2000 US Soldiers Dead in Iraq For What? Mother Protests Recruiters at High School

CNN reports that the 2000th American soldier was killed in Iraq today, since the US attacked and invaded Iraq in March 2003.

As of yet, the American public hasn't been given a clear and compelling reason for the US attack and occupation of Iraq. In fact, just last Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recited a brand new reason......Rice claimed that rebuilding the entire Middle East has been the Bush Administration's mission ever since 9/11.

Of course, it's now widely acknowledged that the Bush Administration desired to go the war with Iraq (see The Downing Street memos) ; interpreted information with an eye toward finding excuses for such a war; and vilified anyone who presented contradictory info...such as Joseph and Valerie Plame Wilson.

But what about the soldiers and their families? They're the true pawns and victims in this directionless debacle in Iraq. 2000 US soldiers dead, and for what?

It''s no surprise that the US Army, and most branches of the armed forces, have missed recruiting quotas for 2005. Virtually no one wants their loved ones...their sons and daughters, husbands and wives...to be mere cannon fodder for Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice neocon goals of remaking the world in the US image and to control Middle East oil.

The Bush Administration, however, refuses to institute the military draft for two reasons.....1. They know it would trigger widespread anti-war protests; and 2. They don't want to draft the children of wealthy families, including (and especially) their own families.

So the US armed forces aggressively labor to entice high school teenagers. I received permission to share one mother's anger at her recent experience with the US military on her child's high school campus....

From blogger Kate (in Boston) at Cider Press Hill on October 22, 2005, "This morning I learned that the United States Air Force Band of Liberty ensemble, Afterburner, out of Hanscom AFB, visited the high school yesterday for an assembly program. Apparently they were pretty good and tried to appeal to the younger set, fairly successfully.

However, during the program, Air Force personnel circulated through the student body passing out recruiting material, along with pens and hats and lanyards and coffee mugs. Their recruiting table was set up by the door.

Now that irritates the living crap out of me. It’s not enough that the school is obligated to hand over the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the senior class to military recruiters and recruiters are parked in the lunch room on a near daily basis, but now this?

A cultural music event with a little injection of red, white, and blue is okay, but dammit, quit with the intensive recruiting stuff. This drives me nuts. I don’t send my kid to school so the military can relentlessly recruit a captive audience on school time. I strenuously protest!!"
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Are you listening, President Bush? If you won't send your daughters or nieces and nephews to Iraq, then leave our children alone, too! And stop interfering in their education so military recruiters can pester them at school!

If you're unaware that the much-vaunted No Child Left Behind educational legislation made legal a hidden Bush agenda to permit military recruiters on high school campuses, be sure to read my article, Army Uses Aggressive Tactics to Recruit Teenagers - Military Recruiting on High School Campuses and at Homes.
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Related Articles -- NEWS FLASH! Bush Administration Has Brand New Reason for Iraq War
-- The Downing Street Memos - What Are They? What Do They Mean?
-- Iraq and Military Statistics, at September 2005
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