COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
Anti-war protesters target potential recruits
TOM ROEDER, THE GAZETTE
September 16, 2005
A small band of anti-war activists began 10 days of protests in
Colorado Springs on Thursday that will include attempts to talk high
school students out of military service.
The 18 people who gathered in a parking lot near Colorado College
came from a variety of area peace organizations, including the Pikes
Peak Justice and Peace Commission and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
They later stood in front of Palmer High School and gave students
forms they could use to prevent their contact information from being
given to military recruiters.
The protesters said they hate the war but support those who are
fighting it.
"It's not anti-military or anti-soldier," said Mark Lewis, a member
of the group Leave My Child Alone, which opposes the mandatory
sharing of student information between school districts and the
Pentagon.
Another protester, Elizabeth Spradlin, served a year in Iraq with a
Colorado National Guard military police unit.
Wearing a shirt emblazoned with a "Veterans for Peace" logo, she said
her stance hasn't led to problems in Colorado Spings.
"I'm very respectful of other people's view, and I expect them to
respect my views," she said.
Dennis Apaun, with the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission,
admits war protesters are few in Colorado Springs, which is home to
70,000 military veterans and 40,000 active-duty troops.
"We must persist in raising our voices to our government," he said.
Most of the arguments raised by protesters are not new. They say
fighting in Iraq can't be linked to controlling world terrorism and
say U.S. troops went there based on lies.
But the newest argument in the anti-war arsenal was also in use.
Apaun and others said the financial and troop drain from the Iraq war
left the government unable to properly prepare for and respond to
Hurricane Katrina.
By going to high schools, the protesters are targeting one area
that's already a trouble spot for the military. Recruiting for the
Army and its Reserve components has fallen well short of Pentagon
goals this year. The Army is expected to fall short of its goal by
6,000 soldiers.
Kelly Dougherty, who served in Iraq with Spradlin's unit and is a co-
founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War, said that if protesters can
choke off the Army's stream of recruits, they can force the military
to rethink its presence in Iraq.
"What my group wants to do is to stop the war," she said.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0240 or
troeder@gazette.com
OPTING OUT OF GIVING INFO TO MILITARY RECRUITERS
Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, school districts
receiving federal funds must give military recruiters students'
names, addresses and phone numbers when requested.
But parents — or students who are 18 or older — can opt to not have
the information released to recruiters.
School and district officials normally tell parents of this option
through the school or district Web site, newsletters or student
handbooks.
Schools and districts can have different deadlines for when they must
be notified that a student's information should not be given out.
Contact your local high school or district office for deadlines and
more information about the process.
and Denver Post coverage
Anti-war group sets up camp in Springs
Cindy Sheehan-inspired effort aims to counter recruiters at area high
schools
By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer
Colorado Springs - Anti-war activists established Camp Casey-Colorado
Springs on Thursday and launched a counter military-recruitment
effort at area high schools.
About 20 veterans and activists, some of whom had joined Cindy
Sheehan at her protest this summer outside President Bush's ranch in
Crawford, Texas, set up a makeshift camp in a video-store parking lot
near Colorado College on Thursday. Sheehan's son, Army Spec. Casey
Sheehan, was killed in Baghdad on April 4, 2004.
"Part of our journey of healing is letting other people know about
the horror," said Jim Beckenhaupt, who served in Vietnam in 1969.
The group plans to meet at 802 N. Nevada Ave. until Sept. 24, when a
peace march begins in Washington, D.C. Members of Iraq Veterans
Against the War, Veterans for Peace, and the Pikes Peak Peace and
Justice Commission are participating in the demonstration.
Kelly Dougherty, an Iraq war vet and co-founder of Iraq Veterans
Against the War, said holding a protest in Colorado Springs, where 42
percent of the economy is linked to Department of Defense
dollars, "is definitely more of a challenge than doing it in, say,
Boulder or a more liberal place. But at the same time, this is the
place where the anti-war movement and, particularly, the anti-war
veterans movement is most needed because this is a community that is
being most effected by the war in Iraq."
Group members talked to students outside Palmer High School on
Thursday, advising them that they can "opt out" of an initiative that
allows the Pentagon to collect personal information about them.
The No Child Left Behind Act allows the Pentagon to gather names,
home addresses and telephone numbers of public school students for
recruitment purposes.
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of