armed Services Committee is writing a book called "My Daddy's Not Dead Yet"
--Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C. considers as "sinful" any vote cast to empower former President George W. Bush to invade Iraq
Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange, the toxic Vietnam-era weapon used by the U.S.
--V.A. adds Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia to the growing list of illnesses caused by Agent Orange
GI Benefits Elusive, Almost Half Await Check in Vain
--Roughly 30,000 of the 64,000 students enrolled through the GI Bill are still awaiting payment.
follow up on threat of military nuclear mishaps inside the domestic U.S.:
Missile commander ousted at ND Air Force base
--During his tenure, three ballistic missile crew members fell asleep holding launch codes in July 2008 and were discharged a year later.
--file under: war is boring
backpage:
Iraqi cancer figures soar, U.S. use of uranium weapons blamed
-- there is proof of a definitive link between cancer and depleted uranium used in radioactive uranium weapons in the U.S. arsenal
quote:
"In the last ten years, research has emerged that has made it quite clear that uranium is one of the most dangerous substances known to man, certainly in the form that it takes when used in these wars."
~Christopher Busby, a British scientist who has carried out research into the risks of radioactive pollution
Japan Threatening to Oust US Troops From Okinawa
--New Japanese govt seeks to force negotiations with U.S. military / U.S. Secretary of State
Israeli Students Refuse to Enlist Due to Occupation of Palestine
--Amalia Merkovitch, an 18-year old high school senior, classifies herself as a "future army refuser"
epigraph for this edition of "Truth in Recruiting"
quote:
"Nobody can say you volunteered to be disabled the rest of your life. Nobody can say you volunteered to die and leave behind your wife and children. It's wrong. It's colonialism."
~U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, Orlando Democrat, the only from Florida to vote against further funding of the war in Afghanistan
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
lead story
Army targets middle-school students for recruitment
JROTC program already trains "cadets" not students, in Wichita
The Associated Press
Oct 12, 2009
WICHITA, Kan. — "The U.S. Army wants you!," middle school students.
The Wichita school district in south-central Kansas is one of a few nationwide offering middle school programs based on the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps "curriculum."
The Wichita program faced some opposition when it began in 1997 because of concerns about military influence and recruiting. But Army JROTC director Col. John Vanderbleek said little opposition is expected to the national program.
“If you get into the leadership program and see what it is, you lose suspicion that they are recruiting,” Vanderbleek said. “There’s nothing in the curriculum that focuses on military service.”
Top Army officials are studying its programs to see if they could be a model for others nationwide.
“We want to reach students at that age before they make decisions that put them at risk,” said Vanderbleek, who came to Wichita recently from Fort Monroe, Va., to see the Kansas program for himself.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/ap_army_jrotc_middle_school_1...
related story:
No Child Left Behind Allowed Recruiters to Collect Info on Millions of Unsuspecting Teens
David Goodman, for Mother Jones Magazine
September/October 2009 Issue
John Travers was striding purposefully into the Westfield mall in Wheaton, Maryland, for some back-to-school shopping before starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University. When I asked him whether he'd ever talked to a military recruiter, Travers, a 19-year-old African American with a buzz cut, a crisp white T-shirt, and a diamond stud in his left ear, smiled wryly. "To get to lunch in my high school, you had to pass recruiters," he said. "It was overwhelming." Then he added, "I thought the recruiters had too much information about me. They called me, but I never gave them my phone number."
