Protesting USMC recruiters at UC Berkeley

A soldier by definition is a killer, a murderer, all around the world. The military, regardless of which branch, teaches a soldier/sailor to use a gun to kill other human beings. War is about murdering human beings. Your chant should be Murderers, Off Campus and Get off Our Payroll too! I can assure you, if there is a draft, there will be thousands protesting, and these murderers will not dare show their ugly face, regardless of the fact that UC is required to allow them on campus. I remember the protests against the Vietnam War; we ran these stinking murderers off campus all across the nation. Keep up the good work, and remember to call them murderers.

Soldiers gave you your freedoms that you now enjoy. Say what you want (that's the point) but you happen to be 100% wrong (and rather immature).

Article 137 - 'Official DoD Policy Concerning Homosexual Conduct' states that "a person's sexual orientation is considered a personal and private matter, and is not a bar to service entry or continued service..." but, it does state that "[b]Homosexual conduct[/b] is grounds for barring entry into the Armed Forces,..."

I am sure that the Marines will somehow muddle through without your advice. And I'm sure they'll do just fine without your presence in the Corps.

recruters are there because are cowards, can't do the regular military life, and can lie proficently. they are restricted by orders and their own signitures from telling the truth about military life, the recall till age sixty, being guinia pigs for the pharmacudical companies. etc. by allowing the cops to threaten you with arrest if you protest their presence they arer violating their oath to uphold and defend the constitution. now how can we trust the rest of the government???

There could have had lots of people if there even a little outreach to the community. 3 suggestions: 1. Post events here on indybay, and on san francisco indymedia. 2. Notify Direct Action to Stop the War 3. Notify Global Exchange.

I’ll have you know that my recruiter took his special duty because his wife’s father was on his death bed and there is no base close to where he lives. He was on Humanitarian orders. A lot of people who do recruiting work do it for similar reasons. For example I met a guy yesterday who wanted to move to a specific place and there is no other way to move there because there was no AFB. He was a recruiter for two years and now he does his regular job because he is perfectly capable just like every other recruiter. An old friend of mine was a marine recruiter and because of that he was exempt from deploying but decided to any ways because he had a moral belief that he needed to be there and got himself killed while he was defending their new freedoms. I just think you have the whole image wrong. No one wants to be a recruiter but no one wants to not meet their quota either.

I looked it up in the dictionary, that not the definition of soldier. if you were involved in the draft protests grandpa, get a life. Move on, the 60's are over. or are you another wannabee living in fantasy land? Never did much with your life, angry that you're such a disappointment to yourself? But hey, you recycle, buy hemp clothes and fight the man. Sounds like masturbation. keeping yourself busy, but not really accomplishing anything. You hate the military for what they do? I hear Sudan is very loving place to be. Or maybe Algeria. I can give you more places that the US military is not at. Lots of places. but you seem to really like your neighborhood. The one without genocide and female circumcision. I guess that makes you a leech. Something feeding off the body but not really producing anything except a wound.

"A U.S .military recruiter, humanitarian" What a crock of shit. I almost said that a humanitarian military is an oxymoron. But then i thought that there could be a humanitarian military, like the one who will one day beat your ass.

There is nothing wrong with barring homosexuals from the military. Its all about barracks. If I joined the military I wouldn't want a homosexual sleeping in the bed next to me.

And there might be the thought that the gays could have their own barracks. I actually think that this might work IF it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to incorporate into he military system.

So why don't you go somewhere that the military IS, like Iraq or Afghanistan? I hear they got lots of great things in those places, like daily car bombings, kidnappings, drug lords, and ex-Baathists in government positions. The fact that we're in Iraq looking for non existant WMD and keeping Bechtel's profit margins safe means that we can't do anything about Sudan. But that's ok, right? Cause you just have to have cheap fuel for that SUV.

But hey, you trolls just keep on trolling, and we'll keep trying to kick the recruiters off campus. You're really very amusing and good for many many laughs.

