Senator Gillibrand Calls for Plan to Begin Combat Troop Redeployment from Afghanistan

Mounting al Qaeda Threats in Arab Peninsula Outweigh Threats in Afghanistan, Responsible Redeployment Supports Afghanistan Sovereignty, Widespread Corruption and Lack of Cooperation from Pakistan Undermining Afghan Stability

America’s Cost of War in Afghanistan: Over $345 Billion and Growing

COUNTY-BY-COUNTY Data: Over 1,600 New York Troops Deployed in Afghanistan Right Now

After nearly a decade at war in Afghanistan and more than 1,600 New York troops deployed there currently, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today called for a clear plan for withdrawal of America’s combat forces from Afghanistan by 2014. Over the last decade, America spent a total of $336 billion to fund the war and $11 billion for assistance in Afghanistan, with about $124 billion more set to be approved by Congress for FY2011.

Senator Gillibrand is calling for passage of the Safe and Responsible Redeployment of United States Combat Forces from Afghanistan Act, legislation to begin withdrawing American combat forces from Afghanistan on July 1 of this year. Senator Gillibrand is also making a formal request for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to negotiate a Strategic Redeployment Agreement, based on the model used to withdraw American forces from Iraq, to establish a 2014 withdrawal end date for U.S. combat troops.

“America cannot afford an endless war in Afghanistan,” Senator Gillibrand said. “After nearly a decade at war, with still no equal commitment from the Karzai government, and after all the lives we’ve sacrificed and the billions we’ve spent on this war, it’s time to start bringing our troops home. It’s time to put the future and security of Afghanistan in the hands of its own leaders, and focus America’s national security on the emerging and more imminent threats from al Qaeda in other regions.”

Nearly 100,000 American troops are deployed in Afghanistan today, including more than 1,600 from New York State.

• New York City is home to 259 total military personnel currently deployed in Afghanistan.
• Western New York is home to 95 total military personnel currently deployed in Afghanistan.
• The Rochester/Finger Lakes Region is home to 88 total military personnel currently deployed in Afghanistan.
• Central New York is home to 98 total military personnel currently deployed in Afghanistan.
• The Southern Tier is home to 45 total military personnel are currently deployed in Afghanistan.
• The Capital Region is home to 55 total military personnel currently deployed in Afghanistan.
• The North Country is home to 528 total military personnel currently deployed in Afghanistan.
• The Hudson Valley is home to 105 total military personnel currently deployed in Afghanistan.
• Long Island is home to 96 total personnel military currently deployed in Afghanistan.

Factors Behind Redeployment Strategy

• Transparency International ranks Afghanistan the second most corrupt nation in the world. Its largest bank, Kabul Bank, which processes international aid, funds government salaries and security forces, is on the verge of collapse as a result of widespread corruption.
• Neighboring Pakistan harbors al Qaeda and Taliban insurgency while Pakistan’s intelligence agency maintains ties to the Taliban.
• Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has called for Afghanistan’s forces to take lead for their country’s security.
• Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula has now surpassed Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization in Afghanistan as the most likely to successfully execute an attack inside the United States, according to Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter.

The Gillibrand Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan

Begin Combat Forces Withdrawal in July 2011
Senator Gillibrand believes it is time to signal a clear end to America’s combat mission in Afghanistan. Senator Gillibrand is an original co-sponsor of the Safe and Responsible Redeployment of United States Combat Forces from Afghanistan Act, legislation authored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and co-sponsored by 4 senators. The legislation would:

• State that it is U.S. policy to begin the phased redeployment of U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan by July 1, 2011;
• Require the president to submit a plan to Congress by July 31, 2011 for the phased redeployment of U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan, including a completion date for such redeployment.

The legislation builds on President Obama’s strategy to begin the responsible reduction of U.S. forces in July 2011; complete the transfer of responsibility of security to Afghan forces by 2014; and implement a sustained, long-term commitment beyond the withdrawal date.

