Excerpts from Courage to Resist article by Mike McKee| Original Article

A recently circulated academic paper from a U.S. Army War College research fellow demonstrates that counter recruitment is having a substantive effect on the military’s ability to recruit and retain soldiers.

Writing in 2010, its author, Lt. Col. Todd Jacobus of the US Army National Guard, outlines the opposition faced by the military’s “11,000-strong recruiting force” combing schools, neighborhoods and public areas (including some 3,000 recruiting stations).

“Counter-recruiting groups have many common characteristics, including the perception that they are obliged to inform and educate those who are considering service in our Army,” writes Jacobus. “They use techniques and strategies that frequently depict professional military recruiters in an ill-light, disillusion influencers, and dissuade potential applicants from looking into military service as a viable option … Some actually do a decent job of providing useful information, decision making tools and counsel.”

The military, along with the author of this paper, naturally objects to the depiction of recruiters as “vultures who see potential soldiers as a body, a number” and who “have little or no interest in the individual as a person.”

When confronted with criticism around these highlighted issues—and, especially, the legality of recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—recruiters are encouraged to frame their arguments with the worldview that the U.S.A. has been the underdog in consistent terrorist attacks since 1780.

The report concludes with a rallying cry and a plea that the military recruiters should not, can not, must not be silenced.

Read the full Army War College report here.