You anti-war/anti-military activists are a bunch of ignorant dolts. What do you think blocking recruiters is going to do for your anti-war effort? Absolutely nothing, thats what, you are wasting your time. Military members are just doing thier jobs, policy enforcers. We dont decide to go to war, those decisions are made at a level far above us, the policy makers make that decision. We took an oath to serve and protect and follow the order of those appointed over us. The military will always have enough people to complete any mission at hand, be it through normal recruitment, or through a draft. You guys are pissing into the wind. You are not making a difference at all.

NEW YORK — The Marines didn't have to recruit Greg McCullough. He signed a promise to enlist last year, while he was still in high school. But now McCullough has had second thoughts, and he's talking to a different kind of recruiter.

Jim Murphy is a "counter-recruiter," one of a small but growing number of opponents of the Iraq war who say they want to compete with military recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people.

"I don't tell kids not to join the military," says Murphy, 59, a member of Veterans for Peace. "I tell them: 'Have a plan for your future. Because if you don't, the military has a plan for you.' "

Since the advent of the all-volunteer military three decades ago, the armed services have used an array of tools, from recruiting in schools to TV advertising, to successfully sell careers in the military. But with ground troops in Iraq still under fire, the Army and Marines are struggling to get enough enlistments.

The armed services need many recruits each year — the Army and Army Reserve alone need more than 100,000 — and less than 10% come knocking on the door. The rest must be recruited.

Anti-war activists such as Murphy charge that to fill their quotas, some military recruiters make promises they can't guarantee, such as money for college or training in a particular specialty, and give misleading descriptions of military life.

Murphy says high school graduates don't need to join the military to learn a skill, pay for college, see the world or learn discipline.

Building a network

Counter-recruiters formed a national network at meetings in Philadelphia in the summers of 2003 and 2004. They range from Vietnam War veterans, such as Murphy, to high school students trained to talk to their peers about enlistment.

The American Friends Service Committee, one of several peace groups opposed to what it calls "militarization of youth," has prepared a brochure titled Do You Know Enough to Enlist? In a tip of the hat to the opposition, it's deliberately designed to look like a military recruiting brochure.

Using a 1986 federal appeals court decision that supported the rights of draft registration opponents to equal access to students, the Los Angeles Unified School District teachers union has helped get counter-recruiting into some schools regularly visited by military recruiters in the nation's second largest public district. The counter-recruiters make public address announcements, distribute literature, show documentaries and give classroom presentations.

In the San Francisco area, members of a group called the Raging Grannies dress up in flamboyant old-lady attire (big hats, long, flowered dresses) and visit high schools. They offer a selection of political buttons and make their pitch while students are choosing. Sometimes the Grannies sing peace songs and dance.

"When you kick up your heels, it gets their attention," says Ruth Robertson, a 52-year-old Granny.

But in most places, the contest between military recruiters and counter-recruiters is a mismatch. The former are full-time, uniformed servicemembers; the latter are volunteers working on a small budget, if any.

While military recruiters often enjoy free rein in high schools, anti-war activists say it's difficult just to get in the door.

Off school grounds

Eric Peters is an anti-war organizer in Chicago, where most public high schools have Junior ROTC programs. He says some administrators think counter-recruiters are unpatriotic, and others fear parental or public criticism. As a result, his group must distribute fliers off school grounds.

"Where the need is greatest, it's hard to find groups committed to go into schools," says Bob Henschen of the Houston Action Committee for Youth and Non-Military Options. He says it's so hard to get permission to enter schools that he won't say where his group has access. He says he's afraid publicity would jeopardize the arrangement.

Nationally, says Maj. Dave Griesmer, spokesman for the Marines' national recruiting command, counter-recruiters aren't much of a factor: "We don't spend a lot of time thinking about these people."

A change of mind

Jim Murphy does not look like a recruiter of any kind. His untucked shirt covers a pot belly, his gray hair reaches his shoulders, and he favors blue jeans and windbreakers. But he has two credentials for counter-recruiting: He's a high school administrator who knows how to talk to kids, and he's an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam in the mid-1960s.

