A Mother's Plight

Military Recruiter Accused of Sexual Assault of 6 Female Recruits—Points Out Why Recruiters Must Get Out of Our Schools! Jack Dalton
 
While taking a short break from the article I am in process of writing on, and about active duty war resister Carl Webb, and talking with my friend Doris Colmes (who fled Germany in 1938 with her parents to get away from Hitler and the Nazi’s) I read the following headline on the web site “Not In Our Name”—“Military recruiter Accused of Sexual Assaults ”
 
The article goes on to list all the 31 counts of sexual assault and rape this recruiter is now charged with. All of which took place over an 18 month period of time.

“Nationwide, military recruiters reportedly have been linked to at least a half-dozen sexual assaults during the past few years, since the creation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. This broad education law requires, among other things, that high schools give military recruiters greater access to students.”

I wonder how many more such instances of sexual assault by recruiters have taken place and gone unreported?  Why are we allowing recruiters on this nation’s high schools in the first place? Why are not more people in this nation outraged by this? Why have so many been willing to allow, what was supposed to be a bill about education (ha ha), to give military recruiters access to all information on and about all students on all high schools which receive federal funding? Why do we sit back and tolerate this government telling schools they will lose their federal funding if they do not work in cooperation with military recruiters?

Why do I persist in asking rhetorical questions?  That said, why have we allowed our nation’s high schools and the students of those schools to become the military’s primary source of “recruits” for the current U.S. military juggernaut?  

We have all sat back in silence for way too long and now we have a governing body, BushCo, that has created a military arm that now eats it’s young.

For years we have been inundated with stories and reports about the systemic problem of rape in the military. 19 investigations in the past 16 years have done nothing to stop that problem women in the military are confronted with. Now, today, with the environment of “anything goes” created by Bush and company, women will be sexually assaulted by recruiters in the nation’s high schools before they even get to boot camp. Is this part of “spreading freedom and democracy” the Bush cabal keeps articulating?

We and I mean we, all of us, really do need to do a lot more than keep having “meetings” to discuss what has to be done and just get busy. Openly and publicly and we had best to get busy the sooner rather than later. We do not need a lot of planning meetings to counter the recruiters. Here are a couple of organizations and their web sites that have a lot of good useable and current information we can all use in this effort, including brochures that can be downloaded—the only thing needed is people that will be willing to commit themselves to using the material and then get busy. We can use the in-between busy times to hold “planning meetings” but we must get busy with the anti-recruitment efforts now, today.

The more we wait, the longer we hesitate, the more young people will continue to be misled, taken advantage of, and now, sexually assaulted. This must be stopped!

American Friends Service Committee

http://www.afsc.org/youthmil /resources/Default.htm

Before You Enlist
http://www.objector.org/before -you-enlist.html

Quaker House: Anti-Recruitment  
http://www.quakerhouse.org /counter-recruiting-02.htm

Not In Our Name: Stop Recruitment Efforts in Our Schools
http://www.notinourname.net/ ~youth/arhome.html

Children Are Not a Commodity
http://www.unitedforpeace.org /article.php?sub=46&list=sub

The military spends about $3 billion each year to convince young people that enlistment will give them college money, job training and an alternative to working at McDonald's.
http://www.amsterdamnews.org /news/Article/Article.asp ?NewsID=54103&sID=4

Is The Army Focusing On Black Youths?
http://www.sbusja.org/sja _files/armyaction.html

Military Recruiters Out of Schools  
http://www.socialistalternative .org/justice40/9.html  

Anti-War Group Targets Military Recruiters on Campus
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com /local/210741_protest04.html

Should parents have the right to choose to protect a child from being targeted by military recruiters in school? Is it an inherent part of public school education to be pressured to sign an irrevocable contract and join the U.S. armed forces? http://www.thestate.com/mld /thestate/news/columnists

Jack Dalton is a disabled Vietnam veteran and co-editor of the Project for the Old American Century web publication http://www.oldamericancentury.org/

Mocking the media:

http://newsbreakers.org/

(See the videos)

DiAnne,

In a rare move of efficiacy, satire is not longer necessary against the media. They have become so ridiculous, they are now capable of satirizing themselves and have eliminated the middle man. Witness this exchange on Wolf Blitzer yesterday which I posted on the previous thread:

Aired March 4, 2005 - 11:59 ET
WOLF BLITZER: Up first this hour, Martha Stewart, ex-con. Having paid her debt to society, the hyper-successful entrepreneur bids adieu to a federal prison. And by all indications, she's poised to resume her stellar business career. [...] Mary, set the stage for us. Tell us what has happened since she arrived there.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, she's certainly getting her first taste of freedom after spending five months in prison. Earlier this morning, she came out. She's certainly not shying away from the cameras.

She told reporters that she's feeling fine, that she's feeling great. And she even offered reporters and photographers camped outside of her house some coffee and doughnuts. And she also shared a story about not having cappuccino in prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA STEWART, MARTHA STEWART LIVING OMNIMEDIA: And this is a funny. All (UNINTELLIGIBLE) asked the guards every day for a cappuccino. You know, just as a joke. And they'd come in with their cups of coffee and stuff.

