COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
On the Duty to Counter Recruitment
Camillo Mac Bica, t r u t h o u t
March 7, 2007
Counter recruitment is a strategy for bringing attention to
deceptive recruitment practices and to the immorality and illegality
of the war in Iraq. Its ultimate goal is to discourage enlistment
into the military, primarily through counseling and educating
prospective recruits and by denying recruiters access to our schools
and to our children.
Let me begin by saying that counter recruitment is motivated
neither by hatred of America nor hatred of the military. Rather, it
is inspired, first and foremost, by love, like that of a responsible
parent who realizes that, besides praise and approval, sometimes love
and responsibility require providing direction and even correction to
a child who has gone astray. Further, it is motivated by an awareness
of a moral and civic responsibility to oppose immoral and unjust
wars, and by a sensitivity and concern for the plight of war victims
and for the young men and women who are dishonestly recruited into
the military and asked - no, required - to fight, kill and die unnecessarily.
Although it is beyond the scope of this essay to argue the issue
at length, the preemptive invasion of Iraq, a sovereign nation, is
clearly a violation both of international and moral law, based as it
was on misinformation, faulty intelligence and lies. There were no
weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was not the mastermind
behind the events of 9/11, nor was he harboring al-Qaeda terrorists.
Further, since it was never intended as a war to save the Iraqi
people from mass slaughter, there was no ongoing or imminent
genocide. Neither can it be justified as a humanitarian intervention.
It is a war not of necessity, nor of last resort, but of choice.
As we begin our fifth year of occupation, with the situation in
Iraq continuing to degenerate into sectarian violence and civil war,
it is clear as well that a military resolution of the debacle is
impossible and that our continued military presence in Iraq merely
serves to exacerbate the turmoil and violence.
Even were there a glimmer of hope for a successful military
resolution, to continue to wage, perhaps even to escalate, an illegal
and immoral war and occupation to finish the job and achieve victory
because it is in our national interest to do so, or because to admit
a mistake or a crime of aggression would negatively affect our
nation's prestige and standing in the world and devalue the
sacrifices of those who have already suffered and died, makes no
moral sense. It is like arguing that a rapist must persevere in his
assault, perhaps even escalate his violence and kill his victim and
eye witnesses, because it is in his interest to eliminate anyone who
could identify him, or because his reputation as a bully and a thug
would be diminished were he to admit a crime of aggression and cut
and run. Further, to continue to wage an immoral and illegal war
despite recognition of its unjustness indicates a wanton disregard
for the dictates of morality and international law.
Such criminal behavior, arrogance and hypocrisy are the
characteristics of a rogue nation. They bring no credibility,
prestige or standing in the world - only disdain, animosity, hatred
and righteous indignation. Nor do acts of aggression bring glory or
vindication to those already killed or wounded in battle. Justice and
morality require that an immoral war be ended immediately; that the
aggressors possess the moral courage to acknowledge their crime; that
they make retribution to the victims of their aggression, and
apologize to the citizens of the aggressed nation and the rest of the
world community for their transgression.
Given the dangerous world in which we live, maintaining a
proficient and well-trained professional military is prudent.
However, faced with the reality of increasing recruiter wrongdoing
and unscrupulous enlistment practices; of a continuing, even
escalating, illegal and immoral war; of a president who has contempt
for, and arrogantly ignores, the Constitution, international law and
treaties, the recommendations of his military leaders, the advice of
Congress and of historical allies, and most important, the will of
the American people, prudence must give way to the dictates of
morality and justice. Prudence must give way to the dictates of
morality and justice.
Consequently, when our beloved nation has lost its moral
compass, when alternative means of conflict resolution have not been
creatively explored, when our youth are aggressively recruited
through deceit, misrepresentation and/or coercion to kill and be
themselves killed or maimed unnecessarily, and the military becomes,
not an instrument of national defense or deterrence, but of
aggression, oppression and murder, it is not only permissible, it is
morally required, that we counter recruitment.
This obligation to counter recruitment requires that we protect
those most vulnerable, impressionable young people in our high
schools and colleges and the underprivileged who see the military as
their only alternative to poverty, crime and unemployment from being
enticed, seduced, brainwashed and deceived into becoming complicit in
crimes of aggression and cannon fodder for corporate war profiteers
and opportunists. Therefore, we are morally obligated to remove
recruiters from our schools; rescind the No Child Left Behind Act's
military recruitment provision which requires schools, in order to
receive financial assistance under the act, to provide military
recruiters with students' contact and other information; and to
inform prospective recruits and their parents of the realities of
military service, the horrors of war, the immorality and futility of
the war in Iraq, and of other educational options and employment
opportunities available to them other than by joining the military. I
doubt this information is contained within a recruiter's motivational
packet of hats, tee shirts, bumper stickers and violent video games.
In conclusion, the duty to counter recruitment is not absolute
but situationally relative. Given the unethical and unscrupulous
practices utilized by recruiters to meet their quotas, the immorality
and illegality of the Iraq War and occupation, the needless sacrifice
of thousands of American soldiers and Marines, the unconscionable
killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, the expenditure
of billions of taxpayer dollars that could have been better spent
elsewhere, it is clear that counter recruitment is a moral and civic
duty. To do anything less would be unpatriotic - nay, treasonous and
morally irresponsible.
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