“I went to get lunch at school and right in front of the cafeteria were 15 recruiters, 4 tables, pull up bars and prizes.”
“I went to the activities director and she said I can have a waterboarding demo, bull horns, banners.”
“So I’m going to start up a club and prepare so I get as many kids as I can to resist. Club’s name I think will be Militarism Resistance Front.”
-3 text messages sent to the tour by a high school student in San Jose, California
On November 4th, as people all over the country celebrated an Obama victory, over 70 men, women, and children lay dead in Afghanistan after U.S. bombs rained down on two wedding celebrations. Over the last two years, hundreds of Afghan civilians have been killed in this way, since the U.S. considers any large gathering to be inherently hostile. And there are plans to escalate. Defense Secretary Robert Gates (who will also be Obama’s Defense Secretary) is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan by this summer. Meanwhile in Iraq, General Odierno just announced that the U.S. will violate their promise of withdrawing combat troops from urban areas in Iraq by June 30th 2009. Contrary to public opinion, the Iraq war is not “winding down” or “over.” There are still 149,000 troops in Iraq. Obama has not been promising to end the Iraq war, but to leave a “residual force” of 50-80,000 troops (not including mercenary soldiers employed by companies like Blackwater) in Iraq – and he is already preparing to break even that weak promise by pledging to “listen to the generals.” How is the new commander-in-chief going to deal with the challenges of being the #1 superpower in the world, dominating resources and controlling economies of other countries in the name of the “war on terror”? Apparently, Obama has plans to expand the U.S. military by 92,000 troops.
Where are they going to get the soldiers to fight their wars? They are in high school right now! In addition to the standard arsenal of college money, job training, “have an experience,” “get some discipline and structure,” “give your life a purpose,” military recruiters now have some new weapons which they have been using to exceed their recruiting goals. For one thing, the election of Obama has summoned a “new spirit of patriotism and service,” as he put it in his victory speech. Whereas under Bush the war effort had come to be viewed by the vast majority as illegitimate, now there are more people believing in America’s “new direction”… and willing to fight for it. Some inner city youth are saying that they wouldn’t fight for this government, but would fight for Obama. Another common tactic reportedly used by recruiters these days is the lie (yes, recruiters lie) that it is now safe to join up because Obama is going to end the war. And then there is the economic factor, rising unemployment and the promise of a steady paycheck. As David Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said, “I don’t have the Dow Jones banner running up behind me here this morning, but that is a situation where more people are willing to give us a chance.”
At a time like this, when military recruiters are having a field day and the hope for change has not yet come to grips with the reality of continued imperialist war, the World Can’t Wait movement has teamed up with military veterans to bring the truth about recruiters and the wars that they are recruiting for to high schools across the country and to learn more about what the youth are thinking. On November 24, the “We are not your soldiers” tour kicked off in Chicago and then went to Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and New York City. They’ve spoken at 12 high schools and 2 community colleges, to about 1300 students. Most of the schools have been predominately Black and Latino and all of them have been working class – exactly the students that the recruiters are targeting.
Everywhere the tour has gone it has exposed the recruiter’s lies and stirred up controversy. Iraq war veterans Phil Aliff and Mathis Chiroux have spoken about their experiences in Iraq and the on-the-ground realities of military service. Carl Dix, one of the “Fort Lewis 6” (GIs who refused to go to Vietnam in 1970) has spoken about why he decided to resist the war and why he became a revolutionary. Emma Kaplan and Elaine Brower, from the World Can’t Wait, have explained what these wars are really about – how the “War on Terror” is really a brutal war for empire – and challenged young people to build a culture of resistance to military recruiters as a key part of stopping the war, no matter who is the president. The presentations have included videos – Iraq veteran Jon Turner’s heartfelt testimony (“I’m sorry for the pain I have inflicted on innocent people. I am no longer the monster I once was.”) and footage of Berkeley high school and college students protesting against the Marine recruiting station – surveys, and a lot of back and forth discussion with the students.