Establish Strategic Redeployment Agreement
To lay the foundation for an end date to America’s combat forces in Afghanistan and support Afghanistan security forces’ lead for their country’s security, Senator Gillibrand has written to Secretaries Clinton and Gates requesting the negotiation of a Strategic Redeployment Agreement, based on the model used to withdraw American forces from Iraq.

The agreement could also set conditions beyond 2014 for a continued, modest, non-combat mission in Afghanistan, such as an ongoing counter-terrorism mission, along with training of Afghan forces and civilian security projects. The agreement would retain current freedom of mission and protections for U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

A 2008 Strategic Framework Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq established the broader relationship between the two countries and a 2008 Withdrawal of U.S. Forces Agreement set December 31, 2011 as the complete withdrawal date for U.S. troops.

Senator Gillibrand’s full letter to Secretaries Gates and Clinton:

Dear Secretaries Clinton and Gates,

It is my strong view that it is time to negotiate a Strategic Redeployment Agreement with Afghanistan that would mandate a date certain for the withdrawal of all United States combat forces no later than 2014. I am writing out of consideration for our changing national security challenges, my deep concern about the toll that the war in Afghanistan is taking on our troops and our country, and recognition of that the Afghan and Pakistani governments are not taking steps critical to the war effort. I believe a clear combat redeployment agreement would help our efforts in Afghanistan by reinforcing Afghan sovereignty and protecting both the readiness and the flexibility we need to meet the full array of global security challenges that confront our country.

I have great confidence in the ability of our troops and the strategic focus of our commanders. The surge in Afghanistan has accomplished some substantial military gains. However, as the President has said, in laying out the strategy for Afghanistan, there are “three core elements of our strategy: a military effort to create the conditions for a transition; a civilian surge that reinforces positive action; and an effective partnership with Pakistan.” Despite our civilian assistance, corruption in Afghanistan remains rife. As the near-collapse of Kabul Bank has demonstrated, corruption undermines Afghanistan’s stability and the support of its people for their government. Without a strong, stable, and effective Afghan government, we risk serious domestic instability that opens the door to a return to control by the Taliban and related organizations of major parts of the country despite a U.S. military commitment. As for Pakistan, while I applaud the sacrifices Pakistan’s military has made in fighting some insurgent groups, al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, and others continue to enjoy safe havens inside Pakistan, near the Pakistani-Afghan border, allowing them to resupply and direct the war in Afghanistan. Insufficient dedication from Kabul and Islamabad undermines our military investment in Afghanistan.

I am also concerned that the drain on our resources in Afghanistan may deteriorate our flexibility to address other global threats. In the past few months, upheavals in the Middle East have posed new challenges for our government as a whole, including the military. Yet, our flexibility of response appears to be compromised in part by our ongoing military involvement in two other Muslim majority countries. Top U.S. intelligence officials have said that Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula is a greater national security challenge than bin Laden. And al Qaeda’s reach appears to be increasingly global – spreading ideology and seeking recruits via the Internet and other methods - not limited to specific contests like the one in Afghanistan. U.S. strategy for countering terrorism needs to be far more nimble, innovative, and global than the troop-heavy counter-insurgency.

What I am suggesting is not to spell out every stage of U.S. troop redeployment from Afghanistan – specific redeployment decisions should be up to commanders on the ground and avoid giving the enemy a potential propaganda tool. Nor should we change the protection for our troops and flexibility for our mission that has been agreed in the U.S.-Afghanistan diplomatic notes exchange and the ISAF-Afghanistan Military Technical Agreement. I do not believe that a withdrawal agreement must necessarily limit our training or counter-terrorism missions, or protection for our civilian development programs. It is critical, however, that we provide for a date certain for withdrawal of our combat forces, in order to give certainty to the American people; to ensure maximum flexibility in responding to other contingencies; and to publicly endorse the Afghan Government’s assumption of lead responsibility as planned.

Clipping Coupons for a Good Cause by Bryan Yurcan - Queens Chronicle

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The Ozone Park Senior Center was recognized for its good work clipping coupons for troops in Europe to use at base commissaries.PHOTO BY BRYAN YURCAN

The phrase “support the troops” is often bandied about or plastered on bumper stickers without much thought paid to it, but the members of the Ozone Park Senior Center have truly taken it to heart.

