The question that should be asked of all the people who are willing to die for rights and freedoms in other countries, “would you be willing to fight and die to protect the same rights and freedoms that are being stripped from us at an ever increasing rate right here in America?” So far I have seen very little in the willingness of Americans to that like the original patriots of this country.

Lafayette—-Psychologists who study how people “learn” know fully well the effect media
violence has upon humans, especially children.
Yet, you hear nothing from the American Psychological
Association. Why?  I don’t have an answer.  I spoke
in front of the Ohio State Board of Education asking
them to pass two required high school courses,
Child Development and Family Relations. The curriculum I developed would teach students how the
media influences their cognitions and behavior. 
Half way through my talk the President of the board
interupted me and said, “It’s time for lunch. Would
you please summarize your points.”  He thought more
of his belly than he did the children and people
of Ohio.  I spoke with several board members and
the majority kept repeating, “We need more science
and math courses. We have no room for Child Development and Family Relations courses.” What can
you do when you are trying to communicate with ignorant people? I tried to educate them.  I told
them the additional math and science courses could
be offered as electives for those students who desired them.  Not all students need additional math
and science courses.  However, all students do need
Child Development and Family Relations courses.  I
might as well been talking to the wall.  They wanted
to get to lunch.  Family relations courses should be
required in educational systems worldwide.  Try to
imagine the conversations children are hearing in
the families of Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Iran, etc.
If they heard their parents talking about love and
peace instead of hate and violence the world would
be a much better place.

I think you seem to miss the point that if all Americans had to share in the bloodshed, the president would not be so cavalier about sending our citizens and their children in harms way. Patrickhenry

I know that the point you think I am missing is illogical and absurd. All Americans will never share in the bloodshed of their citizens or that the citizens of the country we attack. Americans war War bred and born. When you look at the people who make up today’s volunteer military it isn’t just the economically distressed. It is also made up of people whose families have a long tradition of providing cannon fodder because they believe in all that honor and glory crap put out by the Government. Time and time again when you ask people if they want to go to war they say no way but something comes along like 9/11 and they are willing to go to war and some of them will encourage their children to join. What Americans really don’t like is loosing Wars. If we were winning in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and Libya Americans would be cheering for more. But you cannot win a war against terror, especially when they way you are fighting is to use terror which causes more terror to come from the other side. The Draft is never the answer to stopping wars and it in no way does what you would like to think it would. What will cause these wars to stop is to march on Washington by a couple of million people who are willing to surround the White House and the Capitol Building and not let any of them go any where until all the troops occupying countries around the world are physically standing in the USA. Then you force them to cut the Pentagon Budget and use the money to start manufacturing what we need instead of buying it from everywhere else.

That would be a start in the right direction but it has as much chance of happening as my winning a 100 million lotto without buying a ticket because Americans are not willing to do what the People of the Middle East and some European countries are willing to do, go out in the streets and do what has to be done even if that means dying to restore the People’s control of our Government. As the man said, “it is not that the People should fear their Government, the Government should fear the People.” Obysmal doesn’t fear Congress and he certainly doesn’t fear the People! And once again, the Draft doesn’t even enter into the equation as a means to stop these wars and it is a waste of time even discussing it it is so stupid!

The Handyman has said it as clearly and plainly as can be said. To reinstitute the
draft, to create social equality and shared responsibility is as absurd as it gets.
How crazy can you get?

The Pentagon has the movies too:
Viz.  Disney’s 2005 film, “The Pacifier” with Vin Diesel.  I was surprised.  This is not the Disney of my childhood nor my child’s childhood.

Sounds very much like the recruitment campaigns going on here in oz, only spoken with a different accent.
One photo of a childs body ripped apart by exploding hot shards of metal, posted on the front page of all MSN papers is about what is needed to wake people from their dream state and to hopefully stop this madness.

Even in Germany, when Hitler announced he would invade and appropriate control of Czechoslovakia in 1938 the German people went from being a people of (turn your head away from the prosecution of Jews and festival like mentality - to - a society frightened by the possibility of war with another country.

The festivals of the new Germany during that moment for the German citizens ended with Hitler’s radio broadcast notifying the German people of his ultimatum given to Czechoslovakia.