This exciting tour couldn’t come at a better time. It’s no wonder students, teachers, and parents – from the wealthy suburbs to the prison-like inner city schools and small towns across the country – have been contacting the tour wanting to bring it their way. There is clearly a hunger for this.
The United States Military: Myth and Reality
“I know someone in the military. He is still surviving in it he always says he is not a bad person. He is very depressed and sad but I love him… my friend (in the military) will kill me if someone asked me to join/sign up for the military… because war and killing people is wrong and it needs to stop”
-From a student survey at a high school in San Francisco
Over the last 8 years the U.S. government has become more or less discredited, not only in the eyes of the world, but in the disillusionment of many Americans from official politics. A Gallup poll conducted in June 2008 revealed that only 12% of Americans “express confidence” in Congress and only 26% in the president. On the other hand, “confidence” in the military has actually increased to 71%. Also in June 2008, before the economic meltdown and the election of Obama, a Defense Department survey found that 11% of people ages 16 to 21 said they would “definitely” or “probably” serve in the military, up 2 % from last year. Why the disconnect between the overwhelming unpopularity of the war and the increase in popularity of the U.S. military that is carrying it out? This is something that the tour has aimed to understand better and also to change.
Although not all of the schools that the tour went to allow recruiters and most students said that they were not themselves thinking about joining, the majority of students have been impacted by the military in one way or another. For one thing, a significant number of students have a friend or family member in the military. Many of them have been called by recruiters at home or sent flashy and misleading recruiting propaganda in the mail. Most of the male students have played the military’s free downloadable video games like “America’s Army” which was actually developed as a recruiting tool.
Young men especially were attracted to the machismo, the strength and raw firepower that the military represents. They asked Phil excitedly, “Did you kill anyone?” “What type of guns did you get to shoot?” This mentality is not surprising given that many of the students were coming from neighborhoods where the code of the streets rules, gun violence is routine, and power clearly comes from the ability to wield that violence, whether by the police or the gangs.
But that excitement at killing, and the illusion that fighting in Iraq is like playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, quickly evaporated when Jon Turner’s graphic Winter Soldier testimony was played. People began to see that all that glorious firepower was being used to brutalize innocent people. Some students said they had no idea that this was happening in Iraq, that it was just plain wrong. And then when Phil Aliff talked about the seven roadside bombs his unit was hit with, the missiles and grenades, the concussions and permanent brain damage he suffers from, people began to see that all that violence was also being turned back around on the U.S.
The “coolness” factor of the military also decreased when Phil laid out how it is one of the most racist, sexist, and homophobic organizations there is. He talked about how they would practice shooting at targets made to look like Iraqi civilians in traditional dress, the usage of the derogatory term “haji,” and the presence (and tacit approval) of white supremacists in the military. At a high school in San Francisco, when someone else brought up the other commonly used term “sandnigger,” it provoked a whole conversation about the Buffalo Soldiers – Black soldiers who fought in the Union army during the Civil War but were then sent out West to slaughter Native Americans and later to fight against Mexican revolutionaries like Pancho Villa. One young Black woman said that “sandnigger” is racist toward Black people too and that Black people shouldn’t be part of a military that would say such things.
Phil also talked about how 1/3 of female GIs report rape or sexual assault and how many more go unreported since military culture enforces a code of silence about such things. He talked about women in the military who didn’t drink enough water and died from dehydration because they were too scared to go the bathroom at night for fear of getting raped by their fellow service members. At another high school in L.A., you could hear the female students talking about the “1/3” statistic to their friends in the hall after class.
It seems that the more people understand that this is not “our” military, that this military is not acting in “our” interests (or obviously the interests of other nations), but in the interests of a tiny minority who profit off the exploitation and oppression of others, the more some of those illusions about getting a piece of the U.S.’s firepower break down. Emma and Phil compared the police (which are disliked by most of these youth) to the role that the military plays around the world. They also talked about how if you join the National Guard there is a possibility that you would have to guard the U.S./Mexico border. One of the Latino students at a second high school in L.A., who had previously said that “it would be cool to blow things up,” quickly changed his mind. He didn’t want to do that to people. It turns out his mother had recently been deported, which has devastated almost every aspect of his life.
