Campus Resistance: Students Stage Counter-Recruitment Protests Across the Country

We speak with Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) who is backing a bill that would make it easier for parents to block military recruiters from gaining access to their high school-aged children. The bill seeks to amend a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act that requires school districts to provide the Pentagon the names, addresses and phone numbers of every student in the school.
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Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the launch of the Iraq invasion. Two years ago, on March 19, 2003, the United States began dropping bombs on Iraq, while thousands of US and British forces began pouring across the country's borders.

Since then, as many as 100,000 Iraqis have died and an unknown number have been wounded. Over 1,500 American soldiers have been killed and some 20,000 medically evacuated.

Two years after the launch of the invasion, the occupation continues. Some 150,000 US troops still occupy Iraq with no clear withdrawal date in sight. Meanwhile, the so-called Coalition of the Willing continues to shrink. This week, Italy announced it will begin withdrawing its troops leaving only three nations besides the U.S. with have more than 1,000 soldiers in Iraq.

And for the first time in a decade - the Army and Marines have missed their recruiting targets for two consecutive months. Part of the reason for the drop is that African American recruits have fallen 41 percent since the year 2000.

Today, we spend the hour looking at military recruiting. Later in the program, we will speak with a former marine and recruiter who is now speaking out against the military as well as two people arrested during a protest against military recruiters on university campus. But first, we turn to Democratic Congressmember Jim McDermott of Washington. Along with California Congressman Mike Honda, he has put forward a bill that would make it easier for parents to block military recruiters from gaining access to their high school-aged children. The bill seeks to amend a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act that requires school districts to provide the Pentagon the names, addresses and phone numbers of every student in the school. Yesterday in Washington, Congressman Jim McDermott held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol to announce a petition drive for the bill. He joins us on the line from Washington.

* Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Democratic Congressman representing the Seattle area. He was first elected in 1989. He is a psychiatrist by training.

READ MORE (WITH TRANSCRIPT):
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/18/1450217