Seniors there have been gathering coupons to send to troops stationed overseas in Germany so they can purchase much-needed goods.

This is done through the Army Community Service Coupons Program, in which service members and their families are able to use donated coupons to purchase food and supplies through commissaries located on military installations. The military stores sell a variety of products, including food, personal hygiene items, pet supplies and cosmetics. The commissaries accept domestic coupons up to six months after their expiration date for their products.

On Friday, the seniors were recognized for their good work during a ceremony at the center, located in the basement of the St. Mary Gate of Heaven Church in Ozone Park.

The event was organized by the Richmond Hill South Civic Association, which has worked with the senior center in the effort. Civic members mailed out the coupons clipped and collected by the seniors.

Civic association President Margaret Finnerty said the seniors had clipped coupons totaling more than $175,000 for troops over the last two years.

“With Veterans Day coming, this is a great time to recognize the good work these seniors have done for our troops,” Finnerty said.

In addition to clipping coupons, members of the senior center, which is operated by Catholic Charities and receives funding from the city Department for the Aging, have crocheted nearly 100 hats and scarves to send to servicemen and women, according to Rosemary Heggers, the site manager for the senior center.

“This is something we’re very proud to do,” she said.

Heggers said the seniors decided to crochet the clothing items after the center received a large donation of yarn in the colors of the American flag.

“This way, every time they receive a scarf or hat they can see the red, white and blue,” Heggers said.

Also recognizing the good work of the Ozone Park Senior Center were elected officials including state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach), Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven) and Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park). All of them issued certificates of appreciation to the senior center.

Addabbo, who along with Miller won re-election to the state Legislature Nov. 2, said voting is a reminder of the sacrifices members of the armed services have made to protect American freedoms.

“We would not have an Election Day at all if it wasn’t for veterans,” he said.

Addabbo said it is important for citizens to recognize the importance of what veterans and seniors have done for the country, and that both are groups, “that we have to take care of.”

Miller also thanked the seniors for their good work.

“It’s nice to be able to give the troops something back,” he said.

Ulrich praised senior center members who clipped coupons for giving back to the men and women serving overseas.

“We want to make sure we can do as much as possible to help them,” Ulrich said.

NY Times Frank Rich via greenpagan: Shuffling Off to Crawford, 2007 Edition...

greenpagan: Shuffling Off to Crawford, 2007 Edition

THE cases of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch were ugly enough. So surely someone in the White House might have the good taste to draw the line at exploiting the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. But nothing is out of bounds for a government that puts the darkest arts of politics and public relations above even the exigencies of war.

As Jane Mayer told the story in last week’s New Yorker, Mariane Pearl was called by Alberto Gonzales with some good news in March: the Justice Department was releasing a transcript in which the long-incarcerated Qaeda thug Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confessed to the beheading of her husband. But there was something off about Mr. Gonzales’s news. It was almost four years old.

Condoleezza Rice had called Ms. Pearl to tell her in confidence about the very same confession back in 2003; it was also reported that year in The Journal and elsewhere. What’s more, the confession was suspect; another terrorist had been convicted in the Pearl case in Pakistan in 2002. There is no known corroborating evidence that Mohammed, the 9/11 ringleader who has taken credit for many horrific crimes while in American custody, was responsible for this particular murder. None of his claims, particularly those possibly coerced by torture, can be taken as gospel solely on our truth-challenged attorney general’s say-so.

Ms. Pearl recognized a publicity ploy when she saw it. And this one wasn’t subtle.

Read more...

YouTube - Jimmy Breslin: "Beware the ChickenhawksTOON" v30

YouTube - "Beware the ChickenhawksTOON"

AfterDowningStreet.org: Impeach George Bush to Stop War Lies, Deaths

Impeach George Bush to stop war lies, deaths | AfterDowningStreet.org:

by Jimmy Breslin
Newsday
Sunday, July 22, 2007

I am walking in Rosedale on this day early in the week while I wait for the funeral of Army soldier Le Ron Wilson, who died at age 18 in Iraq. He was 17 1/2 when he had his mother sign his enlistment papers at the Jamaica recruiting office. If she didn't, he told her, he would just wait for the months to his 18th birthday and go in anyway. He graduated from Thomas Edison High School at noon one day in May. He left right away for basic training. He came home in a box last weekend. He had a fast war.

