Military recruiters turned away in Puerto Rico

[RPR]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The political activists, brown envelopes tucked under their arms, staked out the high school gates just after sunrise. When students emerged from the graffiti-scorched streets of the Rio Piedra neighborhood here and began streaming toward their school, the pro-independence advocates ripped open the envelopes and began handing the teens fliers emblazoned with the slogan: "Our youth should not go to war."

At the bottom of the leaflet was a tear sheet that students could sign and later hand to teachers, to request that students' personal contact information not be released to the U.S. Defense Department or to anyone involved in military recruiting.

The scene outside the Ramon Vila Mayo high school unfolded at schools throughout Puerto Rico this week as the academic year opened. On this island with a long tradition of military service, pro-independence advocates are tapping the territory's growing anti-Iraq war sentiment to revitalize their cause. As a result, 57 percent of Puerto Rico's 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders, or their parents, have signed forms over the past year withholding contact information from the Pentagon -- effectively barring U.S. recruiters from reaching out to an estimated 65,000 high school students.


"If the death of a Puerto Rican soldier is tragic, it's more tragic if that soldier has no say in that war," said Juan Dalmau, secretary general of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). His efforts are saving the island's children from becoming "colonial cannon meat," he said.

Island falls under No Child recruiting rules
Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, all schools receiving U.S. federal funding must provide their students' names, addresses and phone numbers to the military unless the child or parents sign an opt-out form. Puerto Rico received $1.88 billion in U.S. education funds this year. For five years, PIP has issued opt-out forms to about 120,000 students in Puerto Rico and encouraged them to sign -- and independista activists expect this year to mark their most successful effort yet.

Such actions come as other antiwar groups on the island are seeking to undercut military recruiting, as well. For example, the Coalition of Citizens Against Militarism, an association of pacifist groups, plans to visit about 70 schools on the island in the coming days, meaning that many students will receive two, or even three, opt-out forms by the end of August.

Pacifist groups get equal access
Antiwar advocates have even gained direct access to Puerto Rican classrooms under a controversial directive issued last September by Rafael Aragunde, the island's education secretary, granting "equal access" by pacifist groups and military recruiters.

Although he will not bar recruiters from schools, Aragunde said, he has a "lot of sympathy" for what pacifist groups are trying to accomplish. "I've always felt that one of the byproducts of a good educational system is that you have citizens who will defend pacifism," he said. "I think that just like we have to insist on ecological values, we have to insist on pacifist values." Aragunde described his relations with military recruiters as "cordial."

Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, acknowledged that the counter-recruiting campaigns are having an impact. "We're drawing less than the national average" in Puerto Rico, he said.

Affinity for ‘Yankee’ military remains
In the 2003-06 period, 4,947 Puerto Rican men and women enlisted in the Army or Reserves, or approximately 123 people per 100,000 residents, according to Pentagon data. That is below the average contribution of U.S. states, and far below the numbers in states such as Alabama, Kansas, Montana and Oklahoma, each of which enlists more than 200 men and women per 100,000, according to Army data.

"We're not taking more than our share from Puerto Rico," Carr said. "We're taking less than our share, because that's what they'll give us." Carr said he suspects that opt-out rates for states in the continental United States rarely break beyond 10 percent -- a far cry from the nearly 60 percent on the island.

Reaction outside the gates of the Ramon Vila Mayo school this week seem to confirm that suspicion. A few students shrugged off the political activists' overtures, while others smiled and declared their interest in joining the "Yankee" military. But most of the teens politely accepted the forms, nodded and even fetched pens from their school bags.


Exploiting youth?
Calls for Puerto Rico's independence have existed since the days of Spanish colonial rule and continued after the United States seized control of the island in 1898. In the 1950s, a branch of the movement attempted a violent uprising. Although many Puerto Ricans express deep patriotism for the island, the independence impulse has never translated in the polls -- either in elections or in successive plebiscites on the status of the territory, in which independence has repeatedly been rejected.

Leaders from the island's two major political parties say that their PIP opponents are exploiting young people to advance their separatist grievances. And Pentagon officials accuse the activists of "manipulating" impressionable young people.

"What's going on in Puerto Rico is an artificial circumstance, where a group is trying to persuade students to take their name off a list, and of course that's going to meet in some change in behavior," Carr said. "In the event that someone approaches a young person and their voluntary behavior is to take an opt-out card and give it to their teacher, there's nothing we can or should do in that case. That's free speech. But it's curious speech, because it's manipulating the flow of information . . . and that is unhealthy."

