Military Liasons

[elfs]

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Military Liason. A lot of people have been hearing this term a lot in relation to the New Mexico story and wondering what it means. It means the same thing it's meant since WW2: an officer at the local recruiting office whose job it is to go to all of the high schools and liase with the school there, looking for recruits. It's not new, you had one (or at least your school district did) when you went to school, if you were in the U.S.

Of what you should be aware is the new powers military liasons acquired in the past four years. Ever since the Vietnam war, some schools have balked at allowing recruitment and JROTC projects on their campuses, and some school districts have had policies restricting the activities of military liasons on school property.

The No Child Left Behind act changed all that. As Donald Rumsfeld himself wrote in a letter to every school administrator in the U.S., "Congress passed legislation that requires high schools to provide military recruiters access to secondary school students and directory information on those students. Military recruiters are entitled to receive the name, address, and telephone listing of juniors and seniors in high schools."

If you do not want military recruiters sniffing around your kids, there is a simple way to do it. The ACLU has some sample opt-out forms that allow you to invoke Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act and keep your kids records out of the hands of recruiters.

Comments

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

One of my LJ friends was posting in her journal about draft/recruitment a short while back, which made me think about the topic. And my thoughts may not be terribly popular, but I think the only way to solve the issue is to enact a mandatory draft, every man and woman, no excuses or deferments except in cases of profound mental or physcial disabilities, should serve a stint in the military...BUT (and this is a very important "BUT") NOBODY who is drafted should EVER be required to go overseas. We should have a Foreign Legion for that, that's basically what the armed services are anymore and this is why folks won't enlist. It sucks collossally when someone signs on to be a National Guardsman/woman and gets sent to godforsaken hellholes like Iraq in the first wave of soldiers. Not everyone should be trained in combat, but there should be good bonuses for folks who are willing to sign up for combat/"basic training", and even better bonuses for those who volunteer for Foreign Legion duty. The overwhelming majority should just receive rudimentary training in firearms and get desk or labor jobs, freeing up everyone who's willing to do foreign service to ship out.

I don't think anybody joins the military these days who doesn't expect to be shipped out, and those who feel that it's too much of a disruption to their lives to risk serving foreign duty simply don't sign up. That's the case with me; I've been wanting to get into the Nat'l Guard since high school...but a couple of Colorado units are *always* on the front lines. I'll gladly take a pay cut to work a civilian-type job to aid the country in a time of need, even to allow foreign legion-types to mobilize. I won't get shipped out anywhere if I can possibly avoid it because I have a lot of animals in my care.

I think a taste of military service would do everyone good and our country good too. Maybe it would help reduce apathy in the citizenry to force them to get involved in a big way at least once in their lives. But just not if it entails being sent overseas into war zones by whatever idiot chickenhawk president happens to be in office.