On the Duty to Counter Recruitment
    By Camillo Mac Bica
    t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

    Wednesday 07 March 2007

    Counter recruitment is a strategy for bringing attention to deceptive recruitment practices and to the immorality and illegality of the war in Iraq. Its ultimate goal is to discourage enlistment into the military, primarily through counseling and educating prospective recruits and by denying recruiters access to our schools and to our children.

    Let me begin by saying that counter recruitment is motivated neither by hatred of America nor hatred of the military. Rather, it is inspired, first and foremost, by love, like that of a responsible parent who realizes that, besides praise and approval, sometimes love and responsibility require providing direction and even correction to a child who has gone astray. Further, it is motivated by an awareness of a moral and civic responsibility to oppose immoral and unjust wars, and by a sensitivity and concern for the plight of war victims and for the young men and women who are dishonestly recruited into the military and asked - no, required - to fight, kill and die unnecessarily.

    Although it is beyond the scope of this essay to argue the issue at length, the preemptive invasion of Iraq, a sovereign nation, is clearly a violation both of international and moral law, based as it was on misinformation, faulty intelligence and lies. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was not the mastermind behind the events of 9/11, nor was he harboring al-Qaeda terrorists. Further, since it was never intended as a war to save the Iraqi people from mass slaughter, there was no ongoing or imminent genocide. Neither can it be justified as a humanitarian intervention. It is a war not of necessity, nor of last resort, but of choice.

    As we begin our fifth year of occupation, with the situation in Iraq continuing to degenerate into sectarian violence and civil war, it is clear as well that a military resolution of the debacle is impossible and that our continued military presence in Iraq merely serves to exacerbate the turmoil and violence.

    Even were there a glimmer of hope for a successful military resolution, to continue to wage, perhaps even to escalate, an illegal and immoral war and occupation to finish the job and achieve victory because it is in our national interest to do so, or because to admit a mistake or a crime of aggression would negatively affect our nation's prestige and standing in the world and devalue the sacrifices of those who have already suffered and died, makes no moral sense. It is like arguing that a rapist must persevere in his assault, perhaps even escalate his violence and kill his victim and eye witnesses, because it is in his interest to eliminate anyone who could identify him, or because his reputation as a bully and a thug would be diminished were he to admit a crime of aggression and cut and run. Further, to continue to wage an immoral and illegal war despite recognition of its unjustness indicates a wanton disregard for the dictates of morality and international law.

    Such criminal behavior, arrogance and hypocrisy are the characteristics of a rogue nation. They bring no credibility, prestige or standing in the world - only disdain, animosity, hatred and righteous indignation. Nor do acts of aggression bring glory or vindication to those already killed or wounded in battle. Justice and morality require that an immoral war be ended immediately; that the aggressors possess the moral courage to acknowledge their crime; that they make retribution to the victims of their aggression, and apologize to the citizens of the aggressed nation and the rest of the world community for their transgression.

    Given the dangerous world in which we live, maintaining a proficient and well-trained professional military is prudent. However, faced with the reality of increasing recruiter wrongdoing and unscrupulous enlistment practices; of a continuing, even escalating, illegal and immoral war; of a president who has contempt for, and arrogantly ignores, the Constitution, international law and treaties, the recommendations of his military leaders, the advice of Congress and of historical allies, and most important, the will of the American people, prudence must give way to the dictates of morality and justice. Prudence must give way to the dictates of morality and justice.

    Consequently, when our beloved nation has lost its moral compass, when alternative means of conflict resolution have not been creatively explored, when our youth are aggressively recruited through deceit, misrepresentation and/or coercion to kill and be themselves killed or maimed unnecessarily, and the military becomes, not an instrument of national defense or deterrence, but of aggression, oppression and murder, it is not only permissible, it is morally required, that we counter recruitment.

    This obligation to counter recruitment requires that we protect those most vulnerable, impressionable young people in our high schools and colleges and the underprivileged who see the military as their only alternative to poverty, crime and unemployment from being enticed, seduced, brainwashed and deceived into becoming complicit in crimes of aggression and cannon fodder for corporate war profiteers and opportunists. Therefore, we are morally obligated to remove recruiters from our schools; rescind the No Child Left Behind Act's military recruitment provision which requires schools, in order to receive financial assistance under the act, to provide military recruiters with students' contact and other information; and to inform prospective recruits and their parents of the realities of military service, the horrors of war, the immorality and futility of the war in Iraq, and of other educational options and employment opportunities available to them other than by joining the military. I doubt this information is contained within a recruiter's motivational packet of hats, tee shirts, bumper stickers and violent video games.

    In conclusion, the duty to counter recruitment is not absolute but situationally relative. Given the unethical and unscrupulous practices utilized by recruiters to meet their quotas, the immorality and illegality of the Iraq War and occupation, the needless sacrifice of thousands of American soldiers and Marines, the unconscionable killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars that could have been better spent elsewhere, it is clear that counter recruitment is a moral and civic duty. To do anything less would be unpatriotic - nay, treasonous and morally irresponsible.

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    Camillo Mac Bica, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. As a veteran recovering from his experiences as a United States Marine Corps Officer during the Vietnam War, he founded, and coordinated for five years, the Veterans Self-Help Initiative, AKA the HOOTCH Program, a therapeutic community of veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Brooklyn. He is a long-time activist for peace and justice, a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and a founding member of the Long Island Chapter of Veterans for Peace. His publications include "The Mythologizing of War from Vietnam to Iraq," in The Humanist Magazine, March/April 2006.