Nor did he give the recruiters his email address, Social Security number, or details about his ethnicity, shopping habits, or college plans. Yet they probably knew all that, too. In the past few years, the military has mounted a virtual invasion into the lives of young Americans. Using data mining, stealth websites, career tests, and sophisticated marketing software, the Pentagon is harvesting and analyzing information on everything from high school students' GPAs and SAT scores to which video games they play. Before an Army recruiter even picks up the phone to call a prospect like Travers, the soldier may know more about the kid's habits than do his own parents
The military has long struggled to find more effective ways to reach potential enlistees; for every new GI it signed up last year, the Army spent $24,500 on recruitment. (In contrast, four-year colleges spend an average of $2,000 per incoming student.) Recruiters hit pay dirt in 2002, when then-Rep. (now Sen.) David Vitter (R-La.) slipped a provision into the No Child Left Behind Act that requires high schools to give recruiters the names and contact details of all juniors and seniors. Schools that fail to comply risk losing their NCLB funding. This little-known regulation effectively transformed President George W. Bush's signature education bill into the most aggressive military recruitment tool since the draft. Students may sign an opt-out form—but not all school districts let them know about it.
Yet NCLB is just the tip of the data iceberg. In 2005, privacy advocates discovered that the Pentagon had spent the past two years quietly amassing records from Selective Service, state DMVs, and data brokers to create a database of tens of millions of young adults and teens, some as young as 15. The massive data-mining project is overseen by the Joint Advertising Market Research & Studies program, whose website has described the database, which now holds 34 million names, as "arguably the largest repository of 16-25-year-old youth data in the country." The JAMRS database is in turn run by Equifax, the credit reporting giant.
Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says the Pentagon's initial failure to disclose the collection of the information likely violated the Privacy Act. In 2007, the Pentagon settled a lawsuit (filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union) by agreeing to stop collecting the names and Social Security numbers of anyone younger than 17 and promising not to share its database records with other government agencies. Students may opt out of having their JAMRS database information sent to recruiters, but only 8,700 have invoked this obscure safeguard.
The Pentagon also spends about $600,000 a year on commercial data brokers, notably the Student Marketing Group and the American Student List, which boasts that it has records for 8 million high school students. Both companies have been accused of using deceptive practices to gather information: In 2002, New York's attorney general sued SMG for telling high schools it was surveying students for scholarship and financial aid opportunities yet selling the info to telemarketers; the Federal Trade Commission charged ASL with similar tactics. Both companies eventually settled.
Recruiters are also data mining the classroom. More than 12,000 high schools administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a three-hour multiple-choice test originally created in 1968 to match conscripts with military assignments. Rebranded in the mid-1990s as the "ASVAB Career Exploration Program," the test has a cheerful home page that makes no reference to its military applications, instead declaring that it "is designed to help students learn more about themselves and the world of work." A student who takes the test is asked to divulge his or her Social Security number, GPA, ethnicity, and career interests—all of which is then logged into the JAMRS database. In 2008, more than 641,000 high school students took the ASVAB; 90 percent had their scores sent to recruiters. Tony Castillo of the Army's Houston Recruiting Battalion says that ASVAB is "much more than a test to join the military. It is really a gift to public education."
Concerns about the ASVAB's links to recruiting have led to a nearly 20 percent decline in the number of test takers between 2003 and 2008. But the test is mandatory at approximately 1,000 high schools. Last February, three North Carolina students were sent to detention for refusing to take it. One, a junior named Dakota Ling, told the local paper, "I just really don't want the military to have all the info it can on me." Last year, the California Legislature barred schools from sending ASVAB results to military recruiters, though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. The Los Angeles and Washington, DC, school districts have tried to protect students' information by releasing their scores only on request.
In 2007, JAMRS awarded a $50 million contract to Mullen Advertising to continue its marketing campaign to target "influencers" such as parents, coaches, and guidance counselors. The result: print ads that declare, "Your son wants to join the military. The question isn't whether he's prepared enough, but whether you are."
Not far from the mall in Maryland, I asked 21-year-old Marcelo Salazar, who'd been a cadet in his high school's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, why he'd decided not to enlist after graduating from John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 2005. Now a community college student, he replied that his mother was firmly against it.
Then, as if on cue, his cell phone chirped: It was a recruiter who called him constantly. He ignored it. "War is cool," he said, flipping on his aviator sunglasses. "But if you're dying, it's not."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/few-good-kids
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
page one
Poverty Draft in Full Swing
In Midst of Economic Downturn, All Targets Are Met
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 14, 2009
For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war.