But then, nothing happened. Germany took Czechoslovakia. The parties returned to the German people. The mentality that “You can live with war and go about your way of life” had been tested, and passed even feasible in the minds of Germans. 

War is kept at a distance for the American people, out of sight, out of mind. Only reported briefly in corporate media news. But more frequently so on sites similar to this one, only in, and kept in the front of our minds because a very very small percentage of us prefer to keep it locked in our minds, knowing innocent children, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers in another country, our fellow humans, are suffering, at the hands of our military, paid for, by our tax dollars.

To ignore these distant wars, to not protest against those who approve of these wars, where atrocities are committed daily in the name of America, is nothing less than what Germany did in their wars in other countries.

It is very simple. War equals death of innocent humans.

We are not advancing as a civilization until we embrace and stop the pain of all humans
on the planet.

Start with your own mind. Then, gently inform your friends, strangers - the internet,
protest, always slip in the wars that are happening into conversations. Express your
empathy for those whom are suffering.

I - we - in America are responsible. It starts with I - it ends with we. Make a difference
wherever you can. History is recording the actions of America. This history will be
replayed in other countries for future humans to observe and understand.

Which human will you be?

It’s really wrong-headedness to believe that anti-war
protests have no affect.  During the Nam War, the
small band of protesters regularly outside the White
House fortress drove Johnson crazy.  They continued
their vigil when Nixon occupied the WH - and drove
him crazy (granted, not a long drive.) 

The results of protests may not be, usually aren’t,
immediately evident.  However, they are instrumental
in effecting the thinking and eventually the policies
of those whom they are directed against.  (Besides,
it’s sort of a lark to cause the powerful some
sleepless nights.)

Antiwar activists are so lazy.  They look for
something outside of themselves that will somehow
magically convert everyone to their cause.  So, they
look back at the anti-Vietnam rallies and say ‘wow,
if there was a draft then all these people would be
anti-war again.’

One problem with this theory is that it ignores the
fact that the American people are already more anti-
war than they were during Vietnam.  The anti-war
movement has already won the battle for hearts and
minds in America.  American citizens tell pollsters
by 60% or 70% majorities that they want the wars to
end as soon as possible.

The problem in America is that the government doesn’t
represent this will of the people.  And that’s Mr.
Sirota’s fault as much as any.  In 2008, he was
running around telling everyone to vote for Obama and
the Democrats.  You remember the lying Obama of 2008
when he pretended to be anti-war.

Why do the 70% of Americans who oppose these wars
feel powerless? Because each party lies to them when
out of power. Each party pretends to be against the
wars when they are out of power.  In 2006 and 2008,
it was Sirota and Obama and the lying Democrats who
pretended that a vote for the Democrats would help
end the wars. Now its the Republicans playing the
same game.

Yet, antiwar activists dream of bringing back
something as horrible as the draft which deliberately
kidnaps young people and forces them to go fight,
because they think that this will somehow bring back
the anti-war protests of the past that they can’t
organize themselves.

The protests faded away because they were useless. 
Go march around an empty DC on a Saturday morning. 
The anti-war protests of the 60’s were effective
because they were tied to a powerful electoral
movement that threatened the jobs of the pro-war
politicians.  Without that electoral movement, the
politicians know their jobs are safe and they yawn at
the big protests.

If you want to end the wars, start threatening the
jobs of the pro-war politicians.  In Sirota’s home
area, the two local fake progressive, pro-war
Democrats just voted with Pelosi and Obama to keep
the Libyan war going.

Yet, that’s where Sirota won’t go.  He won’t tell you
to vote against the pro-war Democrats.  So, he whines
on and on about how if there was a draft maybe
people would get upset again.

In 2008, Obama put forward a message of CHANGE and
HOPE, and the people rallied to him. Unfortunately,
the message was a lie and a PR campaign paid for by
the Wall Street millions in Obama’s accounts.  But
the lesson remains. The American people want CHANGE
and HOPE.  Give them a political option to get that,
and they’ll flock to it again.  You don’t have to
choose Sirota’s gangster approach of threatening to
kidnap their children to get them to do it.  You just
have to be willing to vote for someone other than
Democrats and Republicans.

