The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)

• Military Recruitment Issues
• Latinx
• educational opportunities
• marginalized communities
• Syracuse University
• Texas

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11 de septiembre de 2024 / Valeria Martinez / Daily Orange  - Los estudiantes universitarios de todo el país, incluyendo muchos de la Universidad de Syracuse, parecen dar por sentado el privilegio de la educación superior. Mientras tanto, en lugares como Laredo y el Valle del Río Grande, los estudiantes de escuelas públicas carecen del mismo apoyo académico o  los mismos recursos  que son comunes en zonas más ricas y, en consecuencia, predominantemente blancas. Al mudarme a Syracuse, descubrí que la mayoría de mis compañeros no crecieron asistiendo a ferias de empleo organizadas por la universidad y dominadas por reclutadores militares. Este contraste resalta las limitadas oportunidades profesionales disponibles para los estudiantes texanos como yo, quienes se sienten presionados a sacrificar su futuro por un sistema que perpetúa la pobreza en lugar de perseguir sus verdaderas pasiones.

Al igual que muchos estudiantes de Estados Unidos, en Texas,  juré lealtad  a las banderas de Estados Unidos y Texas todas las mañanas, desde preescolar hasta el 12.º grado. Esta lealtad ciega, programada regularmente, combinada con un  currículo que pasa por alto  las persistentes realidades coloniales de nuestra historia, ha adoctrinado a los estudiantes para que crean que el servicio militar no solo es honorable, sino  un deber .

Según la  Red Nacional Contra la Militarización de la Juventud , los reclutadores militares  se integran deliberadamente  en las escuelas para fomentar un sentido de pertenencia. Los reclutadores militares eran omnipresentes en mi propia escuela secundaria texana, a menudo apostados cerca de la cafetería y atrayendo a los estudiantes con productos y pruebas de machismo como la barra de dominadas. Esta presencia, a menudo  normalizada en las asambleas y aulas de las escuelas secundarias texanas , condiciona a los estudiantes a aceptar el servicio militar como una opción necesaria.

• Military Recruitment Issues
• Latinx
• educational opportunities
• marginalized communities
• Syracuse University
• Texas

  español  -

September 11, 2024 / Valeria Martinez / Daily Orange - College students all over the country, including many students at Syracuse University, seem to take the privilege of higher education for granted. Meanwhile, in places like Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley, public school students lack the same academic support or resources that are commonplace in wealthier, and consequently, predominantly white areas. Upon moving to Syracuse, I learned that most of my peers didn’t grow up going to school sanctioned career fairs dominated by military recruiters. This contrast highlights the limited career opportunities available to Texan students like me, where many feel pressured to sacrifice their futures to a system that perpetuates poverty rather than pursue their true passions.

Similarly to many students throughout the United States, in Texas, I pledged allegiance to the U.S. and Texas flags every morning from pre-K through 12th grade. This regularly scheduled blind allegiance, combined with a curriculum that glosses over the lingering colonial realities of our history, have essentially indoctrinated students into believing that military service is not only honorable, but a duty.

According to the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth, military recruiters purposefully embed themselves in schools to foster a sense of “school ownership.” Military recruiters were omnipresent in my own Texan high school, often stationed near the cafeteria and enticing students with merchandise and “macho tests” like the pull-up bar. This presence, often normalized in Texan high school assemblies and classrooms, conditions students to accept military service as a necessary path.

• ASVAB
• Future Soldier Preparatory Courses
• U.S. Army
• Greg Jaffe
• Kenny Holston
• New York Times
• Trump bump

The defense secretary cites a ‘Trump bump.’ But the Army’s recruiting surge wouldn’t have been possible without the program started three years ago at Fort Jackson.

  español - (NNOMY Response to this article below) 

Oct. 4, 2025 / Greg Jaffe / Visuals by Kenny Holston / New York Times - His journey to the Army began last year when he lost his job as a hotel maintenance man and could only find work picking up trash at an Amazon warehouse. At 42, Joseph King had given up on ever meeting the military’s enlistment standards.

Then he heard about an Army program, launched three years ago during one of the worst recruiting droughts in U.S. history, that helps those who aren’t eligible to join because they are overweight or unable to pass the military’s aptitude exam.

In late August, Joseph was sitting in a classroom at Fort Jackson, S.C., with 13 other trainees, most of whom were half his age. The instructor was showing them how to calculate a salesperson’s income based on salary, sales and commission.

“What’s a commission?” the teacher asked.

The trainees were silent.

• Military Recruitment Issues
• Conscription
• Immigration
• discrimination
• chattel slavery
• white supremacy
• backdoor draft
• Segregation

De jure segregation, the backdoor draft, and elite immunity are part of a recurring cycle of American inequality. As the U.S. threatens new war in Iran, history again points to who will bear the cost—and who will benefit.