The question of the military as an institution came to a head at a college in Pleasant Hill, California. After watching the Jon turner testimony a student and Iraq war veteran quickly responded that he didn’t like it because it makes vets look like sadistic monsters. He said he disagreed with the war but thought that military service is something honorable, that it’s something his father and grandfather did. A WCW organizer from San Francisco said he appreciated that these veterans came to the program but also pointed out that if you are against the war, you have no business being in the military or supporting the military since that is what the military is engaged in, and as Phil pointed out, almost everyone who joins these days gets sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Also, if you look at the history of what the U.S. military has done, in particular the Marine Corps that this vet was a part of – from the genocide of the Native Americans, to the 500,000 Filipinos who were killed, to Vietnam and Iraq – you can see that “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli…” (the Marine Corp anthem) is nothing but the history of imperialism and oppression. The debate continued and the controversy didn’t get resolved right there, but several young vets ended up signing up with Phil to get involved with Iraq Veterans Against the War.
“War On Terror” or War For Empire?
“Stop the war and stay away from my crib!”
-Idea for a protest banner that one student, who has been called at his home by military recruiters, came up with at a Chicago high school
There is a concerted effort by the powers-that-be right now to salvage the “war on terror” and re-brand it with a different face and a slightly different focus. Remember, Obama has never challenged the framework of the “war on terror.” What he has said is that it has been mismanaged by Bush and that he could fight it better by refocusing on the “good war” in Afghanistan. The reality is that the Bush Regime and the ruling elite as a whole have already begun refocusing on Afghanistan and Pakistan anyways as part of their shifting strategy for global hegemony. And the fact is, Afghanistan is not the “good war.” It is just as brutal and just as much based on lies as Iraq is. These are key ideological questions. What someone understands or doesn’t about why these wars are happening has a lot to do with whether someone acts to stop them.
Most of the students at the schools the tour visited seemed to understand that the Iraq war was illegitimate in one way or another. Some saw it as “Bush’s war” and many understood that he had lied about weapons of mass destruction. Many also saw it as being about power, oil or making money. Still, most students did not see the connection between the illegitimacy of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the expanding war in Afghanistan. A student at one of the high schools in Chicago asked, “Didn’t Obama say that Afghanistan had weapons of destruction?” Phil and Emma explained that neither Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq or the Taliban in Afghanistan had links with Al Qaeda. In fact, terrorism has actually increased and Islamic fundamentalism has been strengthened as a result of, and in response to, the U.S. occupation.
When Phil and Emma explained that the wars are really about the U.S. creating an unchallenged empire by controlling the oil resources of the Middle East and Central Asia, thereby securing a stranglehold on the world economy, some students said that maybe the U.S. should be the #1 superpower. A high school student in L.A. said,” I know this might sound bad, but if any country is going to dominate the world, better us than them.” Her peer wisely pointed out that, “If one country controls the world, how could you stop them if they are doing something wrong?”
At a high school in San Francisco one student asked, “Why should I care about the war? It doesn’t affect me.” Emma asked the students if they thought that was right, that people should only act if they are directly affected by something. Phil Aliff and some students pointed out that the war is affecting people because of all the money being spent on the war that could be spent on services to help people. Then the teacher asked the students, “Would you think that the war was OK if somehow they did give us health care and education?” One young woman responded that, “If you only care when something is affecting you directly it is like saying you are better than other people.”A World Can’t Wait organizer brought up the Freedom Rides: “What if all those White people and Black people from the North hadn’t gone down to the South to fight against racism because it didn’t affect them directly?” Someone else referred to the Pastor Martin Niemöller poster on the wall: “First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew…”
Who is going to stop these wars?
“Man I have been seeing a lot of stuff is wrong here. I’m glad you guys came. I have been wanting to do something like this. I’m ready to resist right now but I didn’t know how you do it. Look at global warming. The world is falling apart and the youth are gonna be expected to pick up all the pieces.”