And so I get here, and I have a spot for a cappuccino machine. And it didn't work. So I don't have any cappuccino.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn't have any cappuccino.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Want me to get you one?

STEWART: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn't have any cappuccino. The cappuccino machine does not work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Media ::

[...]
BLITZER: One final question, Mary. We saw the picture of her getting on the plane. She was wearing those tight, very fashionable jeans. She looked great. Her hair was excellent, as usual. Not the kind of hairdo we would expect someone coming out of five months in a prison to have.

Did she really lose a lot of weight? Is she in much better shape now than she was before? This is a 63-year-old woman. Take a look at how she looks. She looks great.

SNOW: Right. And, you know, she had that fashionable poncho on, as well.

[...]

BLITZER: Can Martha Stewart turn prison into a profit? Standing by live with that part of the story, CNN's senior correspondent, Allan Chernoff.

Allan, what's the answer? Can she turn this company around big- time? ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it won't only be Martha Stewart, but certainly the company learned a very important lesson while Martha Stewart was in prison. The television business suffered. The media business, the magazines, they all suffered. But one thing that actually held up, merchandising, Martha Stewart products.

So the company found that no matter what the public thought about Martha Stewart the person, people still had high regard for Martha Stewart products, for the brand itself. In fact, the CEO of the company has told me she believes that "The Martha Stewart brand is our single greatest asset."

So Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia now plans to build on that brand. They want to expand dramatically. They want to have how-to videos based upon the more than 1,500 hours of television footage from Martha Stewart's shows.

They also are thinking about home improvement products, such as cabinets, perhaps doors, windows, hooks. These are all in the works right now, all on the drawing board.

They're thinking even about the possibility of frozen food. Of course, Martha Stewart known very much for the foods.

But more immediately, we're going to see more products coming out of the company at Kmart, for example. They're offering a new line of five-star linens, some ready-to-assemble furniture. We have a picture of a bed, as well. Only $300, and it looks pretty nice.

[...]

BLITZER: Allan Chernoff reporting for us. Allan, I'm going to have you stand by, as well, because I'm going to bring you back later this hour. We're going to continue this discussion of Martha Stewart, now out of prison.

[...]

BLITZER: More now on Martha Stewart. With the pain of prison behind her, Martha Stewart gets ready to reconnect with her friends and family. Did prison life change her? Is the headstrong businesswoman perhaps more humble? Where does she take it all from here?

Joining us now on Stewart's next act, CNN's Mary Snow and Allan Chernoff, they're standing by live in Bedford, New York. That's outside of New York City at the Stewart estate. Live from midtown Manhattan Dennis Kneale of "Forbes" magazine, Keith Naughton of "Newsweek" magazine. They're at the Time-Warner Center. All of them have been covering this story very, very closely.

[...]

BLITZER: If you take a look at the boots she was wearing, they seem pretty snug. The ankle bracelet must be very, very modest. It didn't show any effect there, did it, Mary?

SNOW: Well, she hasn't actually put it on yet. She'll meet with her probation officer, she has to contact him by midnight on Sunday, and they're going to sit down, she has to sign an agreement, and at that point once that bracelet goes on, it has to stay on for the next five months. She cannot take that off.

[...]

BLITZER: Allan Chernoff, I want to bring you back, because in your earlier report this hour on our program, you said that her company wants to branch out into all sorts of areas. One of the most fascinating, frozen food. I take it she used to eat a lot of frozen food in prison that she would put in the microwave. Is there a connection, is there something going on that we don't know about?

[...]

BLITZER: Back again now with more on Martha Stewart. Our guests, CNN's Mary Snow and Allan Chernoff. They're standing by live in Bedford, New York. That's outside the Stewart estate. And joining us from Manhattan, Dennis Kneale of "Forbes" magazine and Keith Naughton of "Newsweek" magazine there at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan.

Let me start with you, Keith. The statement she released on the web, her prison experience, she said, was life-altering and life- affirming. Is there any indication she's going to become an activist for women's rights in prison?

NAUGHTON: That's what a lot of prison reform advocates would like. You know, she put out that letter while she was still in prison, imploring America to consider these 1,200 women she's incarcerated with, and in fact, all women who are in prison and look at sentences and look at the need for rehabilitation. So there's the hope that she steps forward as a prison reform advocate. But that's a delicate balance, too. You know, you also need the ability to show that you're moving on and that there is a new, reformed Martha, as well. So if she becomes too much of a prison reform advocate, that could, you know, sort of stick her in the past.

BLITZER: Do you agree with that, Dennis? Dennis Kneale of "Forbes" magazine. That it's a two-edged sword, if she starts becoming an activist for women's rights in prison?

----------------

Seriously, will someone please just shoot me now.

Oh man - they DID discuss boots. It is a fetish!

I've just finished the book "On the Road with Hillary," which a Republican gave me, in which one of her advance men talks about all the scandals & hypocrisy of that era (Gingrich, Henry Hyde etc.) so I'm not surprised at the trivialization and hypocrisy.

& as someone pointed out on the previous thread, Bush Jr. did essentially the same thing as Martha and nothing happened.