TheHandyman,

Every time the subject of the Bush/Obysmal Wars comes up there is always someone or a lot of someones who post this comment. I don’t know if they are just ignorant or if they are delusional.

I think you seem to miss the point that if all Americans had to share in the bloodshed, the president would not be so cavilier about sending our citizens and their children in harms way.

Its one thing to send volunteers who are economically in a dead end so they joined the military willingly as a means of training and employment, its another to send a middle class youth whose parents are influential in the GOP and own stock in Raytheon, General Dynamics and Lockeed.  Those people will now have a dog in the fight besides their money.

The idea of ending the draft was Nixons, who was under seige at the White House by the massive ever increasing violent demonstrations in 69 70 and 71. 

Alot of those protesters were parents.

As far as the military elite are concerned you just can’t beat a
well paid all volunteer army.  You don’t have those pesky anti-war
rallies.  What little anti-war protest there is just doesn’t get
traction.  The next 25 years should see the USA well on it’s way to
becoming a military centered state.

THE LEAST COMMON DENOMINATOR

c96: I taught that movies, books, television programs, and other media were conditioning children to use violence insteading of rational reasoning to solve problelms.

Bingo.

We must not overlook the fact that violence is key attribute of the American culture. Throw that effing BoobTube out the window. It’s only constraint is full-frontal nudity, which never killed anybody.

American TV rots the mind by seeking the Least Common Denominator as a vehicle for selling products (that for the most part consumers don’t really need). That Least Common Denominator is most often violence.

NB

Least common denominator is often used as a figure of speech meaning the most basic, least sophisticated level of taste, sensibility, or opinion amongst a group of people.

If we still had a draft, these wars would be over before they were started or blood would run in the streets. posted by Patrickhenry

Every time the subject of the Bush/Obysmal Wars comes up there is always someone or a lot of someones who post this comment. I don’t know if they are just ignorant or if they are delusional.

First, it is a myth that the Draft had anything to do with the ending of the last war fought by draftees, Vietnam. It took a long time before the fighting in Vietnam became part of the American consciousness and that was because of the nightly news showing what was going on, something that the govt learned to never allow again. What ended the war in Vietnam was that we got our asses kicked out. We lost that war. And yes, protests forced a change in strategy that sped up the loosing process but it would have happened anyway.

It has been my experience that the people who want a draft never really understand that increasing the number of bodies available to be used as cannon fodder. They don’t grasp the concept that conscription, and that is the proper term for it, it an ancient form of slavery used by the Romans to build their Empire conquering armies.

These people are usually for it for the following reason:
1. They are too old to be Drafted.
2. They have a medical or mental condition that
  would prevent them from serving.
3. They have occupations that would preclude them
  from serving.
4. They have enough wealth that they will be able to
  buy there way out of having to serve.
5. They have influential friends that would help
  them so they would not have to serve.
6. If they were drafter they would have the means to
  flee the country.
7. They believe that they would never get Drafted.
8. They clearly are too stupid to understand the
  consequences of having a Draft.

These people talk about and envision a form of conscription where everyone would have to serve without understanding that the people who would write, vote for, and pass this law will have all kinds of exemptions so that their wealthy patrons and their friends and families as well as their own friends and families will never have to serve.

To even think that forcing any person to go and fight in a war that not only puts them in harms way but forces them into killing innocent people in other countries should be abhorrent. But that is also a trait of those that advocate a Draft, they think that serving their country by murdering for no good reason other than what the govt tells you people whose country you are occupying is somehow heroic and honorable. As someone who was forced to fight in Vietnam I can say without any restrictions that that notion is bullcrap and it isn’t held by the people who even in these wars served. They feel like cannon fodder, not heroes. The people who serve in combat know that they don’t do it for our freedoms and rights, they do it because their govt ordered them to do it and they are doing their job. Their job is to see that every member of their unit comes home safe and sound and sometimes that just doesn’t happen! The notion that you force people to serve in a war will somehow prevent wars or stop these was is illogical and stupid!