The Pentagon, which made the announcement Tuesday, said the economic downturn and rising joblessness, as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to enlist.
Carr said strong recruitment was driven by economic conditions that have made civilian jobs scarce, along with other factors such as pay increases and investment in recruiting budgets.
The recession "was a force," Carr said, and, "given the unemployment that we had not directly forecast, allowed us to be for much of the year in a very favorable position."
Historically, there has been a strong correlation between rising unemployment and increases in "high quality" enlistments, according to Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accession policy.
Carr said the Defense Department spent about $10,000 on advertising, marketing, recruiters and other budget items per recruit, with the Army spending more than double that, at $22,000.
The military has not seen such across-the-board successes since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973, after Congress ended the draft following the Vietnam War. In recent years, the military has often fallen short of some of its recruiting targets. The Army, in particular, has struggled to fill its ranks, admitting more high school dropouts, overweight youths and even felons.
The active-duty Army this year admitted only 1.5 percent of recruits who scored in the lowest acceptable category on the standard qualification test; in recent years, that figure had reached nearly 4 percent.
In recent years, military officials cited the intensity of the fighting in Iraq as dampening interest in military service among 17-to-24-year-olds and, in particular, lessening the support of parents and other influential adults.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2...
On the plus side, counter-recruitment is experiencing successes too
--Not surprisingly, more and more kids are opting out of having their information shared with recruiters under No Child Left Behind, using the "opt out" provisions of the legislation
Only 5 percent of parents would recommend military service to their kids.
In New York City, the number of students opting out has doubled in the past five years, to 45,000 in 2008.
At some schools, 90 percent of students have opted out.
featured radio interview
Military recruitment campaigns that play on the “coming of age” mythology
Aaron Emery, Iraq veteran, member of the Campaign for Liberty, discusses the war-weary recalled soldiers who must choose redeployment or jail, how stop-loss acts as a backdoor draft, recruiting campaigns that play on a “coming of age” mythology and how an indoctrinated culture of combat defines a soldier’s self-worth.
MP3 here. (25:17)
rush transcript (excerpts only):
Antiwar.com: Did stop-loss happen to you? You had been discharged, you were back in the real world, and then they came and grabbed you again and made you go back?
Aaron Emery: I was in the Army, I was active duty for 5 years, and I decided that that was more than enough time, so I got out. I started doing civilian jobs and was enjoying not being in the army. In July of last year I was recalled, so I had to serve another 400 days. So I got sucked back in. Basically how this works is that anyone who serves in the military -- all branches -- is obligated to an 8-year commitment. So when you have a friend who signed up for 4 years, they really signed up for 8. They may be active-duty for only 4 years, and if they don't re-enlist they get out and do other things, but they are still obligated for the rest of that 8-year term. ... I would have a lot of younger guys, like Privates, come up to me and 'Aw, I didn't even know about this.' It is fine print and recruiters try to brush it aside and say it will never happen. They basically say, when the question gets raised 'Wait a minute, how does this recall thing work?' they basically say 'that will only happen if we have World War 3.' It's swept under the rug. They just pretend it's not there in the fine print. You know, 16- 17-year olds are not signing up for the potential of being pulled out of life and then being called back once they get out. I basically consider it a back-door draft. It's pretty much like a loop hole, something that's there in case we have an unpopular war like we do right now. You know, not enough people are signing up because they don't want to participate in the war. So they pull veterans back in who have already served.
I didn't want to be part of the machine, so I did my time and got out. And whether I'm opposed to the war or not --and I am vehemently opposed to it-- they still have that legal contract over me. They say: "Well, if you don't come back, you're going to jail."
Stop-loss is when they prevent you from getting out. I was already out, I was out for about a year, and they recalled me. You're sitting in that pool of veterans that are waiting to get out, a pool of veterans who have not quite completed their term, called the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR).
Antiwar.com: So when they recalled you, and told you 'You have to go back' and you had already changed your mind about the war, how come you didn't say, 'Nah...'
