The U.S. military has had the worst recruitment year in decades. The Army has resorted to

• expanding a pre-basic training course that allows candidates to enlist who do not meet the weight and aptitude requirements;
• paying bigger bonuses to recruiters;
• producing new advertisements;
• giving promotions to soldiers who refer a friend who enlists (a program akin to Amway With Guns);
• hoping the Supreme Court blocks student debt relief;
• and, of course, JROTC.

According to the Army, the problem is that young people would rather not get killed, don't see the military as a smart career path, and don't yearn for the stress of it. (Chances are some people who don't want to get killed also don't want to kill others.)

According to some Republicans in Congress, the problem is simply that the military has become too "woke."

According to comedian Sarah Silverman, young people are thinking, "Why would I go get shot in the Middle East when I can get shot in the comfort of my middle school?"

But you can't avoid the military by going to school. The JROTC is there, and you may find yourself "enlisted" in it whether you want to be or not.

Click here to tell Congress to abolish the JROTC.

The U.S. military and public schools have been making a supposedly elective course for children as young as 13 mandatory. They've been doing so very disproportionately in impoverished areas and areas with high populations of racial minorities. While the military claims that JROTC is not a recruitment program, it says privately that it is just that, and admits publicly that 44 percent of Army recruits have come from schools with JROTC.

JROTC classes use textbooks that bypass any of the very limited reviews used for all other classes, and that include such whoppers as the disproved Gulf of Tonkin incident lies, or the claim that the U.S. could have won in Vietnam if it had been allowed to use even more horrific tactics. The Trail of Tears' forced expulsion of Native Americans had only tears and no dying, according to JROTC.

Fake history is the least of what a JROTC student is taught. Students who did not choose this class, and who have tried to get out of it, and whose parents have tried to get them out of it, are taught obedience, blind acceptance of claims, the total normalization and glorification of war, and the actual use of weapons of war.

Click here to tell Congress to abolish the JROTC.

Five years ago, a boy who had been enrolled in JROTC as a 9th grader at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, put on his JROTC polo shirt and murdered 17 people. The JROTC program that taught him to shoot had received awards for marksmanship, as well as funding from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

The New York Times has, in addition, reported on frequent incidents of sexual abuse of students by instructors of JROTC.

Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which every single nation on Earth other than the United States has ratified (if not always complied with), it is illegal to recruit children under the age of 15 into militaries; nations are required to focus only on those above 18. But the U.S. military, extending far beyond JROTC, takes contact information and other information on students from schools, not to mention social media, including reviewing exams that are mandatory and not identified as military recruiting tools. But some of the most heavily and relentlessly recruited students about whom the military knows the most are those who have been in JROTC.

Click here to tell Congress to abolish the JROTC.

Military recruitment is way down, and for good reason. Shameful illegal wars are not a good selling point. But the answer is not, as 19 Congress Members recently pleaded to President Joe Biden, to keep student debt high. Nor is it to force students into JROTC.

JROTC is something that requires ending, not mending. History should be taught by history professors using history books. And joining an institution of organized mass-killing is a decision that, at the very least, should be made by an adult with options for nonviolent career paths. We don't let you drink alcohol until 21 or rent a car until 25, because of a solid understanding of the brains of young people. There should be no exception for allowing kids to join in military training -- much less should they be forced into it against their will.

Click here to tell Congress to abolish the JROTC.

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-- The RootsAction.org team

Background:
>> New York Times: "Thousands of Teens Are Being Pushed Into Military's Junior R.O.T.C."
>> New York Times: "J.R.O.T.C. Textbooks Offer an Alternative View of the World"
>> New York Times: "Military Acknowledges More Sexual Abuse in J.R.O.T.C. Programs"
>> United Nations: "Convention on the Rights of the Child"
>> World BEYOND War: "JROTC, Military Indoctrination and the Training of Mass Killers"
>> World BEYOND War: "Florida Shooter's JROTC Took NRA Money, Excelled at Marksmanship"
>> NNOMY: "Military Recruiting in the United States"
>> Ted Lieu: "Reps Lieu and Houlahan Request Answers from DOD on Alleged JROTC Forced Enrollment"
>> Mike Gallagher: "Congress Members' Letter to President on Recruitment and Student Debt"

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