Frank Jackman comment:
One of the great struggles on college
campuses during the height of the struggle against the Vietnam War back in the
1960s aside from trying to close down that war outright was the effort to get
the various ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps, I think that is right way to
say it) programs off campus. In a number of important campuses that effort was
successful, although there has been back-sliding going on since the Vietnam War
ended and like any successful anti-war or progressive action short of changing
the way governments we could support do business is subject to constant
attention or the bastards will sneak something in the back door.
To the extent that reintroduction of
ROTC on college campuses has been thwarted, a very good anti-war action indeed
which had made it just a smidgen harder to run ram shot over the world, that
back door approach has been a two-pronged attack by the military branches to
get their quota of recruits for their all-volunteer military services in the
high schools. First to make very enticing offers to cash-strapped public school
systems in order to introduce ROTC, junior version, particularly but not
exclusively, urban high schools (for example almost all public high schools in
Boston have some ROTC service branch in their buildings with instructors
partially funded by the Defense Department and with union membership right and
conditions a situation which should be opposed by teachers’ union members).
Secondly, thwarted at the college level
for officer corps trainees they have just gone to younger and more impressible
youth, since they have gained almost unlimited widespread access to high school
student populations for their high pressure salesmen military recruiters to do
their nasty work. Not only do the recruiters who are graded on quota system and
are under pressure produce X number of recruits or they could wind doing sentry
guard duty in Kabul or Bagdad get that access where they have sold many young
potential military personnel many false bills of goods but in many spots
anti-war veterans and other who would provide a different perspective have been
banned or otherwise harassed in their efforts.
Thus the tasks of the day-JROTC out of
the high schools-military recruiters out as well! Let anti-war ex-soldiers,
sailors, Marines and airpersons have their say.
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