DiAnne and Spinnaker,

This coverage about Martha Stewart (an icon in US, totally unknown abroad) is pure nonsense. We're exactly in that showbiz tabloid stuff into which your news turned.

I was listening earlier to singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, who after living for years in France, returned for a while in America and she explained how appalled she was at the US media. Not only because little people read papers, but at the way they just sit in front of TV, generally FOX, and swallow everything they are told.

Easier to swallow a bit of Martha, than the mess that happened in Baghdad when the American troops shot at the just freed italian journalist.

As Beaumarchais wrote "There is no freedom of information, when there is no freedom for criticism".

Wow! Andree! I was just thinking of that quote by Beaumarchais this morning! Amazing.

When I was little we were required to read the newspaper before coming to the dinner table. A certain amount of knowledge was required to participate in the dinner conversation. Ideas were examined explored and debated.

I weep for the death of the critical mind in America.

Ridicule is not an acceptable substitute for reason.

Spinnaker,

I've just been double checking the report about the Italian journalist in my news and your news: totally different.
Out of what I read here in Le Monde, or LCI both quoting AFP: this was an ambush!
The Americans knew the Italians were getting close to the airport, they had already been through several check points, but they were not willing to see her getting alive out of the shooting.
The whole conversation was taped while the shooting was going on. She was talking with Italian President...then the Americans confiscated the cell phones.
Why all this? While investigating about Fallujah she discovered informations that might prove very embarrassing for the troops...
Have you read about it yet?

No way it has hit here yet. We are still getting the official "party line". They were speeding toward the check point, they ignored warnings, blah, blah, blah.I will put this word out to the blogosphere to check international news for reports and circulate it.

Do you have a (or better still, a few) url addresses for stories on this? Where is it hitting? Le Figaro, Le Monde?

I want to hear HER report the story all over the world.

Here is the link, that I didn't attach because it's in French, but I had mailed it to DiAnne previously because she can read...and check!

http://news.tf1.fr/news/monde/0,,3205999,00.html

I can read it, too. Feel free to post in whatever language you can find the truth printed in! I found this from Turkish Press

US attack against Italians in Baghdad was deliberate: companion
Published: 3/5/2005
Latest wire from AFP
Latest world news at 16h53
Mideast peace impossible without return of occupied lands: Assad
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that Middle East peace will not be possible without the return of Syrian land occupied by Israel.
More from AFP wire

ROME - The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on Saturday leveled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been deliberate.

"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home.

"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

click here for the rest of the story:

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38029

The Editor of Guilian's newpaper is calling it a murder.

Here's the BBC report, with an interview with Ms. Sgrena:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4321913.stm

"I was especially shocked because we thought that by then the danger was past," she told Italy's Rai radio.
--snip--
She denied US military accounts that the car was speeding past a checkpoint when it was fired upon.
--snip--
Asked if the car was going too fast when the US troops opened fire, she said: "We weren't going particularly fast given that type of situation."

This is a serious diplomatic incident between the US and Italy, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

Here's a link to the Belgian paper, Le Soir, which is essentially saying the same thing that Andree reported from tf1.fr...that her colleague, Mr. Scolari says that she had information and the American military did not want her to leave alive...
What a surprise that we haven't heard anything about that in our papers...nor will we ever...

http://www.lesoir.be/rubriques/mond/page_5179_308295.shtml

I noticed something about your headlines. They are big and catchy, when they report about triffle, and "politely vague" when they try to hide the mess (truth?) underneath.
That's why i went wondering if we were reading the same story? The headlines didn't match.

Posted by: Andrée - France at March 5, 2005 01:53 PM

Andrée - as we say here, "You've hit the nail on the head..."

Si c'est les nouvelles du Michael Jackson, c'est très grand sur la premiere page; mais quand c'est quelques chose comme la guerre, ou bien, la verité ce n'est pa la.

Re: A Mother's Plight

"When you have men and women who are in the family tree who are deployed to war, there is a chance that a branch might break," said Swann, whose eldest son, Henry, a sergeant, returned to the family home in Glenn Dale two weeks ago after his deployment ended. "Taking all the children from families and putting them in harm's way could stunt the growth of those family trees and endanger those families."

Beautiful framing for a "reasonable" argument.
Such a shame that it is not considered "reason" enough that each and every child is precious and irreplaceable, and that this mother has to resort to this "reasoning".

re. the international incident involving Bush:

I got this via email (probably originates on Kos)

The agent (who was killed) was on the phone to Berlusconi at the time of the shooting in Iraq! And they are saying that all checkpoints had been gone through....

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_16...

"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car
coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home.

"They were 700m from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

The shooting late on Friday was overheard by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office, which was on the phone with one of the secret service agents, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the cellphones," he charged.

"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.

As usual, if the American administration & American media lie to the American people, they will be completely confused as to why the rest of the world is so upset.

We are becoming as culturally isolated as North Korea, as socially retro as Saudi Arabia and as shunned as pre-Mandelan South Africa.

For Comparison:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/06/wirq06.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/06/ixhome.html

quite comprehensive account of incident involving Italian journalist