The war was there to take his life because George Bush started it with bold-faced lies.

He got this lovely kid killed by lying.

If Bush did this in Queens, he would be in court on Queens Boulevard on a murder charge.

He did it in the White House, and it is appropriate, and mandatory for the good of the nation, that impeachment proceedings be started. You can't live with lies. You can't permit them to be passed on as if it is the thing to do.

Yesterday, Bush didn't run the country for a couple of hours while he had a colonoscopy at the presidential retreat, Camp David. He came out of it all right. He should now take his good health and go home, quit a job he doesn't have a clue as to how to do.

The other day, Bush said he couldn't understand why in the world would some people say that millions of Americans have no health insurance. "Why, all they have to do is go to the emergency room," he said.

Said this with the smirk, the insolent smug, contemptuous way he speaks to citizens.

People, particularly these politicians, these frightened beggars in suits, seem petrified about impeachment. It could wreck the country. Ridiculous. I've been around this business twice and we're all still here and no politician was even injured. Richard Nixon lied during a war and helped get some 58,500 Americans killed and many escaped by hanging onto helicopter skids. Nixon left peacefully. Mike Mansfield of Montana, the Democratic Senate majority leader, said on television that the Senate impeachment trial of Nixon would be televised and there would be no immunity. That meant Nixon would have to face the country under oath and if he lied he would go to prison. He knew he was finished as he heard this. Mansfield said no more. He got up and left. Barbara Walters, on the "Today" show, said, "He doesn't say very much, does he?"

The second time the subject was Bill Clinton for illegal holding in the hallway.

This time, we have dead bodies involved. Consider what is accomplished by the simple power of the word impeachment. If you read these broken-down news writers or terrified politicians claiming that an impeachment would leave the nation in pieces, don't give a moment to them.

It opens with the appointing of an investigator to report to the House on evidence that calls for impeachment. He could bring witnesses forward. That would be all you'd need. Here in the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon came John Dean. His history shows how far down the honesty and honor of this country has gone. Dean was the White House counsel. Richard Nixon, at his worst, never told him not to appear or to remain silent in front of the Congress. Dean went on and did his best to fill prisons. After that came Alexander Butterfield, a nobody. All he had to say was that the White House had a taping system that caught all the conversations in the White House. Any of them not on tape were erased by a participant.

The same is desperately needed now. Curious, following the words, an investigator - the mind here sees George Mitchell and Warren Rudman, and you name me better - can slap a hand on the slitherers and sneaks who have kept us in war for five years and who use failing generals to beg for more time and more lives of our young. A final word in September? Two years more, the generals and Bush people say.

Say impeachment and you'll get your troops home.

As I am walking in Rosedale, on these streets sparkling with sun, I remember the places I have been in the cold rain for the deaths of our young in this war. Rosedale now, Washington Heights before, and the South Bronx, and Bay Shore and Hauppauge and too many other places around here.

And in Washington we had this Bush, and it is implausible to have anyone who is this dumb running anything, smirking at his country. He sure doesn't mind copying those people. On his PBS television show the other night, Bill Moyers said he was amazed at Sara Taylor of the White House staff saying that she didn't have to talk to a congressional committee because George Bush had ordered her not to. "I took an oath to uphold the president," she said.

That president had been in charge of a government that kidnapped, tortured, lied, intercepted mail and calls, all in the name of opposing people who are willing to kill themselves right in front of you. You have to get rid of a government like this. Ask anybody in Rosedale, where Le Ron Wilson wanted to live his young life. His grave speaks out that this is an impeachable offense.

Gothamist: Mother of Captured Soldier Keeps Vigil in Queens...