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June 28, 2025 / Sharon Kyle / LA Progressive - From housing discrimination to military recruitment, from school segregation to foreign policy, some issues in American life may seem disconnected—mere fragments of a chaotic system. But upon closer examination, these seemingly unrelated policies and practices are bound by a common root: the deliberate consolidation of power by a wealthy, white ruling class. 

From the very inception of the United States, a privileged elite has engineered laws, institutions, and cultural narratives to preserve its dominance—initially through racialized land seizures and redistribution, the brutal system of chattel slavery, and exclusionary immigration policies; later through Jim Crow segregation; and today through more insidious mechanisms like militarized borders, discriminatory policing, mass incarceration, exploitative labor practices, and the weaponization of poverty. At the core lies structural white supremacy—an evolving, interlocking system of racial and class oppression that resists democracy, adapts with time, and refuses to cede power. 

Today, as the Trump administration escalates tensions with Iran following the bombing of that nation’s nuclear facilities, we once again stand at the precipice of war. If military conflict erupts, it will be poor and working-class Americans—especially people of color and rural whites—who will be the first to serve, fight, and die. They are overrepresented in the armed forces but not by coincidence, by design. Economic hardship, lack of opportunity, and targeted recruitment strategies ensure that the burden of war continues to fall on those already most oppressed by the system.

• Military Recruitment Issues
• Conscription
• Immigration
• discrimination
• chattel slavery
• white supremacy
• backdoor draft
• Segregation

La segregación de iure, el reclutamiento clandestino y la inmunidad de las élites forman parte de un ciclo recurrente de desigualdad en Estados Unidos. Mientras Estados Unidos amenaza con una nueva guerra en Irán, la historia vuelve a mostrar quién asumirá el coste y quién se beneficiará.

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28 de junio de 2025 / Sharon Kyle / LA Progressive  - Desde la discriminación en la vivienda hasta el reclutamiento militar, desde la segregación escolar hasta la política exterior, algunos problemas de la vida estadounidense pueden parecer inconexos, meros fragmentos de un sistema caótico. Pero, al examinarlos más detenidamente, estas políticas y prácticas aparentemente inconexas comparten una raíz común: la consolidación deliberada del poder por parte de una clase dirigente blanca y adinerada. 

Desde la creación misma de Estados Unidos, una élite privilegiada ha diseñado leyes, instituciones y narrativas culturales para preservar su dominio: inicialmente mediante la expropiación y redistribución de tierras con fines raciales, el brutal sistema de esclavitud y políticas migratorias excluyentes; posteriormente, mediante la segregación racial (de las leyes de Jim Crow); y hoy, mediante mecanismos más insidiosos como la militarización de las fronteras, la vigilancia policial discriminatoria, el encarcelamiento masivo, las prácticas laborales explotadoras y la instrumentalización de la pobreza. En el núcleo de su estructura se encuentra la supremacía blanca: un sistema interconectado y en constante evolución de opresión racial y de clase que se resiste a la democracia, se adapta con el tiempo y se niega a ceder el poder. 

Hoy, mientras la administración Trump intensifica las tensiones con Irán tras el bombardeo de las instalaciones nucleares de ese país, nos encontramos una vez más al borde de la guerra. Si estalla un conflicto militar, serán los estadounidenses pobres y de clase trabajadora —especialmente las personas de color y los blancos rurales— quienes serán los primeros en servir, luchar y morir. Están sobrerrepresentados en las fuerzas armadas, pero no por casualidad, sino por diseño. Las dificultades económicas, la falta de oportunidades y las estrategias de reclutamiento selectivo garantizan que el peso de la guerra siga recayendo sobre quienes ya están más oprimidos por el sistema.

• sexual harassment
• JROTC
• Mike Baker
• Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

 The high school classes taught by military veterans have been under scrutiny following a Times investigation that found repeated instances of sexual predation and little oversight.

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Sept. 26, 2025 / Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Mike Baker / New York Times - A government report released Friday on sexual abuse in high school Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs estimated that dozens, and potentially hundreds, of instructors have been accused of sexually abusing or harassing students in the past five years.

J.R.O.T.C. programs operate in more than 3,400 public schools, where veterans teach teenagers about topics such as military history, life skills and marksmanship to half a million students each year. But the instructors long operated with little oversight and limited training on being a teacher.

A series of New York Times articles in 2022 found that 33 instructors had been criminally charged with sexual misconduct involving students over a five-year period and that many students were being automatically enrolled into what is supposed to be an elective course.