SUBHEAD: U.S. military targets kids' minds domestically, targets Middle East kids with weapons.
By Jan Lunberg on 7 June 2009 in Culture Changes - http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=449&Itemid=1
Image above: BEFORE: Children examining the USMC recruiting humvee in front of the Dorton Arena at the North Carolina state fairgrounds. From http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1366530739060425724CzNgzT
The movement to stop the military from recruiting children brings it's challenge to the Federal Court. The Justice Department filed a suit against Arcata and Eureka in California, against the overwhelming support of the voters. We can step back from the U.S society that we normally take for granted, provided we're not completely immersed in televised entertainment or other distraction. One of the things we may notice, or if it hits home by virtue of a family member's becoming a military casualty in Iraq or Afghanistan, is that the nation is way overboard on "Defense." As this is unquestioned, branches of the Pentagon have brazenly been recruiting children.
A movement has sprung up to stop this, and its first big test is in Federal Court on June 9 (details below). The excuse for child-recruiting (ages 14-17) is tough to dispel when the economic factor in people's fears is constantly exploited. It starts with the assumption that "education" means compulsory, institutionalized regimentation for the sake of becoming "productive citizens" who, most of us discover, have to go work for a boss or bureaucracy -- if we're "lucky." There we usually produce something meaningless or questionable, or we serve consumers meaninglessly.
The health of the planet and the worker be damned along with human potential. Some of us realize that these patterns are tied up in profligate energy waste that will end, along with much of society's present structure, upon the completion of petrocollapse that has begun. Meanwhile, the opposing of egregious practices should be encouraged, even if the delusion of democracy and the continuity of the Empire go unquestioned.
The child-recruitment issue was on the radio/TV show Democracy Now on April 18 of this year, when host Amy Goodman had guests helping her delve into the details of the case: Goodman reported, "Two Northern California towns are finding themselves in a showdown with the Pentagon over a ban on recruiting minors for the military. Last November, residents of Eureka and Arcata passed a ballot initiative known as the Youth Protection Act.
The measure bars the U.S. government from trying to enlist youths under the age of eighteen in any branch of the U.S. armed forces. [In Arcata, it passed by 73 percent margin, and in Eureka, by 57 percent.] "But just days after the laws went into effect, the Justice Department filed a suit seeking to overturn them. The Justice Department’s civil action says the initiatives are invalid because they conflict with federal law.
Both towns are refusing to cave. They’ve hired lawyers, filed counter-claims challenging the federal government’s action." Guest Sharon Adams, with the Stop Recruiting Kids coalition, board member of the National Lawyers Guild Bay Area Chapter, illuminated the finer points that the case hinges on:
"The Supremacy Clause is an article in the Constitution that says that the laws of the United States are the supreme law of the land, but it also includes in there the treaties that the United States has signed. So, one of our arguments is that there’s a protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. That’s a treaty that the United States has signed. And in that treaty, it specifically discusses recruiting. And it specifically says, as far as the United States is concerned, that the United States will not recruit under the age of seventeen. And what we see over and over is that they are actually recruiting under the age of seventeen."
Once again we find that the U.S. government is doing something illegal. Just as disappointing, to the naive especially, is to face that the defense of child recruitment for the military is being carried out by the Obama regime and its velvet glove that conceals the same old fist, it seems. What happened to ending the War?
Image above: AFTER - The burned out shell of an armoured US Humvee after passing over an IED. From (http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/672198221/m/2360035171001/p/2)
How many more children and other innocents have to be killed by drone missiles, raids by troops, etc.? Don't the violent, indiscriminate U.S. actions in other countries come back to haunt us, or is it "only" a matter of the Empire's fouling its own nest (Earth)
See also: Island Breath: Ban military recruiting of teens 2/7/08
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