Even though a Sunni insurgent group claimed yesterday that two captured U.S. soldiers had been killed, one of the soldiers' mothers hoping that her son is still alive. Maria Rosario Duran spoke to reporters outside her Corona, Queens home. She said, "I can't even imagine that he's not going to return alive, that I will never see him again."

The insurgents, who have been linked to Al Qaeda, allegedly captured Duran's son, Specialist Alex Jimenez, Private Byron Foulty and Private Joseph Anzack last month just south of Baghdad. They showed Jimenez's and Foulty's IDs on a video, but not the soldiers themselves. Anzack's body was found two week ago in the Euphrates River.

Jimenez was born in Queens and lived there for seven years before moving to Massachusetts. Duran has been keeping a vigil for her son and Foulty for the past few weeks. The Daily News' MIchael Daly was at her press conference and noted the "uncommon valor" in her faith.

This past Memorial Day, Mayor Bloomberg marched in Queens parades and asked people to remember four soldiers from Queens who have died in the Iraq war. Here's CNN's up-to-date list of U.S. & Coalition deaths, which includes 3,494 Americans.

Photograph of Duran outside her Queens home by Mary Altaffer/AP

We, The People...

John Edwards and people across the country in joining together to urge Congress to stand firm against President Bush.

LA Times: George McGovern: Cheney is Wrong About Me, Wrong About War...

The 1972 presidential nominee strikes back at the vice president for comparing today's Democrats to the McGovern platform.

By George S. McGovern, GEORGE S. MCGOVERN, a former U.S. senator from South Dakota, was the Democratic nominee for president in 1972. - April 24, 2007
###

VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney recently attacked my 1972 presidential platform and contended that today's Democratic Party has reverted to the views I advocated in 1972. In a sense, this is a compliment, both to me and the Democratic Party. Cheney intended no such compliment. Instead, he twisted my views and those of my party beyond recognition. The city where the vice president spoke, Chicago, is sometimes dubbed "the Windy City." Cheney converted the chilly wind of Chicago into hot air.

Cheney said that today's Democrats have adopted my platform from the 1972 presidential race and that, in doing so, they will raise taxes. But my platform offered a balanced budget. I proposed nothing new without a carefully defined way of paying for it. By contrast, Cheney and his team have run the national debt to an all-time high.

He also said that the McGovern way is to surrender in Iraq and leave the U.S. exposed to new dangers. The truth is that I oppose the Iraq war, just as I opposed the Vietnam War, because these two conflicts have weakened the U.S. and diminished our standing in the world and our national security.

In the war of my youth, World War II, I volunteered for military service at the age of 19 and flew 35 combat missions, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross as the pilot of a B-24 bomber. By contrast, in the war of his youth, the Vietnam War, Cheney got five deferments and has never seen a day of combat — a record matched by President Bush.

Cheney charged that today's Democrats don't appreciate the terrorist danger when they move to end U.S. involvement in the Iraq war. The fact is that Bush and Cheney misled the public when they implied that Iraq was involved in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks. That was the work of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda team. Cheney and Bush blew the effort to trap Bin Laden in Afghanistan by their sluggish and inept response after the 9/11 attacks.

They then foolishly sent U.S. forces into Iraq against the advice and experience of such knowledgeable men as former President George H.W. Bush, his secretary of State, James A. Baker III, and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft.

Just as the Bush administration mistakenly asserted Iraq's involvement in the 9/11 attacks, it also falsely contended that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. When former Ambassador Joseph Wilson exploded the myth that Iraq attempted to obtain nuclear materials from Niger, Cheney's top aide and other Bush officials leaked to the media that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent (knowingly revealing the identity of a covert agent is illegal).

In attacking my positions in 1972 as representative of "that old party of the early 1970s," Cheney seems oblivious to the realities of that time. Does he remember that the Democratic Party, with me in the lead, reformed the presidential nomination process to ensure that women, young people and minorities would be represented fairly? The so-called McGovern reform rules are still in effect and, indeed, have been largely copied by the Republicans.

