In our recent campaign to evict the army “Career” center from the South Loop University Center there have been many questions and concerns about the rights of army recruiters and recruits. Questions of allowing free speech to the military. Concerns of allowing students to make their own decisions about whether or not they choose to join the armed forces. But a subject that has been entirely absent from this discourse is that of the free will of those people at the other side of the military’s cannons. So what exactly is free will? Who is entitled to free will? At what point does one surrender their right to free will and invite external action to be taken against them?

military recruiters and Free Speech: Shouldn’t we allow the military recruiters to say what they want? Allow them to advertise the military the same way we allow any business to have a spot in commercial spaces? For now ignoring the actually murderous and oppressive methods of any capitalist institution, let us look at what it is the military is saying.
The recruiters have many methods to entice new recruits. Money for schools, signing bonuses, promises of career training and leadership abilities. Of course when you are desperately trying to replenish dying human resources you are not going to tell potential recruits about the fine print, or about the dangers of combat. The hard facts of the matter (according to http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62945/ ):

1. The Department of Defense’s own enlistment/re-enlistment document states, “Laws and regulations that govern military personnel may change without notice to me. Such changes may affect my status, pay allowances, benefits and responsibilities as a member of the Armed Forces REGARDLESS of the provisions of this enlistment/re-enlistment document” (DD Form4/1, 1998, Sec.9.5b).

2. Bonuses are often thought of as gifts, but they’re not. They’re like loans: If an enlistee leaves the military before his or her agreed term of service, he or she will be forced to repay the bonus. Besides, Army data shows that the top bonus of $20,000 was given to only 6 percent of the 47,7272 enlistees who signed up for active duty. (Even soldiers who are injured in combat and can not complete their full term are refused this money)

3. Military members are no strangers to financial strain: 48 percent report having financial difficulty, approximately 33 percent of homeless men in the United States are veterans, and nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless on any given night

4. If you expect the military to pay for college, better read the fine print. Among recruits who sign up for the Montgomery GI Bill, 65 percent receive no money for college, and only 15 percent ever receive a college degree. The maximum Montgomery GI Bill benefit is $37,224, and even this 37K is hard to get: To join, you must first put in a nonrefundable $1,200 deposit that has to be paid to the military during the first year of service. To receive the $37K, you must also be an active-duty member who has completed at least a three-year service agreement and is attending a four-year college full time. Benefits are significantly lower if you are going to school part-time or attending a two-year college. If you receive a less than honorable discharge (as one in four do), leave the military early (as one in three do), or later decide not to go to college, the military will keep your deposit and give you nothing. Note: The $71,424 advertised by the Army and $86,000 by the Navy includes benefits from the Amy or Navy College Fund, respectively. Fewer than 10 percent of all recruits earn money from the Army College Fund, which is specifically designed to lure recruits into hard-to-fill positions.

So in fact what the military is doing is lying to students. Coercing them to sign contracts before fully engaging with what they say. Making promises that they have no intention of fulfilling. These recruiters have quotas to meet, they are not held accountable for being honest or caring for the lives of recruits, they are only responsible for signing up x amount of bodies.

Does joining the military promote free will in recruits: Now people say that we should allow students to make their own decisions because they are adults who can think for themselves and should investigate what they are told themselves. This first of all ignores the fact that Jones College Prep High School is right across the street, and that recruiters seek out high school students by harassing them in their halls and cafeterias.
But let us look deeper into the psychology of being in the military. This institution is the deepest expression of hierarchy and unquestioned authority. Soldiers are literally broken down and then built up again by being screamed at, having their heads shaved, wearing uniforms, and ultimately having their individuality stripped from them. Soldiers are not encouraged to critically think or question their orders, but to follow through all orders without questions and as quickly as possible.

“Two weeks into the war, we were told to put our protective gear and chemical mask away. Now I’m not a military intelligence officer or a CIA agent, but I know we were supposed to be there to rid this country of weapons of mass destruction. So being a New Yorker with a smart mouth, I asked the major who told us to put our gear away, ‘Sir, with all due respect, I thought we were here for weapons of mass destruction.’ He replied, ‘Do what you’re told, son, and shut your mouth.’ From that point on, I knew this war was just a fabrication by Bush’s regime, and that it was definitely unjust.“ –Michael Harmon of Iraq Veterans Against the War

Young man, the lowest aim in your life is to be a good soldier. The good solider never tries to distinguish right from wrong. He never thinks; never reasons; he only obeys. If he is ordered to fire on his fellow citizens, on his friends, on his neighbors, on his relatives, he obeys without hesitation. If he is ordered to fire down a crowded street when the poor are clamoring for bread, he obeys, and sees the gray hairs of age stained with red and the life-tide gushing from the breasts of women, feeling neither remorse nor sympathy. If he is ordered off as one of a firing squad to execute a hero or benefactor, he fires without hesitation, though he knows the bullet will pierce the noblest heart that ever beat in human breast.
A good soldier is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous machine. He is not a man. He is not ever a brute, for brutes only kill in self-defense. All that is human in him, all that is divine in him, all that consitutes the man, has been sworn away when he took the enlistment oath. His mind, conscience, aye, his very soul, are in the keeping of his officer.
No man can fall lower than a soldier–it is a depth beneath which we cannot go.
-Jack London

