Possible way for WE THE PEOPLE to stop the war ???

[chknltl]

An army vet. fresh from Iraq called in this notion to a progressive radio show today. I thought it was brilliant and I intend to pass it along.

He suggested that those of us who are against bush's war policy do whatever we can to stop teenagers from enlisting in the military for the next 3 months as a form of Peoples Protest Against The War. He urged us that this was only to be done nationally for the next 3 months with the caveat that we lift the protest should bush change his course and start bringing our boys and girls home.

The beauty of this is it can rapidly deplete our military thereby crippling bush's means of continuing his war! The vet suggested this protest, if done in large enough numbers could stop the war within 4 months. He further suggested an extension of the protest if needs-be.

I know absolutely nothing regarding the dynamics of the ebb and flow of our military's population but this simple scheme sounds good enough to me. If this notion hasn't been bandied about already here in the DU then nows as good a time as any to start it.

Unless someone can point out the fly in the ointment, I urge everyone who reads this to start actively stopping teens from enlisting for the next 3 months. Let the kids know that this is a Peoples Protest Against The War! Let them know that should bush change his policy of continence of the insanity in Iraq then we shall stand down with our protest as well! At worst, you may have saved some children from a nightmare they can not possibly foresee.

Who knows...maybe for the first time in many many years: WE THE PEOPLE will be heard LOUD AND CLEAR! :patriot:

[Ian David]

1. Doing my part already, but willing to do more...

[MadMaddie]

2. The only flaw in this is that the military has lowered it's

standards so low that they can go to prisons to get offenders who want a way to offset their sentences. They are letting skin heads in, gang members in...and other criminals.

We have to get Congress to raise the standards again.

But overall I do think it is a good idea, I would like to stop the High School kids from going in.

[chknltl]

7. Perhaps if the Peoples Protest got big enough

Maybe it should include everyone, not just teens.

I feel teens should be more concerned with school and clothes and summer jobs and proms and well... whatever teens want to do. That period of their lives is PRECIOUS! It should not be stolen by bush's war! Joining the military right now buys them a ticket to a nasty nightmare. I talked a young lass at a Baskins and Robbins out of joining the army yesterday. I gave her some links to the horrors of Depleted Uranium Oxide Poisoning and asked her if she someday planned on having children of her own someday...

I am posting this here seeking my fellow DUers input but at this moment I see no reason why this Peoples Protest shouldn't get out to each and every high school across the nation.

[liberal N proud]

3. Would a shortage of recruits force the regime to institute the draft?

I am all for keeping young people from enlisting. Every time I hear a young man or woman mention joining, I try to persuade them to find something else.
But I fear that the regime would just resort to a draft. And we all know that all our kids will be fighting bu$h's war for his kids.

[chknltl]

9. a draft it would be to counter the WILL OF WE THE PEOPLE

Could bush stand up to it? We are in an election cycle...our reps are trying everything they can to GAIN our votes! Only the politically suicidal in either House on either side of the fence would support bush's "draft" as a counter to the will of WE THE PEOPLE.

[liberal N proud]

10. Who would stop him?

Congress is compliant with the regime and any uprising is could be tagged as terrorist activity.
The rich kids are going to go to war and the government doesn't give a shit about the rest of us.

[blues90]

13. we could get that recording of Ashcroft singing the eagle sores

And pipe that into a large sound system into Iraq , that may just end the fighting or at least become the main focus or all the gun fire .

[Wiley50]

4. I see Two, possibly Three Flies in This Ointment right off the bat

Bush would order the seizure of all assets of the protesters under his latest exectutive order
and possibly, their being charged with treason

And I see him activating a DRAFT

[sabbat hunter]

5. a draft

requires an act of congress.

[RC]

6. A simple statement and after a token protest, our congressgritters

would do little to nothing.

[chknltl]

8. Exactly! bush would then be at war with: WE THE PEOPLE

Do you really think he feels THAT powerful right now? Can you imagine how THAT would play out in the media? Can you imagine how our Congress Critters will respond to bush trying that stunt? It could rapidly escalate into a full scale Peoples Revolt!

[zonmoy]

14. he would be anyways.

I figure that when he starts the invasion he will use the resistance to his actions as the pretense to overthrow the last vestiges of democracy.

