Category Archives: Militarism

Counter Recruiting in Rural High Schools – David Giffey VFP Madison

Veterans for Peace-Madison Clarence Kailin Chapter 25 | Nov 12, 2019 | David Giffey

Update for above picture:

If you look very carefully, you will see it says: “$1.67 billion” referring to military spending. It should be “trillion” instead of “billion.” I updated the sign as I must do often (because military spending and body counts get higher every year). But the tape gave out and the old “billion” was exposed. An alert teacher at Baraboo High School questioned it, and I have since corrected the sign. It now states that the military budget for 2020 is $1.67 TRILLION.

My counter recruiting visits to Southwestern Wisconsin high schools never fail to remind me of the constant need for a peace presence among young people. I am returned to the uncertainty and indifference I felt when I was young and let myself get drafted and eventually sent to the American War in Vietnam. By nature, youth is apathetic and dismissive of very important decisions, and overcome with a sense of bravado.

Today I spent the lunch hours counter recruiting at Dodgeville High School. Protocol requires that I remain at my table and wait for students to approach. Then I offer information about alternatives to the military and try to warn students that “the military is not just a job.” This is the 11th year our Chapter 25 has offered a scholarship for the essay contest winner at Dodgeville, and my 11th year counter recruiting in Dodgeville. The staff is very helpful and kind. The administration has changed in the past decade. Twelve years ago, it was necessary to consider legal action when Veterans For Peace was denied the right to counter recruit in Dodgeville High School.

The tradition of militarism in American culture is evident in the high schools I visit. Today a student asked me if I was “anti-military or anti-war.” I assured him that I was “anti-war.” How could I be opposed to people in the military, since I was once one of them, I asked. Within minutes two students who, I presume, were friends of his approached me and very politely told me they had enlisted. I reminded them that the purpose of all U.S. military branches is to wage war. I showed them copies of the contract they may sign which removes all their rights to self-determination. I wished them well. The war in Afghanistan is now in its 19th year. Neither of those boys were born when it began. They have, I believe, become inured to war by its constant presence.

Last week I read excerpts from Long Shadows: Veterans Paths to Peace at an event in Madison. In the book, the late Dr. James Allen, a longtime peace activist who was drafted into the War in Korea, recalled someone saying, “We’ve made a little progress in the last few thousand years because in the old days when the conquering army came in, they usually killed everybody in the city. Now we just say we want to kill the soldiers.”

Visiting high schools, offering scholarships for essays on the topic of peace, meeting young students, worrying about our grandchildren…these are important reasons for supporting the work of Veterans For Peace. Today at Dodgeville High I talked to half a dozen students who were interested in writing essays for our contest. I discussed war and peace with several teachers who were eager to read our literature and to learn more. I gave two students copies of “Addicted to War,” a graphic history of U.S. involvement in wars.

Later this week I’ll visit Baraboo High School. Next week I’ll be counter recruiting in Boscobel and Richland Center, and then Muscoda. I’ve already been to River Valley High School in Spring Green. Then I’ll start over again hoping to let young people know that the world will be more peaceful if they remain civilians after graduation.

As veteran Clarence Kailin, namesake of Chapter 25, said: “There’s a lot of work to do.”

“I had a good/busy day in Dodgeville HS during lunch hours today. I spoke with at least five seniors who are very interested in the essay contest, a couple of hecklers, and two seniors who said they have enlisted. But they listened when I told them about options. And several teachers had conversations with me also.” – David Giffey

What you should know before joining the military.

Website for Stop Recruiting Kiss Campaign

Chapter 25 counter recruiters have met with students at Boscobel High School for several years. This is the educational display set up in the cafeteria which encourages students to consider peaceful civilian alternatives to military recruitment. (Photo by David Giffey)

My Thoughts on Militarism – Brad Geyer

My Thoughts on Militarism: My words at the Good Noise, Good Neighbors Festival Oct 20, 2019

We don’t need the jets. We don’t need the base.

I served for 13 years in the US military, including 9 years here at Truax Field with the 115 Fighter Wing. During my time with the Air Force, I was deployed to the Middle East to combat zones and Southwest Asia five times.