Aaron Emery: I told my sons and family that when they came to get me, and sure enough they did, that I'd stand on principle, and just would not go. When the time came, unfortunately, I lost my nerve. I was recalled with about 30 other guys, and a lot of them said, 'Yup, I just didn't wanna go to jail.' You know, they've got that legal contract hanging over you; just another reason why it's not very justified, to be honest. I wish I would have not gone, but I lost my courage. And you know, I was opposed to the wars even before they began. When it started I was just a dumb private, very fresh-faced to the world, but I knew that something was wrong. You can't expect everyone in the services to stand on principle alone, it's just not going to happen.
Antiwar.com: Well hell, at least you're a peacenik now, and a public one. [...] I mean I don't understand this mindset of 'well, I guess, give me a rifle and I guess I'll go,' I mean, we're talking about killing people, right?
Aaron Emery: People are stuck in this prisoner's dilemma, where if you don't do what the collective is doing, then your own self-interest is going to be detrimental to you. Unfortunately I lost my nerve.
Antiwar.com: And there should be a lesson for any young people listening. I mean, they say it's an 'All-Volunteer Army' but they mean only at the beginning, the day that you sign the thing [the contract]. And yet when one of their military guys wants to leave, and flees the army, he becomes a wanted man. This man's a fugitive now, and they going to find him and they're gonna grab him, and then force his ass back overseas to kill people again.
Aaron Emery: There have been tens of thousands of soldiers, just in the Army, who have been recalled, since 2003. It's very prevalent right now. It's happening a lot. Every week you have 20, 30 or 60 people showing up who have been recalled. I think it's very indicative of the low level of support for these wars among veterans, because they're not re-enlisting.
Antiwar.com: And when you look at the homeless on the side of the road, certainly more than half of them are veterans. You can read all about what really happens when American soldiers get home, with PTSD, the V.A. throws them in the garbage. They prefer that you blow your brains out than come to them for help. They don't want to 'make a man' out of you, they want to use you.
http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/10/11/aaron-emery/
rush transcript (partial transcription only), by TPF
Iraq veterans protest Afghan war
October 7, 2009
By LINDA BRILL / KING 5 News
LAKEWOOD, Wash. - Not far from Fort Lewis, Wash., sits a coffee shop for soldiers and veterans, with a twist.
Coffee Strong is an Internet café with an anti-war philosophy.
"We promote G.I. rights and G.I. resistance against these wars that are taking place now," said Seth Manzel.
Manzel was a Stryker driver and machine gunner, serving in Iraq in 2004. He was in the Individual Ready Reserves, but when he was ordered to go to Afghanistan, he refused. The Army didn't go after him.
Today, Manzel has words for Pres. Barack Obama.
"He should end the conflict in Afghanistan and save the soldiers and their families the pain of deployments and more body bags coming back," said Manzel.
Josh Simpson is another coffee shop regular and war resister. He left the Army after serving as a counter intelligence specialist in Iraq.
"I'm not just against the war in Afghanistan because I think it's unwinnable. It's because it's immoral," said Simpson.
Both men are taking part in Wednesday's anti-war rally in Olympia, urging Pres. Obama to listen to the activists who helped elect him.
http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_100709WAB-iraq-vets-prote...
Military jet crash is grim reminder of risk
By CHUCK CRUMBO - ccrumbo@thestate.com
Oct. 17, 2009
The mid-air crash of two F-16 fighter jets off the S.C. coast offered a poignant reminder Friday that flying military aircraft is a dangerous business even during training missions.
One pilot from Shaw Air Force Base and his airplane remained missing Friday evening as a small fleet of military and Coast Guard vessels and aircraft, as well as law enforcement and commercial shippers, and even satellites searched the ocean 40 miles off Folly Beach near Charleston.
