Fight for Liberty, Not for Empire
The latest version of the Don’t Enlist flyer is now on the New Jersey Alliance of the Libertarian Left website. It was updated to better address schooling and vocational concerns that potential recruits may have.
Specifically, “Military recruiters routinely lie to applicants. Don’t be an imperial pawn. Don’t sign your life away to the government.” has been changed to:
Military recruiters routinely lie to applicants. Military service is a costly and unreliable way to receive scholarship money or vocational training.
Don’t sign your life away to the government. Don’t Enlist.
Any antiwar individual who wants a version of the flyer with different contact info on it can email me to get one. My offer to redo any of the NJ ALL flyers for other libertarians stands. All you have to do in return is receive information on why the Alliance of the Libertarian Left is a great movement that you should join. My email is darianworden- at -gmail- dot -com.
While updating the flyer, I came across a blog post on counter-recruitment. In case you are unaware, counter-recruitment is a direct action strategy to impede the war machine by reducing military recruiting. The body of the blog post contains a sentence that says so much about life in America today:
They also replaced Leo Burnett, their lead public relations agency, who created the “Army of One” campaign, with McCann-Erickson, who after a $200 million contract and year of research came up with “Army Strong” as the new recruiting slogan.
The comments on the post would not be good for a person whose faith in humanity is teetering to read.
For example, one person responds to the numerous non-argumentative claims by military supporters with the comment:
I always hear from military people that they have been defending our rights, but while they were busy invading Iraq (who never attacked us), our Constitutional rights were lost at home. How do they plan to get them back?
The closest thing to an answer seems to be:
OH YEAH YOU CAN WRITE THIS WITHOUT FEAR OF SOMEONE COMING INTO YOUR HOME AND CUTTING OUT YOUR TONGUE BECAUSE WHAT WE DO…AND MARTHA YOU OBVIOUSLY NEED TO GET OFF YOUR FATA$$ AND DO SOMETHING STOP PUTTING OFF ON ANOTHER PERSON THATS YOUR PROBLEMS NOW
So I wrote a little response, which I’ll reproduce in full here:
Are whining about how nobody appreciates you, equating service to the political class with service to the country, using poor grammar, and calling people who disagree with you wimps instead of making logical arguments the kind of skills you learn in the military? Or are they just the only way you can support absurd claims like saying a tool of imperialism is a good thing?
The U.S. military does not protect freedom. It is part of the United States government, the institution that does the most harm to the freedom and prosperity of Americans. It is supported by theft and exploitation called taxation and economic policy. It is a driving force in the global military empire that bankrupts America and inspires foreigners to target Americans for murder. And yes, military recruiters often lie.
I support the troops who renounce the war machine in thought and action.
The avatar that Dale drew of me looks wicked awesome next to that text.
Counter-recruit!
