No Draft, As Long As They Can Find Enough Suckers...

Fixer and I have posted many times about the upcoming draft. In an effort to forestall having to admit that Bush lied about it, the administration has written sneaky shit into the law to try and bolster "volunteer" enlistments. From Justin Sane (I think that's a made-up name, like "Heywood Jablome") via Working For Change. Also go see Military Free Zone.org for info on opting out.

America's schools: Education zone or military recruitment zone?
No Child Left Behind forces schools to give student info to military.

Why does the military have direct access to the private information of American high school students? Under the No Child Left Behind legislation, Sec 9528, education funding in America has been turned into a recruiting tool for our military! Buried in this legislation is a section that mandates student private information be given directly to the military unless the student's parent or guardian opts their records out -- meaning that a request letter from the parent or guardian must be submitted to the school to keep the student's records private.

This is essentially a permission slip to keep one's records private instead of a permission slip to authorize access to one's private records. Yes, the law really was intentionally written completely backwards! (my emphasis) To make matters worse, no concerted effort is being made to inform students and parents that their personal information is being given out.

I'm proud of my military service, but those were different times. I don't blame any kid, who might have otherwise enjoyed and benefitted from service, for not wanting to go participate, and maybe get trunked or die, in Bush's Criminal War.

Participation in the defense of the country is honorable. Sending soldiers to accomplish ideological and corporate objectives under the guise of defense is a War Crime.