Years ago, President and General Dwight Eisenhower warned Americans about the big money of the Military Industrial Complex. Through the years this corruption has gotten worse. Over the past 50 years, big business led by entities like the Chamber of Commerce and ALEC have purchased our legislators.

There are too many lobbyists in our government. A good example of a conflict of interest is the Secretary of Defense who is a former lobbyist for Raytheon. Raytheon makes at least four components of the F-35.

The activist courts have invented law taking away our ability to regulate bribery. With the decisions leading up to Citizens United, we now have a Military Industrial Complex on steroids.

Jimmy Carter and others have stated that the US is now an oligarchy. There are a few wealthy people, the 1%, that our government is serving. [Although, we could change that tomorrow if we had the will.]

Now is the time to talk about how much military assets we have. How much we spend on war and where we want to spend our money.

We don’t seem to be having an effective discussion on these questions. Instead we have propaganda about whether we support the troops or if we love the flag. Those are games being played. Those are not valid, logical arguments relative to the situation.

According to a poll from September, most Americans want more money spent on the domestic needs of people and less spent on the Pentagon.

Defending our homes and our constitution is very important, but we could do that and spend more money on…

More hospitals, clinics, staff, nurses and doctors for veterans and civilians
Clean energy
Giving teachers the tools they need
Art and music funding
Heating assistance and other help for the elderly
Processing refugees in a more humane manner
Dealing more effectively with substance abuse, trauma, mental health and PTSD
Protecting our natural world, our air, our water, our soil

A few numbers…

This is not defense. This is empire.

Some of our children, go to schools where the textbooks are 30 years old and dilapidated, while our government is buying weapons like the F-35 for one hundred million dollars, a jet that has a windshield made of sapphire and has a helmet that cost $400,000.

I think we can have a better balance. Part of that balance is pushing for laws to be enforced instead of bombs dropping so often, and we need a government that is not out there creating enemies for Americans.

Two priorities we should have in order to achieve real progress:
We need people to be involved and informed.
We need to get the big money out and the people in.

Book Review: Global Security System-An Alternative to War

BOOK REVIEW

Title: A Global Security System-An Alternative to War Authors: The Staff of World Beyond War and Members of its Coordinating Committee

Reviewed by: Randy Converse, member of Chapter 25, Veterans for Peace

This book describes the “nuts and bolts of a concrete alternative to war as a means of conflict resolution and the mechanisms to create a culture of peace to support such an alternative system. The sections that I feel are the most intriguing are:

Demilitarizing Security

Managing International and Civil Conflicts

Creating a Culture of Peace

Managing international and civil conflicts

In the Demilitarizing Security section, the authors suggest the ultimate form of national defense would be a nonviolent civilian defense force. This force would deter attacks by engaging in a variety of nonviolent tactics to make our country more resistant to rule by aggressors. A first step toward such a force would be to have a truly non-provocative defensive military posture. Such a posture would eliminate long-range weapons such as intercontinental ballistic missiles and militarized drones and phase out overseas military bases.

The section titled Managing International and Civil Conflicts includes ideas on creating nonviolent peacekeeping forces, reforming the UN, strengthening the International Court of Justice, and working toward a stable, fair, and sustainable global economy.

In Creating a Culture of Peace, suggestions are given on how to debunk war myths (i.e. war is inevitable and World War II was a “good war”). The importance of funding peace education projects is stressed. An example of a successful education project of the Chapter 25 Veteran’s for Peace is a scholarship program for high school youth that is based on an essay “Why war is not the answer”.

A Global Security System: An Alternative to War is a concise and quite readable section. It gives a detailed blueprint to present in outreach efforts when people say, ”War is horrible, but what’s the alternative?”

Read A Global Security System: An Alternative to War Free Online here.

View or download full PDF version.

First Edition from 2015 is here in multiple formats.

2015 Madison College Scholarship Application

A $1,200 scholarship will be offered for the upcoming 2015-2016 academic year to a Madison High School student who writes the best original essay on the peace topic “Why I Believe War and Violence Are Not the Answer”. (See scholarship application for more details.)

This scholarship is open to any senior student at a Madison public high school who will graduate in 2015. Applicants must plan to enroll at Madison Area Technical College (Madison College)–full-time or part-time–beginning the fall semester 2015, to be eligible to receive this award.

Applications must be postmarked no later than Saturday May 2, 2015.