STOP-LOSS & WHAT IS TO BE DONE

Stan Goff on counter-recruitment. This is how the "war against the war" will be won. The military is having a hard time recruiting, as our young people are surprisingly not enthused about killing and dying in Iraq for no reason whatsoever. Vigorously shadowing military recruiters, and giving the kids information that the recruiter is leaving out (such as, that he or she is making a de facto lifetime commitment), will drive even more targets away. This will force even more demoralizing "stop-loss" orders, create more desertion, and sap the will to fight. The options would have to be a draft or a pull-out, yet even those in charge would realize that a draft would just delay the inevitable, and create remarkable backlash.

Let's hope such counter-recruitment would make inroads to deter our poorest and most vulnerable kids, those already with the least access to acccurate information, from enlisting.