Image by Wystan via Flickr
by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published June 21, 2016
May 22, 2018
For too long, the women of this nation have been complacent while our brothers, sons, husbands, and fathers are sent to kill, maim, brutalize, destroy and even die in defense of our alleged liberty.
Image by Lorie Shaull via Flickr
with Pat Elder
World Beyond War, Feb. 21, 2018
February 26, 2018
Part 1: Inside the U.S. Military Recruitment Program That Trained Nikolas Cruz to be “A Very Good Shot”
Democracy Now! on Feb 21, 2018
https://democracynow.org – Dozens of students who survived last week’s school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida have arrived in Tallahassee to push for new gun control measures. On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Florida House of Representatives blocked a bid to bring up a bill to ban sales of assault-style rifles in the state. The Florida gunman, a 19-year-old white former student named Nikolas Cruz, was a member of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program before he was expelled from the school. Cruz was also part of a four-person JROTC marksmanship team at the school which had received $10,000 in funding from the NRA. For more, we speak with Pat Elder, director of the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, an organization that confronts militarism in schools. He’s the author of Military Recruiting in the United States.
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
Sent to Dandelion Salad by The Anti-Social Socialist
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.” — Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket, Round Table Press (1935)
Image by Elvert Barnes via Flickr
by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Previously published Nov. 13, 2011
November 10, 2017
Let’s go back to the beginning of Veterans Day. It used to be Armistice Day, because at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, World War I came to an end.
Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr
Republished with permission from David Swanson at World Beyond War
by Pat Elder
World Beyond War, Oct. 28, 2017
November 1, 2017
More than a hundred mothers have contacted me over the years, alarmed at the relationships their teenaged children were developing with military recruiters at school. They wanted to know what they could do about it. They were angry, and they were worried.
Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr
Republished with permission from David Swanson at World Beyond War
by Pat Elder
World Beyond War, July 16, 2017
July 18, 2017
Ominous developments in three states this summer – Oregon, Texas, New Jersey, and one city – Chicago, provide a glimpse into the Pentagon’s new playbook to recruit soldiers from high schools across the country. In brief, the military has been engaged in a robust lobbying campaign to lower academic standards to make it easier to recruit youth.
Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr
Republished with permission from David Swanson at World Beyond War
by Pat Elder
World Beyond War
June 30, 2017
This year the Army’s goal is to recruit 80,000 active duty and reserve soldiers. The Navy is trying to sign up 42,000; the Air Force is looking for 27,000, and the Marines hope to bring on 38,000. That comes to 187,000. The Army National Guard will also attempt to lure 40,000.
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
Dandelion Salad
Originally published January 16, 2011
numoleen on March 11, 2009
War is a Racket by Smedley Butler is a famous speech denouncing the military industrial complex. This anti-war speech by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient exposes war profits that benefit few at the expense of many. Throughout his distinguished career in the Marines, Smedley Darlington Butler demonstrated that true patriotism does not mean blind allegiance to government policies with which one does not agree. To Hell with war.
Image by Ted Swedenburg via Flickr
Originally posted June 15, 2011
rushingfan on Jan 29, 2007
Directed by Josh Rushing, a veteran Marine Corps media spokesman, “SPIN: The Art of Selling War” is an investigative documentary that looks at the standard justification for going to war by the American administrations of past and present.
Image by AK Rockefeller via Flickr
by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
October 27, 2016
Officially, of course, the national bird of the United States is that half-a-peace-sign that Philadelphia sports fans like to hold up at opposing teams. But unofficially, the film National Bird has it right: the national bird is a killer drone.
Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr
by Pat Elder
worldbeyondwar.org
September 26, 2016
Remarks at #NoWar2016
Countering military recruitment in the nation’s high schools confronts an ugly mix of a distinctively American brand of institutionalized violence, racism, militarism, nationalism, classism, and sexism. It confronts the greatest problems in American society.
Image by Teacher Dude’s BBQ via Flickr
Blog post has been updated, please read: Women’s Draft? Sign Me Up To Abolish War by Rivera Sun + Feds Extend Deadline for Public Comments on Future Draft
by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Republished with permission from Peace Voice
June 21, 2016
For too long, the women of this nation have been complacent while our brothers, sons, husbands, and fathers are sent to kill, maim, brutalize, destroy and even die in defense of our alleged liberty.
Image by Kate Tomlinson via Flickr
with Abby Martin
teleSUR English on May 23, 2016
On Memorial Day, politicians will speak at ceremonies all over the country and repeat their favorite mantra: “Support the troops.” This pledge is hammered into the American psyche at every turn. But there is a hidden, dark history that shows that the politicians are in fact no friend to service members–but their greatest enemy. An easy way to prove this truth is to look at how they so quickly betray and abandon their soldiers after purposely ruining their lives, and even after using them as literal lab rats.
Image by Dean Terry via Flickr
with Chris Hedges
teleSUR English on Apr 4, 2016
In this episode of Days of Revolt, Chris Hedges interviews two veterans of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Michael Hanes and Rory Fanning. They lament the brutality of the American military presence, which they say creates the conditions for terrorism and fuels attacks in places like Brussels. They also speak out about the painful struggle of coping with PTSD, and the alienation faced by many soldiers when they come home.
Image by Truthout.org via Flickr
These videos may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
War – Part 5: Keeping the Old Game Alive-Conventional War
RonRbc on Jun 25, 2013
Part 5 of the award-winning 1983 series, written, produced, and presented by renowned Canadian historian Gwynne Dyer. This episode concerns the interaction of conventional and nuclear war, and how one becomes another.
