Taking It to the Streets

The purpose of the military is to make war. It is not a job training program, it is not a college scholarship program and we need to explain these facts to young people in the most emphatic way.

The army is using hip-hop culture and Source magazine to recruit black kids and the promise of citizenship to lure Latino immigrants.

It is time to tell young people not to join up. Charles Rangel and others concerned about the disproportionate numbers of recruits of color say we should reinstitute the draft. We had a draft during Vietnam and it didn't keep the George W. Bush's of the world from getting cushy National Guard assignments while the poor went off to 'Nam. Of course, Bush didn't really serve. He was AWOL for one year, but that is another story.

If we we are going to fight against the use of our young people as cannon fooder we need to fight American militarism. We need to keep our country from intervening military and we need to tell our young people that it isn't worth it to join up.