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/987054.html
featured op/ed
Killing Innocent Afghan Civilians to "Save Our Troops"
Eight Years of Horror Perpetrated against the people of Afghanistan
by Marc W. Herold
America's war in Afghanistan has been anything but a "precision" war executed with new, high-tech weapons. The fault lies less in the weapons themselves and more in how they have been used by American military personnel carrying out the policies of the Bush and Obama administrations. The metric of civilians killed to occupation soldiers killed, measures the relative lethality of the American-led Afghan war.
Table 2. Civilians Killed per 100 Metric Tons of Bombs Dropped (see PDF version of TPF update/digest for the table)
U.S aerial strikes were a chosen way of minimizing U.S casualties at the expense of Afghan civilian deaths and injured. In other words, a conscious self-serving U.S decision was made to impose undue harm upon Afghan civilians. That is a war crime. Moreover, as I have long argued and documented, some 60-70 percent of Afghan civilians killed by U.S and NATO forces have been women and children [16].
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15665
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
page two:
Atonement: I committed a Sin in casting My Vote for war, says Republican from North Carolina
Oct. 26, 2009
A conscience-stricken member of the House Armed Services Committee is writing a book called "My Daddy's Not Dead Yet" in hopes it will atone for what he now considers his sinful vote to empower former President George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003.
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., whose district includes the sprawling Marine base of Camp Lejeune, told me the title was inspired by a little boy who feared his Marine father would be killed in Iraq.
The setting for Jones' searing moment in 2007 was a classroom in the Johnson Elementary School at Camp Lejeune. He had been invited to read Dr. Seuss to the kids. Jones did that; then asked for questions.
"My daddy's not dead yet," said a little boy. "My daddy's not dead yet," the boy repeated. Jones said he reeled as if punched in the gut, a wave of guilt washing over him. The remark devastated him because he knew deep down that he had played go-along-politics with the life of the little boy's father instead of "listening to God" and voting against the House resolution in 2002 that authorized Bush to go to war in Iraq. "I profess to be a man of faith," Jones said, "but I didn't vote my conscience."
"My Daddy's Not Dead Yet" will set forth Jones' beliefs and concerns about America's out-of-control militarism and current spending spree. Any money his book makes will go to those treating the wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
"The American people have no idea of what's coming as it relates to taking care of those veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," Jones said.
Some physicians who have studied the extent and cost of treating the mentally wounded have told me it will overwhelm both the government and private medical systems.
The little boy's stinging remark also has compelled Jones to look hard at President Obama's plans for combating the Taliban in Afghanistan and stabilizing that fractured country. There will be no go-along vote for Jones this time.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/foa_20091026_5206.php
Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange
By JAMES DAO
October 12, 2009
Under rules to be proposed this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to add Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia to the growing list of illnesses presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used widely in Vietnam.
The proposal will make it substantially easier for thousands of veterans to claim that those ailments were the direct result of their service in Vietnam, thereby smoothing the way for them to receive monthly disability checks and health care services from the department.
The most common of the three illnesses, ischemic heart disease, restricts blood flow to the heart, causing irregular heartbeats and deterioration of the heart muscle.
Parkinson’s disease is associated with a loss of cells that secrete dopamine, a brain chemical essential for normal movement. Patients develop tremors, rigid posture, impaired balance and an inability to initiate movement.
Hairy-cell leukemia, a rarer condition, is a slow-growing cancer in which the bone marrow produces too many infection-fighting cells, lymphocytes, that crowd out healthy white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.
Agent Orange, named after the color-coded band on storage drums, was the most common herbicide used in Vietnam to clear jungle canopy and destroy crops. It contained one of the most toxic forms of dioxin, which has since been linked to some cancers.
The new policy will apply to some 2.1 million veterans who set foot in Vietnam during the war, including those who came after the military stopped using Agent Orange in 1970.
The veterans department already recognizes more than a dozen conditions as being presumptively connected to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam, including Hodgkin’s disease, prostate cancer and Type 2 diabetes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/us/politics/13vets.html?_r=1&...