Mike789 - are you surprised by the statistic 486
American military personnel died in combat last year
and 408 American military personnel committed suicide?

Since you have had direct experience with recruits, I
think you may be able to tell us why that (alarming, to
me) statistic.

Good article Mr. Sirota.  However, the conditioning
of our young men to use violence instead of rationality to solve problems has been going on for
more than 3 decades.  While teaching “Child Development” at two universities in the early 1970’s
I taught that movies, books, television programs,
and other media were conditioning children to use
violence insteading of rational reasoning to solve
problelms.  That was before the advent of violent
computer games.  Who do you think was behind all
those fights John Wayne demonstrated on the big
screen?  During WWII I can understand the need to
condition young boys to be violent and aggressive.
America was under attack and trying to stop a violent
delusional Adolf Hitler.  However, that need no longer exists.  However, the violent conditioning
has grown worse. Why?  It appears the multinational
corporations want violent young men to protect their
business interests.  No wonder the rest of the world
refers to us as “The Great Satan.”

It’s long past time for the Department of Defense to go the way of the dodo bird. It should be dismantled and liquidated - saving a few ships and planes as monuments to our stupidity for future generations.

Short of that, at least they should change their title to something a bit more honest. Currently, I favor “The Dept. of Slaughter, Murder and Mutilation.”

M789: I belief the stereotyping of the a young possible recruit as a Rambo-typicla dreamer is a shallow estimate. When it comes to the point of really making that decision and signing up, it’s a dose of reality.

I suggest that if a viable option were a very low-cost Education Loan for a postsecondary school education (either vocational, college or university)  that most recruits would opt for it.

Why anybody would want to go over to the Middle-East sandbox to prove their manhood is beyond imagination.

The watershed moment in the military IMHO, is when the draft succumbed to the all volunteer military in 1971 under Nixon and Reagan spent 3 trillion of borrowed money to make it the imperialist and expansionist force beginning in 1980.  After Reagans reign, contractors were brought in to do the day to day mess and maintenance the troops typically did, spare no expense.

If we still had a draft, these wars would be over before they were started or blood would run in the streets.

Eugene, as a former company commander who dealt with recruits and young people on a daily basis, I think I have a pretty good insight into what makes Johnny run.
Having had to counsel young people as to their careers and every day problems, it predominantly hinges on their families when deploed, next duty station and how to make rank.
My point is that the article ignores the economic plight a good number of young people. A job and job training trumps the ego-freaking war mongering, which I also state is misdirected.

There is certainly a element of a few “crazies”. They get into a flay-lex and get all the attention and quite frankly take up valuable time and effort which detracts from the entire unit.

I belief the stereotyping of the a young possible recruit as a Rambo-typicla dreamer is a shallow estimate. When it comes to the point of really making that decision and signing up, it’s a dose of reality.

I think it started early in the last century that the army gave bullets to the Boy Scouts, so that they could be good marksmen for when they were called up to serve.

Personally, I’ve become disgusted with the whole military establishment and find it an obnoxious and pretentious threat to we who are leery of dogma, authoritarianism, blind alliegence and obeyance, and pathological nationalism. When I see our illustrious military leaders decked out in all of their finery and bling as if in religious garb, I see nothing more than unadjudicated war criminals and amoral thugs.

Just today I drove by a gathering beside a busy street here.. there was a big smoker and the signs ‘BBQ Plate $4.99’! ..  A close look exposed a cadre of High School ROTC cadets and some Marine and Army Recruiters in full dress and Camo.. I’m looking at the baby faces of those recruiters and wondering just
what is that chest full of ribbons for?

Anyway, some uniformed representative said somehting (inaudible) the crowd clapped and cheered and passing motorists honked and waved!

Forget peace and forget freedom.. whatever you think of individuals serving in the military ( I tend to have positive notions) War and Military service are the New Deal.. the new IBM’s and GM’s where you get a job that sticks, with benefits and retirement and married housing and on-base schools (forget the voucher debate) and more..

Look in the news.. McCarthur, of the ‘greatest generation’ was ultimately fired for making his views public.. Gates and the top brass now do world tours! .. prosletizing to a fawning media.. and even if they don’t get their way vis-a-vie immediate policy.. they’ll retire with plump packages and a life of adoration from the masses. A new elite!