-Student at a high school in Oakland CA
Over the last couple years, in what was the longest and most expensive presidential election ever, much of the antiwar movement has learned to be at peace with being at war. This is partly because many people have summed up (incorrectly) that protest doesn’t work, because millions came out into the streets before the war and Bush went ahead anyway. And it is partly because of the hope that a Democratic president would stop the war. While youth do tend to have a much fresher and less clouded view of the world than the lowered sights of many adults – some of the most radical and inspiring protest recently, whether against recruiters or immigration raids, has been by high schoolers – not surprisingly the youth are also affected by the zeitgeist of our times.
For one thing, the hope and partisanship in Obama is thick in many of these inner city schools. The most popular ring tone at a lot of these schools right now is Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli” remix about Obama. One of the lines goes: “Vote Obama in and I promise, he won’t turn back into some Uncle Thomas.”
At one of the high schools in L.A. a couple students who had been really digging the presentation covered their ears when Emma began to dissect Obama’s plan for redeploying troops to Afghanistan and said, “I don’t want to hear anything bad about Obama.” During the 450 person assembly at a high school in San Francisco, there was a collective “What the fuck?! Is she racist? Is she for McCain?” when Emma started talking about Obama not really being against the war. This became one of the controversial talking points in classes the rest of the day with many students really wanting to know what she meant. In different classes the rest of the day, teachers reported to us that students were debating this question, and many students were jumping to Emma’s defense arguing that what she meant is that it is not important what skin color someone has, but what they are all about.
Among students, just like adults these days, there is a real ignorance about Obama’s actual positions. At the same time, the message that “we need to stop these wars, no matter who the president is,” resonated with a lot of students. They could understand, even while still wanting to “give Obama a chance,” that we can’t rely on him to change everything. This sentiment had two aspects though. On the one hand there were students who felt that, “He’s only one man, so we can’t expect him to do everything. We need to help him.” This is a very gray area, because “helping Obama” could mean joining the military. On the other hand, many students see the government as a whole as the problem and therefore can see the need for independent resistance to the war.
What would that resistance look like and what role can young people play? The video from the struggle to shut down the Marine Recruiting Station in Berkeley that the tour showed definitely helped students get a picture of it. The video shows a diverse group of high school and college students passionately speaking out against the war, challenging the passivity of our generation, and standing up to the brutality of the police who were trying to stop them.
Although a few students expressed the sort of world-weary attitude that many adults have about protest not working, most students thought it was important to express your opinion and raise your voice no matter what. One young woman at a high school in San Francisco said she stands up all the time to teachers and leads protests but most of the time she’s by herself. She wants her peers to have her back. Two seniors at a high school in L.A. volunteered to start a “We are not your soldiers” club right on the spot. At a high school outside Chicago – the school where students did a peaceful sit in against the war a year ago and were threatened with expulsion – a student said that she hadn’t even planned to come to the presentation but after she did, she felt really inspired to act. She wanted to be looked up to and have her life be about something. At a high school in San Francisco two students got up in front of the 450 person assembly and challenged soldiers like Phil to take personal responsibility for the atrocities in Iraq and refuse to carry out unjust orders. At the same assembly a young woman challenged a teacher who had covered up a graphic image during the Jon Turner video saying, “Students need to see these pictures because the war is being hidden from people. If you want youth to stop this war you’re going to have to show them the full truth.”
Students, teachers, administrators, parents: Bring this tour to your school!
If you value the truth that the “We are not your soldiers” tour is bringing to the schools and the discussion that it is opening up among the youth… if you think that schools should be places of learning and not cheap labor depots for the U.S. military, then help bring this tour to your school! Be part of awakening the consciousness and activism of a new generation struggling to figure out what to do with their lives.
Contact youth_students@worldcantwait.org or call 866-973-4463.
For more info, check out: worldcantwait.org or wearenotyoursoldiers.org