[chknltl]

17. I have not given up!

Maybe I am being silly, maybe all is lost and has been for a while now. I missed that memo! When I heard this notion on the radio today I was struck by it's simple elegance: Remove bush's primary tool for waging war by temporarily downsizing our military!

WE THE PEOPLE are far bigger than bush and if this simple protest got his attention in a big enough way that he felt a need to counter it he would in essence be going up against We The People PUBLICLY! With his poll numbers so low, with this being an election year he would have little to no support. I will wager he would have more support for another "immigration reform" bill than he would have for ANY counter to such a protest if it got that big.

The original author of this notion suggested We The People could stop bush's war in Iraq in as little as 4 months! I won't go that far, I am no psychic but I can see that We The People as a whole are damned fed up with bush's fiasco over in Iraq. I think they might go for something like this...(won't cost anyone a dime and may keep their loved ones alive a bit longer...)

[zonmoy]

21. it would be the question of how far are you willing to go

to stop this evil cabal. would those of the resistance to bush just allow themselves to be massacred without fighting back or will when the time comes to fight back do just that through whatever means necessary including taking any allies that also hate bush.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. A way for we?

Ay yay yay...

Us. A way for us.

[madeline_con]

12. I thought there was already a shortage...

and people were being deployed for longer tours, more often. Wouldn't this make it worse for them? :shrug:

eitred 4 speeling

[chknltl]

15. Recruitment balances deaths and retirements

If recruitment were dramatically curtailed then the military's population would go down equal to the curtailment. bush may try to extend those who are in theater to counter such a protest but I think he would do so at considerable peril to the repuke party as a whole. In an election year the goal is to gain votes, who among the repuke reps would back bush openly countering a popular peoples protest? If this Peoples Protest got so big it impacted how bush was waging the war any counter by bush would be an open invitation to: Impeachment!

Look folks, We The People sent a message last August when we took both Houses. That message has been ignored. Here is a simple Active/Passive protest by us which could get the worlds attention in a hurry....or we could continue to sit around and bitch about our spineless Democratic Reps and "hope" they will "do something". I am thinking that we should use DEMOCRACY in it's purest sense to force the issue instead. By doing this we remove the middle man, our "reps" and guess what, they won't be happy about it any more than bush will be happy about it but in the end if they want to actually "represent" us then they will have to back us!

[fed-up]

16. I've done my part, and will continue to do what I can

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=oid%3A43406


Up against the wall
Army uses chicanery to get student info

By Tom Gascoyne
More stories by this author...

This article was published on 11.03.05.


CATCH 22
Susan Sullivan and her son Sean say the Army was less than honest about its motives for bringing a rock climbing wall to campus Oct. 27. To climb the wall, students had to sign a waiver that asked for personal information that would be used for recruiting purposes. The U.S. Army leads card, according to the waiver, is explained in USAAC Regulation 601-X, which has yet to be published.
PHOTO BY TOM GASCOYNE
Leave those kids alone: Buried within the 670 pages of the No Child Left Behind law is a provision that requires public secondary schools to provide military recruiters access to facilities and contact information for every student--unless the parent has signed an opt-out form.

Susan Sullivan says the U.S. Army tried to pull a fast one on Chico High students last week when it erected a rock climbing wall on campus and then asked those who wanted to participate to sign a waiver and hand over a little personal information.

The school administration agrees--the Army was in the wrong and deceptive about its motives.

Sullivan, whose son Sean is a 17-year-old high school senior, knew that the recruiters would be on campus, Thursday, Oct. 27 as part of the anti-drug Red Ribbon Week activities. Last May, she said, Marine recruiters were on campus for Career Day using an inflatable fun house to attract student information. Under President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, the school must provide the military with student information or risk losing federal funding. That is, unless the parent has signed an opt-out form, which the school must provide.

Sullivan, who has signed the opt-out form, said she spoke to Principal Jim Hanlon last May and he agreed the military did not have the right to gather the information they were after by asking students to sign a "waiver."

This time around, Sullivan, a single mom with one child, was ready to take on the Army. She went to campus at about noon and saw the wall, an information booth and a line of students wanting to climb the wall. She said she told the next student in line that he didn't have to sign the form before he could climb on the wall.

Along with a release of responsibility, the form asks for full name, address, birthday, e-mail address, last four digits of the student's social security number, citizenship status and ethnic background.