Even With Check in Hand, GI Benefits Elusive
By Ed O'Keefe
October 7, 2009
The Department of Veterans Affairs' problems with the Post-9/11 GI Bill's benefits seem to linger, no matter what the government does.
Tens of thousands of veterans, active-duty servicemembers and their dependents have been waiting for promised higher-education benefits from VA since fall classes began last month.
Roughly 30,000 of the 64,000 students enrolled in the Post 9/11 GI Bill are still awaiting payment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/06/AR2...
Missile commander ousted at ND Air Force base
By James Macpherson, Associated Press Writer – Oct 14 2009
BISMARCK, N.D. – The missile wing commander at North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base was relieved of his command Wednesday after a series of missteps at the unit, including two crashes of vehicles carrying missile parts in just more than a year.
Col. Christopher Ayres' was not ousted for any misconduct or wrongdoing, but the Air Force said it had lost confidence in his ability to command the base's 91st Missile Wing given recent incidents, which also included three ballistic missile crew members falling asleep while holding classified launch code devices.
The 91st Missile Wing oversees 150 Minuteman III missiles, sunk in hardened silos, in central and western North Dakota.
Also in July 2008, a vehicle carrying a rocket booster for an unarmed Minuteman III ballistic missile overturned while being transported from the base to a launch facility in northwestern North Dakota. The military estimated it spent about $5.6 million to recover the rocket from a ditch. And this August, a semitrailer carrying rocket engine parts from the base overturned when the driver became distracted by an insect that flew in a window and landed on the driver's back, the military said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091014/ap_on_re_us/us_missile_commande...
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Counter-Recruitment Update/Digest, for Nov 2009
backpage:
Iraqi cancer figures soar, U.S. use of uranium weapons blamed
Interview on video, available on demand: Abdulhaq Al-Ani, author of Uranium in Iraq.
Doctors in Iraq are recording a sharp rise in the number of cancer victims south of Baghdad. Sufferers in the province of Babil have risen almost tenfold in just three years.
Locals blame depleted uranium from US military equipment used in the 2003 invasion. Some 500 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2004 alone. That figure rose to almost 1,000 two years later.
In 2008, the number of cases increased sevenfold to 7,000 diagnoses. This year, there have so far been more than 9,000 new cases, and the number is rising.
Mosab Jasim reports that Iraqi researchers believe radiation is responsible for the increase in cancer and birth defects in the country, but he says the US and British militaries have sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium.
However, Christopher Busby, a British scientist and activist who has carried out research into the risks of radioactive pollution, said there is proof of a definitive link between cancer and depleted uranium.
"I made this link to a coroner's inquest in the West Midlands into the death of a Gulf War One veteran ... and a coroner's jury accepted my evidence," he told Al Jazeera.
"It's been found by a coroner's court that cancer was caused by an exposure to depleted uranium."
"In the last ten years, research has emerged that has made it quite clear that uranium is one of the most dangerous substances known to man, certainly in the form that it takes when used in these wars."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/20091012122745...
Japan Threatening to Oust US Troops From Okinawa
New Japanese Govt Seeks to Force Negotiations
by Jason Ditz, October 07, 2009
US bases (in red) cover much of Okinawa
Faced with their first major change in governance since World War 2, Japan’s new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ruled government is seeking to relieve long-standing grievances regarding the massive US military presence.
The DPJ is reportedly playing hardball now, however, threatening to kick the US military off the island of Okinawa, which is where the bulk of their presence is situated. The islanders have long complained about the major burden of tens of thousands of US soldiers occupying a large chunk of their island.
The U.S. is involved in a 60+ year long military presence in Japan.
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/07/japan-threatening-to-oust-us-tro...
Students refuse to enlist due to 'occupation'
Traditional letter signed by high school seniors slams Israel's 'oppressive policy in occupied territories'
Daniel Edelson
10.12.09 / Israel News
Dozens of students signed this year's high school seniors' letter, which has traditionally attempted to challenge Israel's mandatory army service policy. Similar letters have circulated every few years since 1979, all calling on teens to object to IDF service.