The Democrats' 1972 platform was also in the forefront in pushing for affordable healthcare, full employment with better wages, a stronger environmental and energy effort, support for education at every level and a foreign policy with less confrontation and belligerence and more cooperation and conciliation.

Cheney also still has his eyes closed to the folly of the Vietnam War, in which 58,000 young Americans and more than 2 million Vietnamese died. Vietnam was no threat to the United States.

On one point I do agree with Cheney: Today's Democrats are taking positions on the Iraq war similar to the views I held toward the Vietnam War. But that is all to the good.

The war in Iraq has greatly increased the terrorist danger. There was little or no terrorism, insurgency or civil war in Iraq before Bush and Cheney took us into war there five years ago. Now Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism, a bloody insurgency against our troops and a civil war.

Beyond the deaths of more than 3,100 young Americans and an estimated 600,000 Iraqis, we have spent nearly $500 billion on the war, which has dragged on longer than World War II.

The Democrats are right. Let's bring our troops home from this hopeless war.

There is one more point about 1972 for Cheney's consideration. After winning 11 state primaries in a field of 16 contenders, I won the Democratic presidential nomination. I then lost the general election to President Nixon. Indeed, the entrenched incumbent president, with a campaign budget 10 times the size of mine, the power of the White House behind him and a highly negative and unethical campaign, defeated me overwhelmingly. But lest Cheney has forgotten, a few months after the election, investigations by the Senate and an impeachment proceeding in the House forced Nixon to become the only president in American history to resign the presidency in disgrace.

Who was the real loser of '72?

THE VICE PRESIDENT spoke with contempt of my '72 campaign, but he might do well to recall that I began that effort with these words: "I make one pledge above all others — to seek and speak the truth." We made some costly tactical errors after winning the nomination, but I never broke my pledge to speak the truth. That is why I have never felt like a loser since 1972. In contrast, Cheney and Bush have repeatedly lied to the American people.

It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation of international law, come under increased consideration, I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over.

Aside from a growing list of impeachable offenses, the vice president has demonstrated his ignorance of foreign policy by attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Syria. Apparently he thinks it is wrong to visit important Middle East states that sometimes disagree with us. Isn't it generally agreed that Nixon's greatest achievement was talking to the Chinese Communist leaders, which opened the door to that nation? And wasn't President Reagan's greatest achievement talking with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev until the two men worked out an end to the Cold War? Does Cheney believe that it's better to go to war rather than talk with countries with which we have differences?

We, of course, already know that when Cheney endorses a war, he exempts himself from participation. On second thought, maybe it's wise to keep Cheney off the battlefield — he might end up shooting his comrades rather than the enemy.

On a more serious note, instead of listening to the foolishness of the neoconservative ideologues, the Cheney-Bush team might better heed the words of a real conservative, Edmund Burke: "A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood."

Bob Geiger's Saturday Cartoon Roundup ...May 5th...

Bob Geiger's Cartoon Round-up...

Bob Geiger's Saturday Cartoon Roundup ...4/28/2007

Go to original cartoons...

Mark Fiore: "Veto Accomplished"...

The new animation "Veto Accomplished" has just been posted!

NEA Today: Uncle Sam Wants You...

As military recruiters continue targeting students, they’re increasingly trying to win the hearts and minds of educators.

By Cynthia Kopkowski

One of the U.S. Marine Corps’ newest “recruits” is running through the mud on Parris Island, South Carolina—the training depot where nearly 17,000 enlistees submit to a grueling 13-week boot camp each year. A second later, she scrambles up a 20-foot-high rope wall and launches herself over the top. The next morning, Bethany Deckard will tuck her cheek into the cold contours of an M16 and fire multiple rounds to practice “engaging” the enemy. For the Marines, just having Deckard at the depot is a victory. Even though she will never actually become a Marine, she interacts daily with hundreds of students who might. Deckard is a high school teacher, and that makes her one of the military’s most highly sought allies right now.

The Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force are working overtime to win the attention of teachers and education support professionals in order to reach their ultimate quarry: students. The Bush Administration’s announcement this winter that the Army and Marine Corps must increase their active duty ranks by 92,000 in the next five years means even more pressure on military recruiters to gain access to educators’ classrooms—where they’re not always welcome.

Educators, parents, and other activists are demanding restrictions on recruiters in districts in New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maryland, California, and elsewhere, and polls show the war in Iraq and calls for more troop deployments are opposed by a majority of the public.

While teachers have never been disregarded by the military, the idea of actively wooing them on a day-to-day basis “may have been more energized recently, given the political environment,” acknowledges Jane Arabian, the Department of Defense’s assistant director for enlistment. The Army’s School Recruiting Program Handbook reveals just how closely recruiters are now paying attention to educators—whom it calls “key influencers.” “Ensure an Army presence in all secondary schools,” the manual advises. “School ownership is the goal.” How best to do that? “Be indispensable to school administration, counselors, faculty, and students. Be so helpful and so much a part of the school scene that you are in constant demand, so if anyone has any questions about the military service, they call you first!” (See “By the Book,” page 37.)

Using teachers is “a very clever marketing technique,” says Allen Kanner, a clinical psychologist and researcher whose work in part focuses on military recruiting. In the last few years the military hired private firms, including those that specialize in marketing to children, to learn how to best gain a stronghold in schools, Kanner says. “Teachers are role models, and if they approve of something, then the students believe the whole school system approves of it,” he explains.

It’s the same thing you’ll hear from Curtis Gilroy, the head of recruitment for the Department of Defense. “Teachers are a significant influencer, there’s no question about it,” he says. “We just want the cadre of teachers, regardless of political persuasion or background, to speak about the military objectively.”

So while you may worry that students are tuning you out in homeroom, the Army thinks otherwise. “Before you can expect any type of assistance from school officials or be accepted by students, you must first establish rapport and credibility,” states the Army recruiting handbook. “You must convince [educators] that you have their students’ best interests in mind.”

That’s exactly what the Marines are hoping to do as they put the 80 or so educators from Louisville, Kentucky, and Richmond, Virginia, through their paces at Parris Island. Each year, they bring 12 groups of educators through the all-expenses-paid workshop, at a cost of roughly $57,000 per visit. The Army, Navy, and Air Force host similar programs. “We’re looking at those people on the fence, or more than likely, who are uninformed,” says Parris Island spokesman Lt. Scott Miller. “We’re just trying to inform them. Are we trying to win them? Yeah. We have a quota.” If recruiters successfully target the teachers first, then they have, Miller says, “another foot in the door, so to speak.”

In Tucson, Arizona, Rolande Baker had had enough of the feet in her and her colleagues’ doors. The special education and government teacher successfully lobbied the the Sunnyside School District Governing Board last year to severely curtail recruiters’ access to schools.

Baker was initially rankled by an ever-burgeoning number of recruiters interrupting students’ lunches, coming up to their tables, offering to buy them chips and nachos. After school, she’d see them handing out pencils and bumper stickers. Then the recruiters’ attention turned to Baker and her colleagues.

“They would put slips of paper in our mailboxes that said, ‘How would you like to have a day off from class? Let us come speak to your students,’” she says. “It would make me so angry, I would tear it up into little pieces.”

During the first three weeks of the 2005 school year, recruiters visited her school 38 times, says Baker. During that same period, college recruiters visited three times. Ninety-one percent of students at Sunnyside High are Black or Hispanic, and she believes that made her and her colleagues a particularly attractive target.

“It’s very insidious,” says Arlene Inouye, a speech and language specialist in Los Angeles schools and the coordinator of the Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools. “It’s become very clear that recruiters want to be an integral part of the school so that people will look at them and their position will not be questioned.”

Becoming an integral part of the schools includes the Educator Workshops on Parris Island, where Bethany Deckard and her colleagues gather for the four-day, behind-the scenes look at recruits’ experience there. Make that somewhat of a behind-the-scenes look.