...snip

(yes, I have permission to post entire article)

[chknltl]

18. Thank You

We can only be teens for so long. This part of their lives is being stolen by bush in his quest to steal Iraqi oil for his puppeteers! Being a teen means thinking about dating and High School Proms and College and SEX and fake IDs and etc. A teen should not have to worry if he or she is going to get blown up tomorrow!

There needs to be more folks standing in front of High Schools and telling it like it is. bush is stealing the flower of America and must be stopped!

This notion of "enlisting" our teens into an active/passive protest, one which asks them to hold off for the next three months on enlisting into the military, (if that is their intent), actually enlists them into the purest form of Democracy!

Again I thank you for what you do...I actively disuage teens from joining up too, not on the same scale but I know I have talked a few out of joining up. I'll continue to do so AND I'll get this notion of a nationwide protest out as best I can. I am not an organizer or a founder but I can post the notion in a lot of key places....

[calimary]

19. Hey, EVERY LITTLE THING! Every little thing chips away at it.

I like the idea of taking it a little further (and shoving it straight back in their faces in the process).

Y'know how the war-lovers and sympathizers and apologists all keep talking about "another six months" or "in six more months" - for example: "Well, we'll give it another six months and then we'll see." Or "give it time to succeed and then we'll reevaluate it in six months." Or "we'll take another look at it in six more months." It started with rumsfeld and one of his slick-talking sessions about how he expected the war would last "six days, six weeks, I doubt six months." And it's continued ad nauseam ever since, up to and including this current fucking "surge."

So how 'bout we throw that "six months" business back in their faces? "No possible chance of enlisting for another six months." Or - "well, we'll give it six more months and then we'll see - if I think it's a good idea to enlist. And then we'll see." And we can even say what we're doing: "Well, YOU sure do like this "six-months" business. You've been talking it up since before the war started. You seem to think that's a reasonable period of time. Well, SO DO I." You got your six months, I got mine. You're gonna do the six-months dance? So will I.

Any little thing is a good thing to keep chipping away at the war. We should be doing what the Xtian extremists have been doing since ralph reed first reared his ugly head - 30-some-odd years ago. Chip away at it from every direction and by any means necessary. Keep chipping away at it. If you can't get rid of it in one fell swoop, then get it with a thousand little nicks. The bad guys have done it to us women on the choice issue ever since Roe v. Wade. And look how they've succeeded. And yeah, it's taken time, but it's happened. Why aren't we doing the same thing??? ALL of us, in ways big and small.

I keep being reminded of that scene in, I think, the second "Jurassic Park" movie. It was a scene involving an antagonistic character who was out in the jungle a little way from camp. One of these pesky little dinosaurs started following him. He shooed it away with a sneer, and off it scurried. "That'll take care of HIM! Harrumph!" And he starts walking again. Soon enough, the pesky little dinosaur is back, following him yet again. But he has a friend with him this time. Big Bad-ass shooes them both away this time. He's a little annoyed, but he turns and continues. They return. Only now, there are three of them. He shooes them away again. They don't shoo away quite as far this time. He gets a little flustered. Resumes walking, a little faster and more in earnest. They start following him again. And they have a few more friends with them. He notices. Gets flustered. Sees quite a few of them coming after him now. Doesn't see the fallen log in front of him that he trips over. Hurts his ankle. Here they come. He gets up, limping now. They're almost on top of him. He really can't shoo them away effectively now, because many of them went through that before and aren't afraid of it anymore. He falls again, and all of a sudden, there are hundreds of them. Little bitty pesky dinosaurs. And he's become their lunch.

It all starts with little steps, from little guys. Teenagers too.

[chknltl]

20. labor day kick, cause I like kicking stuff on labor day

...well truth be told, I still like the idea of a nationwide teen boycott of our military services...
so far I've not heard any reasons strong enough to make me reconsider pushing the notion along further.

(I liked Calimary's addition of extending the boycott to 6 months!) So today I have passed this along to Randi Rhodes and Code Pink. I will further pass it along to Mike Malloy, Rachel Madow, Stephanie Miller and Tom Hartmann. That should take care of most of the Progressive talk radio hosts.

After that I'll need to find some nation-wide teen links to pass this along to, perhaps there is a "Young Democrats.Com" or somesuch. Well that'd be what I am doing on Labor Day...(my neighbors are killing me with their outdoor bar-b-que right now...whatever they are cookin up smells yummy! I may need to take a break and go over to...um..."complain")