Recruiters unfazed
The Pentagon said it is on track to meet its recruiting targets for this fiscal year. However, despite a $3.2 billion national recruitment campaign, the military was forced to bring back 1,000 former recruiters to help with the summer months -- the peak recruiting period -- and late last month introduced a $20,000 "quick-ship" bonus for recruits willing to enter training before October. Carr said that Puerto Rico's anti-military drive could force recruiters to focus on states such as Texas, where they meet with less resistance.

Maj. Ricardo Sierra, who runs eight of Puerto Rico's 14 Army recruiting stations, rejected the notion that anti-recruitment efforts are affecting his operations. High school students are not his target demographic, he said, because few speak English well enough to pass military entrance exams. Instead, Sierra said, recruiters are meeting targets by contacting college-educated students.

"We do target [high school students], we do campaigns, we talk to the seniors, but we don't get a whole lot of them," Sierra said, estimating that the U.S. military enlists an average of 22 Puerto Rican high school graduates per year.

Playing the family card
Senior chief Joe Vega, who heads the island's three Navy recruiting stations, said that "if Puerto Rico was a fully bilingual state or country, the recruiting contribution would be much higher." His top recruiter, Chief Select Ernesta Marrero, said that many young people sign up out of patriotism or a sense of obligation to the United States.

"Being part of the U.S. is what gives them the right to their freedom, democracy, the chance to voice their opinions -- it's the constitution that we [the military] uphold," Marrero said.

Sonia Santiago, founder of the local group Mothers Against War, said her volunteers visit schools to "unmask" the way in which recruiters promise "villas y castillas" (villas and castles) that they cannot deliver. One persuasive tactic, she added, is to ask children how their mothers would feel if they were injured or killed in war.

Aragunde, the education secretary and a self-declared independista, said that most Puerto Ricans do not view the U.S. armed forces as "their military." According to a recent poll by the Puerto Rican daily El Nuevo Día, 75 percent of commonwealth residents oppose the Iraq war -- a figure that has escalated with the number of Puerto Ricans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Island takes casualties
The Pentagon lists 37 service members from the island as killed in action in the two conflicts, but local antiwar groups say the number exceeds 80, including suicides and soldiers recruited from the U.S. mainland.

Deaths of all Puerto Rican troops make headlines here. The funeral in March of Army Cpl. Jason Nunez, 22, proved particularly emotional. In images broadcast throughout the island, his mother removed the U.S. flag from her son's coffin and deliberately dropped it to the floor. She later implored other parents not to allow their children to fight in the U.S. military.

Aragunde said such images shape public opinion. "You don't want children fighting on the streets, you don't want children cheating, nor stealing, and you don't want them to think that an alternative to solving any conflict is war," he said. "I feel it's my obligation to defend that value."

[Yujike]

But, if a federal draft is instituted, the parents of those students, and anybody who is of draft age will not have this alternative at their disposal. There will be no opting-out for anybody.

[RPR]

Surprisingly enought it is the Democrats who are in favor of reinstating the draft. The logic being that if middle class and upper class American kids are drafted and died in these wars there would not be much support for unnecessary wars. However,those with the means have always been able to get out of wars.What we will have is more poor dying at a disparaging rate.

I remember when I was a senior a few of my friends decided to join the army. The pressure was on from both them and the recruiters. the recruiters were other young Puerto Ricans that had just joined a year or two earlier. Thhey try convincing me to join with some down right silly reason. The silliest being that all the girls love a men in uniform,especially when you have your dog tag lol. I was most surprised that my closest friend joined. He came from a middle class family. He was usually anti-American but most of that was just silly young teen talk. He came back a different person after coming back from boot camp. He became this serious individual with no time for play. Quite a change from being the class clown and the guy who was very popular socially. My dad try to convince me to join. I was too idealistic for the Army. Wars are stupid uinless you have to defend against invaders. Only a few profit enormously from Wars.

[L_F_Miranda]

The military has always been the poor man's way of getting ahead in the world without too much hassle, that is if there is no war.

For colonials its a dream come true. Like the Indian Raj back in the 1900's, Colonials felt a sense of being accepted by the their rulers, something they found out was a lie much later on. As soon as India was of no use, Britain threw them away like a dirty pamper. I have a feeling Puerto Rican Colonials will learn sooner or later.......... I hope.

For Puerto Ricans, the military can be a career, and in the process one can get priviledges like the PX, medical care, and after 20 years, a life time pension. Not bad. The trick is that one can't be too smart intellectually, and one has to follow orders, kiss ass, and believe all the crap of fighting for democracy and freedom around the world.

Few colonials have a sense of intellectual analysis, therefore they serve proudly like the documentary of the Korean War, "LOS BORINQUEROS", has shown. We got kicked in the ass full time, killed way and beyond any other group, humilitated and then we said, "thank you, give me some more."