While workshop participants settle into auditorium seats for a presentation by a gregarious colonel, who speaks about the Marines’ focus on character development, discipline, esprit de corps, and military bearing, a drill instructor a half-mile away is screaming through the grey morning at a recruit. A recruit who, on her 21st day of training, finds herself paralyzed with fear atop a wooden beam perched several feet above the ground. For nearly five minutes she wobbles, knees shaking, turning her stricken, damp face away as her drill instructor screams, “Your tears do nothing for me.”

For most of the educators, the emotional high point of the trip comes when watching two companies ending their training receive the revered Marine Corps pin at an event called the emblem ceremony, and then the next morning, seeing their stirring graduation ceremony. Many teachers wipe tears from their eyes during both ceremonies. Proud “ooh-rahs”—a trademark Marine cry—come from at least five former Marines in their ranks.

“I know kids who would benefit from the discipline and learning about the honor and commitment,” says Victor Smith, a math and special education teacher from Richmond. “Those who haven’t been exposed don’t understand.” Like the rest of the group, he snaps photos throughout the visit and plans to incorporate the experience into his classroom work in the coming weeks. Assistant Principal Donna Buzonas of Newport News, Virginia, says she was “shocked” to see how young the recruits look, but “it makes me proud that they’re instilling the right values in them,” she says. “If [my] kids have questions, I’ll be able to answer them.”

IN MANY DISTRICTS, THE QUESTIONS now revolve around how and where recruiters can operate. In Baker’s school district, recruiters now can come on campus only once a month. They meet only with students who request an appointment, and those meetings must take place in a designated area, not in the halls or classrooms. During annual registration, Sunnyside distributes a card that lets parents opt in on having their child’s contact information sent to the Department of Defense for recruiting purposes. The current No Child Left Behind provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act require that to get federal funding, schools must turn over that contact information unless parents opt out. Tucson’s more restrictive opt-in approach is the same one that NEA advocates. In 2005, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) introduced the Student Privacy Protection Act, which would amend NCLB to require an opt-in system.

Bethany Deckard wasn’t lobbying to keep recruiters out of her school hallways, but she also wasn’t likely to point students toward a recruiter. “Honestly, I was real leery and probably not encouraging it,” Deckard, an English teacher, confides quietly aboard the bus on the first day of her Parris Island visit. “It’s still hard for me. I was talking to one teacher here and she was saying, ‘I’m excited for my kids,’ and I’m thinking, ‘They could die.’”

By the end of her stay at Parris Island, Deckard’s opinion has evolved. As the bright marching tune of a brass band fills the hangar where graduation is about to begin, she reflects positively on her time on the island. “When I was watching the emblem ceremony yesterday, I just felt so proud to be a part of the United States,” she says. At this, her voice wavers. “I’m so grateful for the sacrifices they make.”

Send comments on this story to ckopkowski@nea.org.

By the Book The U.S. Army’s School Recruiting Program Handbook reveals that when it comes to reaching educators and students, little is left to chance. Some excerpts: "Recruiters must first establish rapport in the schools....Once educators are convinced recruiters have their students’ best interests in mind, the school recruiting program can be effectively implemented.” “Like the farmer who fails to guard the hen house, we can easily lose our schools and relinquish ownership to the other services if we fail to maintain a strong school recruiting program.” “Never rely on guidance counselors as the sole center of influence in the school. Cultivate coaches, librarians, administrative staff, and teachers, especially those whose subjects correlate with Army programs.” “Attend as many school activities as possible. Offer your Army training and experience, your sports and hobby knowledge, etc., as a resource to the school.” “Try to obtain a schedule of high school faculty meetings....A luncheon presentation of what the Army offers young people will enhance your relationship with the entire school faculty. Start with our shared goals for students of staying in school, off drugs, and out of trouble.” “Have something to give them (pen, calendar, cup, donuts, etc.) and always remember secretary’s week with a card or flowers.” “Offer your assistance in registration and any other administrative help you can give. Remember: You need all the blueprint information on your high school you can get.” “Deliver donuts and coffee for the faculty once a month. This will help in scheduling classroom presentations and advise teachers of the many Army opportunities.”

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