Adios amigos!

I’m glad Felicity mentioned drones. These things are the biggest threat to privacy and liberty ever invented. In England, the local council sent a spy drone to fly over a family’s home because they believed they had sent their child to the ‘wrong’ school, that is out of the zone where their child was allowed to attend school. This is what the Pentagon doesn’t want anyone to think about. We’re all in this together, regardless of religion or nationality. When they’ve finished using drones for blowing up poor people in the third world to ‘pacify’ their region (if that ever actually happens) then they’ll turn their attention to the rest of us, the people they haven’t yet ‘pacified’ and they’ll use drones to spy on us and our homes and accuse us of crimes or dissent. When that happens, any hope of retaining democracy, freedom of speech and liberty will be gone. The war on terror is a war on all of us and our rights and the sooner we wake up to that fact, the better. Letting the CIA have virtually unfettered access to drones for their own dark purposes is like letting Dracula loose in the blood bank.

Ever since becoming a rogue military state, the
Pentagon etal have done a bang-up (sorry) job of
hiding the realities of war from the American public.

It recently hit me on hearing that we are or are
about to launch bomb-loaded drones on Yemen that had
I still lived there, I could hear a drone, walk out
my door and see it, realize that my own country had
launched it and perhaps could end up as a statistic
called collateral damage.

Even Americans who have not lived in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia… should be
able to imagine what it would be like to live under
the constant threat of being killed by a drone - how
about watching your children being incinerated.

Yes, lots of contradictions…. At the same time the “fun” of joining the military is
illustrated by ad campaigns,  the “sacrifice of our soldiers” is continually
emphasized by government and military officials but, in this case, without visual
images.

How about that ad that says that joining gives you the chance to see the world?
At least that’s true in some way…. and there are still a number of countries the
military hasn’t been to yet.

The real thing they cover up is that being a soldier means being a murderer for money.  A thug for hire.  A baby killer.

Sadly this article also covers up that one essential truth.  And why?  Does Sirota assume that American kids are so evil already that they would reject an appeal based on morals?  He thinks we should make an appeal based only upon the basest selfishness of these young adults—an appeal to their self preservation?  As if these soldiers didn’t realise that they can get wounded?

The military doesn’t do that.  They make a false appeal to values greater than the individual albeit bigoted ones.  They appeal to patriotism nationalism and so on. 

if you think kids want to be soldiers through ignorance then why not educate them?

One thing I’ve noticed; as the politicians start going
negative on a war (any war) the press seems to shift to
the anti-war side of things.
A bit of the tail wagging the dog?
Hey, just sayin…

Recruiting young males who need to prove themselves is a no brainer that has worked for centuries. It’s what the West has inherited from the Greeks and the Spartans the idolatry of the male and the male body - Hellenistic super-masculinity.

“Located near a popular entertainment facility and an indoor skate park, the AEC features a number of interactive simulations and online educational opportunities. It is manned by more than 20 Soldiers who are available to share their stories with visitors and answer questions they may have about the Army. Although the Soldiers who run the center are trained recruiters, the AEC is not a recruiting center, according to Ryan Hansen of Ignited Corporation, who partnered with the Army on the project.

‘The center is an attraction tool. There is no recruiting mission here,’ Hansen said. ‘Here it is more about changing perceptions.’”

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/first-person-sho0ter/

I really don’t think the Pentagon needs anything of the sort described in the article. With the unemployment at a high and companies and state governments searching for ways to reduce benefits it’s not much of an existential leap to put your life on the line for the security and benefits a military career offers not to mention the prime mover, patriotism especially in families with a history of service. Add in an opportunity to pick up career training and it’s no wonder it’s still a volunteer military.

Young people, for the most part, are not so naive as to believe the sensationalism. At best they might think the ads “cool” or up to par with contemporary game technology.

Ever wonder why the Pentagon does not proffer advertisement related to job securtity? That might point to the shortcomings of our corporate structure and no national healthcare system. A case can be made against the gloss and a return to ads that emphasize career training.