When Greg McCullough met Murphy, he had already joined the Marines' Delayed Entry Program, which allows high school students to sign up for the Corps before graduation.

McCullough seemed a perfect candidate. He was a member of the Junior ROTC honor guard at his Brooklyn high school. He loved everything about the Marines, from the lore to the uniform. After being rebuffed twice because he was too young, McCullough passed a physical and an entrance exam last June.

But McCullough says he has concluded, after talking with Murphy and other veterans, that military life is not for him.

For one thing, Murphy helped convince him that he could go to college to pursue his interest in criminal justice, and that there was no guarantee he'd get his request for assignment to military police. For another, he's worried about combat in Iraq.

Murphy told him that even for Americans from the most violent neighborhoods, combat is a shock. "It's gonna change you forever, and not necessarily positively. Think of all the civilians killed in Fallujah. You're gonna see something like that for the rest of your life," he told him.

"Poor kids listen to recruiters because they're scared about what's going to happen to them," Murphy says. "They know they need to get out of the neighborhood, but they're afraid to leave the corner. In the military, they know they won't have to make any decisions for four years, and they'll make their parents proud."

But McCullough had signed up for the Delayed Entry Program, which the Marines told him was a binding commitment, and which Murphy told him was not.

Murphy gave him a form letter to send to the commander of the Marine recruiting station, saying he'd changed his mind and was going to college. Murphy told McCullough that the armed services don't consider recruits to have joined until they go to basic training — "until they shave your head," as he put it.

People like Murphy annoy Maj. J.J. Dill, commander of Marine recruiters in metro New York. "These counter-recruiters don't know what they're talking about," he says. "But saying that we're tricking and lying, that certainly has an impact on a young person. A lot of them are influenced by these counter-recruiters or by negative media coverage (of Iraq)."

Discussing their concerns

When he gets a form letter like the one Murphy recommends, he says, "We call the recruit in and talk about it: 'What's your concern? What's changed?' We generally have a good success rate at turning them around." But, he adds, "We're not going to force anybody to go to (basic) training. I will discharge them."

McCullough, 19, knows he'll get the call, but says it won't do any good. He's going to attend John Jay College and major in international criminal justice and Arabic.

He says he appreciates Murphy's assistance: "Jim showed me the options."

This school year, Murphy says he'll counsel about 20 students. He's proud of his record — he says that four years ago he got six students to change their minds about joining the Marines.

But, he adds, "I don't always win. I lose a kid for every one I get into college or a union (training) program. I've got one in Iraq right now."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-07-counter-recruiters_x.htm

the wounded a liability. No one can tell what they might say, and conspicuous dismemberment is bad for recruiting. . . .
FULL ARTICLE AT
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1717229.php

Soldiers murderers? what the F*** ever! how could anybody call a marine or soldier a murderer? our military members die to make sure u idiots have the freedom to say your stupid sh** on here!! would u call the men and woman who died in world war II murders? would u call the people who died in the revolutionary war murders, when they fought to establish this great nation? And why would u want to bar recruiters from universities and high schools? its up to the student to make that decision to enlist or not for themselves! not for a bunch of fuc*** up hippies to brain wash u into beliveing that the military is evil and trying to corrupt our nations youth and send them to die. u people dont relize what your even talking about! u want peace? well peace on this planet only exist about 5% of the time around the globe! if it wasnt for the United States Military we would be just another third world country probably under a dictatorship of some sort, and you people wouldnt have the right to say shit about anything! And if you did you would be killed! Our countrys military is whats keeping the united states a great nation free from opression! You should be thanking those people in uniform that give you the right to put them down and belittle them! because without them you wouldnt be able to say shit about anything! you hippies are wasting your time, there will forever be a United States Marine Corps and there will always be brave individuals out there that will make the choice to become a United States Marine!! You people need to get a life! In my opinion one single 17 year old kids decision to join the Corps is a greater achievment than any of you protersters in your life will accomplish!