TrueMajority is encouraging people to speak out against military recruiting through our schools, which is facilitated by provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act.  You can do this by sharing a song that gives voice to the concern, by registering your demand that information on your child not be released to recruiters, and by supporting a bill in Congress that would require that parents explicitly permit the release of their children's information to recruiters, rather than requiring them to opt out.

What are your thoughts and concerns about military service in the present situation?  Please send a note, and we'll share it here!

From Jill Acree:

One of the many concerns about this war is the subject of who will go? Who is currently serving in the military and who will be drafted? As I understand it, currently no members of Congress have children in the service. This separation tends to depersonalize its effects on the decisionmakers. Wealthy individuals and high ranking political figures have traditionally been able to keep their family members out of military service. For decades now the military has been recognized as a means for disadvantaged persons, persons of color and economically disadvantaged, to get out of their environments and make something of their lives. This leads to a disproportionate number of African Americans, latinos, and poor represented in our country's military.

Given the Presbyterian demographic of wealthy white, I have to ask: Are Presbyterians serving in the military? Are Presbyterian sons and daughters going to war?

Click here for one response.

And from Barbara Kellam-Scott:

Tuesday night, just before the President's speech, I attended one of the most powerful services of Worship I've known at a presbytery meeting. ... The preacher [was] Eileen Lindner, Associate General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, minister member of our presbytery (Palisades), and cherished friend. She preached on 1 Samuel 24 - as she put it, the men's room scene between David and Saul. In typical fashion, after we had some fun with the nature of Saul's vulnerability in that cave, she recalled the profound tenderness and respect in David's restrained act of simply clipping a corner off of the cloak of the man who was hunting him with 3,000 troops. I was especially struck that David said "No, he is the king anointed by God." Eileen challenged us to think how our superpower nation might settle for clipping the cloak of our great enemy.

In relating this experience to my sons and husband last night at dinner, I shared with them an illustration Eileen had used, the story of a man offered any wish of his heart, from God, in recognition of his life of righteousness. But because God also knew that the man's righteousness was marred by the enmity he held for just one neighbor, the angelic messenger warned that whatever prize the man chose, his neighbor would receive in double measure. He had a few days to consider. He thought through various forms of wealth and power, but could not stand the thought of his enemy winding up with twice as much, especially of the power. When the angel returned, though, he was ready: "I ask God to blind me in one eye."

My wise sons, 21- and 24-year old bohemians, had an immediate response. One of them said, "We should just drop a big blanket over Iraq." And the other, ever the artist, said "wrap it in something." And together we had the idea fully formed: commission the artist Christo to wrap the country! Reichstag pink would be nice, don't you think?

What are your thoughts and concerns about military service in the present situation?  Please send a note, and we'll share it here!

[2-4-03]

Jill Acree asked if Presbyterian sons and daughters will be going to war in Iraq. Yes, some will. Combat arms in today's Army is heavily populated by white, Asian and Hispanic soldiers. Understand this: there is no draft and there will be no draft. The draft which ended in the early 1970s operated under the auspices of a 1948 draft law written specifically to prevent citizens who had served in World War II from being drafted for anything other than a major war. The peacetime draft law was filled with deferment categories. An estimated 60-percent of all draft age males during the Vietnam War qualified for some kind of deferment from student, to only son of a dependent parent, to school teachers to some agriculture workers. Contrary to popular myth, the majority of combat deaths in Vietnam was among volunteers not draftees. Because there was no declaration of war during the Vietnam War, the 1948 draft law governed conscription.

Today America's armed forces are composed entirely of volunteers. Army volunteers either go into the combat arms branches of Infantry, Armor, Artillery or Aviation, which offer the College Fund, or they go into combat support branches like logistics and food services. Combat arms is attractive to Whites, Hispanics and Asians intent on serving four years and then leaving the service for college. African Americans, in many cases (not all), chose combat support because they are looking for a career in the military, not an avenue to a higher education. Additionally, the Army cannot go to war without calling up portions of the National Guard and Reserves. It was redesigned that way after Vietnam so that, in the future, the President would have to call upon American citizens to serve in time of need.

Finally, the American military of today is not the Industrial Age institution that could be expanded quickly by conscription. It depends on high tech weaponry and combined arms operations. Soldiers are highly-trained and extraordinarily capable people. Furthermore, the industrial base to support today's armed forces is far more diversified and complicated than was that which supported the military a generation ago. It would be virtually impossible to expand it rapidly enough to support a conscript force. From the days of the Levee en Mass to Vietnam, the draft basically put people in uniform for attritional warfare. Today's armed forces focus on precision not on attrition.

When the United States goes to war with Iraq, our armed forces will win quickly and decisively. Our men and women in uniform could use your support, and if any of you good Presbyterians can make the grade, your Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps offer excellent opportunities for selfless service to God, country and your fellow man.

Very Respectfully,