"We Jewish and Arab teens from throughout Israel hereby announce that we object to Israel's oppressive policy in the occupied territories and within the state of Israel, and therefore we will refuse to take part in these activities, which are carried out in our name by the Israel Defense Army," says the letter, signed by 80 students.
"The occupation has led the Israeli army to violate time and time again the international accords Israel has signed, UN resolutions, international laws, and the constitutional laws of Israel itself."
The letter concludes by stating, "Our refusal to be soldiers of occupation derives from our fidelity to the values and society that surround us, and is part of our continuing battle for peace and equality, a battle whose Jewish-Arab character proves peace and coexistence are possible."
Amalia Merkovitch, an 18-year old high school senior, classifies herself as a "future army refuser", and says that she and three friends plan to be taken to military prison on the day of their mandatory enlistment until it is canceled.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3788962,00.html
Tulsa Peace Fellowship's counter-recruitment update/digest for Nov 2009
masthead
who we are:
The Tulsa Peace Fellowship is the activist wing of the peace movement in Eastern Oklahoma. TPF offers citizens and community groups tools and resources to participate personally in our democracy, to help shape federal budget and policy priorities, and to promote peace, social and economic justice, and human rights. TPF is a registered non-profit organization and a non-partisan group, loosely affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration, north side of Tulsa.
"Waging Peace One Person at a Time".
TPF meets monthly @ Peace House in Tulsa inside the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration at 1314 N. Greenwood Ave, in Tulsa, close to corner of Pine & Greenwood, just north of the OSU-Tulsa campus
If you have not already done so, please join the new social networking tool for TPF on Ning, in lieu of TPFtalks on yahoogroups, which has fallen into disuse Thank you! You can check out our new tool here: http://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/ (new for 2009) Also still going strong: our announcement list on yahoo! tulsapeace@yahoogroups.com (since 2002) Go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/ and search for "tulsapeace"
Through its counter-recruitment task force, TPF is a member of the National Network in Opposition to the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) representing some 188 counter-recruitment groups in cities and towns across the country. On the web: http://www.nnomy.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=v...
Tulsa Peace Fellowship is open to 3rd parties, progressives, Dems, libertarians, etc.
Peace House-Tulsa is an incubator for peace and justice. The Peace House office inside the UU Church of the Restoration can host a wide range of activities: classes, discussion groups, meditation, music-making, social gatherings, retreats, etc. While some activities may be limited by the size and amenities of this building, our imaginations need not be limited!
If you enjoyed this news digest and/or found this update useful, please consider making a donation of time, money, or effort to the Tulsa Peace Fellowship. Details on tax status available.
info for TPF counter-recruitment-- contact by phone 918 906 0828
The next monthly anti-war demo in Tulsa is scheduled for
Saturday Nov 7th, 2009, 12noon to 2pm
Details online: http://tulsapeacefellowship.ning.com/events/out-of-afghanistan-1
The next regularly scheduled business meeting of the Fellowship will be held
on Thursday, November 12h 2009, 6:15 PM – 7:30 PM
--including members from other local non-partisan groups such as the Tulsa chapter of “Season for Non-Violence,” the Tulsa University chapter of Amnesty International, ImpeachOK1.org, TulsaTruth.org, the Center for Racial Justice in Tulsa, the Tulsa Interfaith Allliance, Pax Christi, and the Quakers
Come join us! Especially parents, guardians, and students in the Tulsa Public Schools system who are interested in countering the presence of military recruiters on school grounds.
An archive of TPF counter-recruitment updates and other related TPF material is available to members online:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tulsapeace/
You must sign in to yahoo! groups to see the archived "message history"
TPF messages have been archived online since 2002
TPF was founded some 30 years ago.
Current membership online: 692 subscribers
The information provided in this digest/update herein is for non-profit use only, according to "fair use" doctrine. Copyright and all commercial exploitation rights remain with the various authors/publishers cited above. The Tulsa Peace Fellowship does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in the articles appearing herein.
further information
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