Free Will of non-americans: So what of the people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti, Syria, and others? Have they no right to free will? The war on terror after the initial invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, is no longer fighting government backed militarys. Who are we fighting? Terrorists. What is a terrorist? Anyone who uses terror, violence or intimidation to coerce people into submission. Any military or police force is a terrorist organization, though the state would have you believe that their terror is just, hence they can not be labelled terrorists. So this word as I am sure many already realize is useless. Insurgents. According to american Heritage Dictionary it is anyone “rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government.” The established authority in significant regions of the Middle East is currently a foreign invader. The united states of america. How can one expect the people of this region to accept the authority of Washington D.C. a city on the other side of the world? Especially after their cities were bombed mercilessly during Operation Shock and Awe. The very “heroes” of the american “revolution” were considered insurgents by the british empire and are glorified in our textbooks. The majority of people killed in this war are civilians, or non-affiliated combatants. Methods used by the u.s. military are hardly discriminatory and include the use of chemical weapons.

“I heard the order being issued to be careful because white phosphorus was being used on Fallujah. In military slang this is known as Willy Pete. Phosphorus burns bodies, melting the flesh right down to the bone,” says one former US solider, interviewed by the documentary’s director, Sigfrido Ranucci. From Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre.

As anyone would be expected to do, the people of Iraq and Afghanistan took arms to defend themselves from foreign intruders. Unable to stand up against the military’s super weapons, over 1,000,000 people have died from the effects of the war and the u.s. troop death toll is at 3963. The people who are massacred and oppressed by this endless war had no choice in it happening, and never had any involvement with the handful of “Al-Queda” operatives who may have been the cause of 9/11. Something else to investigate as there is still no evidence or explanation of what happened on that day.

If we are truly concerned with the Free Will of americans, and of all people then we have no greater threat than the u.s. military. It is an institution, like all militaries, whose very purpose is to eliminate the free will of those who join it, and of the people it attacks. At times robbing their ability to live at all. When one infringes on the free will of others, they surrender their right to free will. This is why we ask all students to join us in shutting down the army “Career” center located at the University Center. This institution is a thorn in the side of all people, and an affront to not just the very notion of free will, but to the ability to practice free will. As the massacre at Northern Illinois University unfolded, should people have sat back and said, “it is his choice to shoot those people, I don’t want to infringe on his free will”? Of course not! Such a thing would be madness. But massacres like that one are happening, and on an incomparable level at the hands of the u.s. military. Though they are not in front of our faces we support them as citizens and taxpayers in this country. It is our duty then to do all we can to stop this war, not only passively by not fighting it, but also assertively by ending its ability to be fought by anyone. The military-industrial complex has made it impossible to not support war in our everyday life, but Peace is not a spectator sport.

February 22nd 3pm – Hand eviction notices to Army “Career” Center – State & Harrison

March 3rd noon– Day of Counter-Recruitment at the Army “Career” Center – State & Harrison – and Peace Festival

March 19th – 5th Anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. International protest. 6pm rally at Federal Plaza. Adams & Dearborn. March to the “Gold Coast”

March 20th – Day of Creative Resistance – Army “Career” Center followed by Convergence at Federal Plaza 5pm

FORUM ON THE WAR IN IRAQ.
FEB. 13 / 6:30-8:30PM
HOKIN HALL / 623 S. WABASH

What happens when an Iraq war veteran, a military recruiter, an anti-war activist and a Bush supporter all have a conversation on the war? Come find out and make your voice heard in this important dialogue on Iraq, militarism and the role of college students during times of war.

Sponsored by Critical Encounters, American Friends Service Committee, Iraq Vets Against the War, Students for a Democratic Society.

http://www.republicoflakotah.com/index.htm

Lakotah Sovereignty

1700’s: Lakotah governed themselves as they had for thousands of years.

1803: Louisiana Purchase Treaty between US and France in which the US promises to respect the liberties, property and religious rights of the inhabitants of the territory, which includes the Lakotah.

1805-1868: Numerous treaties between the US and Sioux Nation, all of which have been violated by the US.

1974: International Treaty Conference attended by over 5000 Lakotah, including many elders. Lakotah elders give two mandates to attendees, international recognition of indigenous rights, and sovereignty.
Declaration of Continuing Independence also issued by the conference.

September 2007: UN passes the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

December 2007: Lakotah Freedom Delegation withdraws from all treaties
with the US.

XO

Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)
http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node

forza alla gente
xo

free information:
http://www.crimethinc.com/tools/downloads/
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml

xoxo

Recruiters Trying to Identify With Kids

The Militarization of America’s Schools Continues…

The Refusal to Allow Peace Groups to Combat the Duplicity of Military Recruiters in Florida

12% of Americans are black

50% of American prisoners are black

2.2 million Americans are behind bars, the highest prison population in the world

5% of the world population is American

25% of the world’s incarcerated population is in America

Is this justice? Come see Fred Hampton Jr. of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee give a forum about the prison-industrial complex and the ever increasing state violence against black and latino communities. The event will be open to discussion and people should not be afraid to bring their own ideas to the table. This is an educational event and a film will be screened. It is also a chance to plan action against state terrorism. Dinner will be served.

Tuesday December 4th

3pm to 9pm

Conaway Center 1104 S Wabash

student movement against the LRU law (privatization of the university)
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/11/896862.shtml

xo