Some little known provisions of the No Child Left Behind program make it easier for the military to reach out and touch more boots on the ground
"Buried deep in the 670 pages of the No Child Left Behind Act there is a provision which requires that public high schools give military recruiters access to facilities and also contact information for every student - or else face a cutoff of federal aid.) "
Read the rest here:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18225
Last night I left a comment on the board that I thought would bear repeating in my diary this morning, so here it is:
The New Draft that is being proposed would eliminate college deferments..Rangel has said that it would spread the burden of service across class lines....
I think were they to go back to a draft they'd almost have to do that....I grew up in a Blue Collar household during the Vietnam war....the only reason I didn't wind up in Vietnam was that I was a woman...that would not exempt me today....I saw my boy friends and my girlfriends brothers go off to Vietnam...I had a friend that commited suicide after he got his draft notice...kids today don't understand the depth of despair that gripped a lot of people who were forced into participating in something they didn't have a voice in choosing.....it was one reason we worked so hard to lower the voting age....unfortunately we didn't manage to do it until the draft was nearly extinct.....I believe the thinking behind Charles Rangels proposal..is to make Americans think twice about commiting this country to any war. A volunteer army is like an unsecured credit card ...one can get into all kinds of trouble with it, since there are no personal consequences..someone else has to eat the bill. I don't know if anyone has done a study of the number of conflicts we've engaged in since the service has been volunteer, but I'll bet there have been more of them. "The folks that have to fight are there because they've put themselves there..and if something happens to them..well it's their fault..they wanted to go"...I imagine that's the thinking in many quarters...a draft would make any adventuring overseas everyones concern. ..if Americans want to bet on war they will be wagering their own lives and the lives of their loved ones...I hope it doesn't come to a draft...but if people would at least roll the concept around in their heads...perhaps this November they'd vote as if their lives depended on it...because they very well might.