Its awfully strange that folks in Puerto Rico these days are the only ones under the American flag that are rejecting the advances of the military recruiters. MMMMMMM is it until we are threatened with a cut of Food Stamps and other welfare goodies?

To some Estadistas rejecting the military is disloyalty but they fail to realize that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney sons also refuse to join the military despite that his dad is gung ho for the war in Iraq.

The world is full of contradictions, isn't it?

[RPR]

The tide is turning in Puertorro this decade. Navy out of Vieques, military recruits drastically plunged, economy continues on a sour note,multinational companies are not making as huge of a profit (read today's Wall Street). And we keep asking for more goodies....

[TipoConSuerte]

Fellas, I for one have been pro-independance most of my life. However, I sincerely wonder what would be the economic basis of the Republic of Puerto Rico? Tourism? Manufacturing? Off-shore banking and gambling? Secondly, is it really possible to create a hunger for learning and hard work amongst the young people of today's Boricua generation? How does one sell the ideal of independence to an overly dependent society? What aspect of independence would seem attractive to a generation who has not taken steps to prepare for such a political change?

I dislike being so doubtful, but it's difficult to envision such a change in Puerto Rico. I think the only possible way that our Boricua society would embrace independence is if it were forced upon us. If the U.S. gov't decided to finally cut Puerto Rico's federal umbilical cord, I believe many people on the island would seek immediate assylum in the U.S. mainland. But, the ones who'd remain would roll up their sleeves and pant legs and would get down to the business of building "La Nueva Patria...¡LIBERADA!" Now that is something I can envision!!!

TCS

[L_F_Miranda]

Tipo

Your concerns are the concerns of most Puerto Ricans, what to do if they pull the rug from under our feet.

I just think that the answer to this one is in hands of the GRINGOS, they are the ones who will ultimately decide what they want to do with their obsolete Spanish speaking colony. Will they annex us or set us free?

For one reason or another Gringo's don't seem too keen on solving our status dilema. Statehooders interpret this as Gringos thinking, "WE ARE IMPORTANT, THEY REALLY ACCEPT US AS AMERICANS, but its we who have the problem, we don't seem to get our act together to let them know that we feel AMERICAN!"

Although this sounds ridiculous, Puerto Ricans Statehooders really believe this crap, if not true they say, why is the U.S. refusing to let go of us?

I just think that Congress has never been faced with having to act. I truely believe that when faced with the specter of Statehood, CONGRESS WILL ACT, and there might be surprises.

Nonetheless our status dilema is Congress' responsibility, "THEY ARE THE ONE"S WHO HAVE TO SPEAK UP."

Once they decide on what they are willing to offer, they have to give us guidelines on how to procede. Only then will it be up to us to decide.

I think that for the moment Statehood is out of the question. Why? With the rising tide of illegals creating a paranoia that Whites will be turned into a minority, Statehood is the furthest thing from the mind of Gringos, specially those who want to get elected.

I think there is really no problem with Statehood, if only Politics were played fair and square, like most Puerto Ricans think it is. We fail to realize that "REAL POLITIKS" is how things really work.

In Puerto Rico no one asks themselves, Are Gringos willing to give a 95% Spanish speaking area political power, more power that will outstrip 27 anglo speaking states? I personally don't think so, unless we think they are fools.

At ths very moment Gringo politicians are reacting to fears of being overwhelmed by a people whom they percieve don't want to assimilate, so why then would they pump up the system with 4 million more? Only Puerto Ricans think they will.

Our fears about independence are not THEIR CONCERNS either. Most in the states don't care a hoot if we sink or swim. Yes, there will be an exodus if independence is the outcome. I calculate about a million will leave. But in all political upheavals people move. The US lost 85.000 loyalists (statehooders) to Canada in 1776. In today's terms this might be about three million.

Eventually things settled down and today no one in America even thinks about those who refused to accept American independence. In fact hardly anyone studies this in American History classes.

There is also the middle ground in our status dilema, its Free Association. Its already a reality in some Pacific Territories. The thing with Free Association is that it doesn't carry over American Citizenship and this is where most Puerto Ricans object.

Bottomline, what most of us fear is being taken off the Federal tit, but it WILL HAPPEN sooner or later.

Once again, its up to the Gringos to decide, either to send us off to learn to swim with the sharks or bring us in, a possibility I see getting dimmer and dimmer in this post 9-11 world. Gringos are setting up their covered wagons to protect themselves from the hispanic hordes that are invading their country, why bring in 4 million more and give them more political power that 27 states, beats me!