On Wednesday, 10 February, Pfc. Adriana Alvarez of San Benito died of a gunshot wound in Baghdad, Iraq.

The exact circumstances of her death remain unclear, so we do not know whether her death is combat related. Pfc. Alvarez enlisted in the military at age 18, shortly after graduating from high school. She wanted a career in law enforcement and believed military service would be helpful in that pursuit. She received military police training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, and was deployed to Iraq with a military police unit in August, 2009. She had completed about half her tour when her life was cut short.

Her family, understandably, is immensely proud of her, but also completely distraught. Reportedly, they did not want her to enlist, but she was determined to gain the experience she wanted and proud to serve her country. While she undoubtedly served her country well, our government, and the American people, obviously served her very poorly.

Mr. President. It is past time to end these wars. Neither one of them serves any purpose beyond spreading and intensifying the world’s hatred of the United States. Whatever goals we needed to achieve in Afghanistan were achieved long ago. Now, we just slaughter people and cultivate a new generation of resistance fighters willing to die to drive us from their country; and, in some instances, cooperate with international terrorist organizations dedicated to attacking the United States.

With respect to Iraq, where you, Mr. President, ordered Adriana to sacrifice her life, there never was any legitimate, justifiable reason to invade and ignite a slaughter of Iraqis that also have cost thousands of American lives, plus many more thousands severely wounded, many debilitated for life with the physical and psychological scars of war. We are looking at a flood of service men and women, repeatedly deployed to combat zones, who are coming home with numerous psychological disorders, including Post Traumatic Stress. There are so many the military and Veterans Administration are overwhelmed. Now, we are seeing treatment of our military personnel being contracted out to various state agencies whose employees are beginning to take crash courses in how to counsel and treat psychologically wounded veterans.

Mr. President, we have lost too many, and the ones we will continue to lose–even if you end these God forsaken wars and withdraw all troops immediately without another new casualty in either Iraq or Afghanistan–are far more than can be justified in any decent, honorable, honest way. The Rio Grande Valley is one of those regions to bear the highest costs of loved ones lost. In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a total of 5,365 U.S. military personnel have lost their lives (as of 13 Feb 2010). Of those, 37 are from the Valley, representing 0.69 percent of the total lost. While that is a small number, less than one percent, we have lost servicemen and now a service woman, at a rate of 1.97 times higher than the Valley’s proportion of the nation’s population.

Few areas in the U.S. have been forced to pay a higher price in loved ones lost than have we here in the Valley. With Valley units being deployed to Afghanistan, where you are intensifying the war, the senseless slaughter, the needless deaths, the Valley must brace for even more of our own coming home in a box–not thanks to George Bush, but thanks to you, President Barack Obama.

Adriana was a daughter, sister, grandchild, niece, friend. She is lost to those who loved her and cared for her. There is disbelief they never will see her smile and hear the warmth of her laughter again. Who would she have been had she not been murdered in this unconscionable war? A wife, a mother? A happy, successful, fulfilled person who made worthwhile contributions to her community and nation? Certainly that is what everyone in the Valley would have hoped for her. Whom she might have become, what contributions she might have made now have been robbed from us forever by a president who does not have the guts, does not have the spine to do what, somewhere in that great intellect of his, he knows he should do.

Mr. President, we had a belly full of cowards in the White House with Deserter Bush. We had enough war criminals in the White House with War Criminal Bush and his henchman War Criminal Cheney. The continuing war crimes being racked up in Iraq and Afghanistan now are your crimes. The blood of Pfc. Alvarez is on the hands of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the other brigand war criminals of the Bush administration. But we say to you Mr. President, the blood of Pfc. Alvarez is on your hands also. Have you no decency, Sir? Have you no conscience?

If you need a refresher course in recent history, we urge you to remember you won the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton because you took a stronger position on peace and ending these God forsaken wars than she did. Those of us opposed to these wars are the ones who propelled you into the Presidency. Admittedly, you never pledged to end either the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. But you promised an honesty to the American people you have not kept. Indeed, as you give your pathetic speeches on why we must escalate the Afghanistan war while we also must perpetuate the Iraq war, and, in the process, continue to sacrifice on the alter of the God of War the lives and the blood of the very best we have, you lie to the American people. You lie repeatedly and at every turn.

You lie by omission, Sir, because you refuse to tell the American people continuation of these wars is not making us more secure but less secure. You lie when you say we must fight these wars to protect our national security. Yet the only real threat to our national security are our imperialist foreign policies and the wars of imperial conquest they dictate.

You lie by omission, Sir, because you refuse to tell the American people a key reason for these wars is to maintain and expand the American Empire. You lie, Sir, because you refuse to tell the American people the Taliban is not part of some international terrorist organization determined to destroy America, but is just largely disorganized rag tag bands of resistance fighters seeking to drive American invaders from their land and stop the senseless slaughter of their people every time there is a wedding.

You lie, Sir, because you refuse to tell the “geo-political” truth about both Iraq and Afghanistan. You lie, Sir, when you refuse to tell the American people the only reasons we are in Iraq are to control the oil supplies of the Middle East and toady to the dictates of Zionist pariahs who rule over Israel. You lie, Sir, when you refuse to tell the American people the reason we are in Afghanistan is to control the flow of oil out of Central Asia so it does not flow through Iran or Russia, and to restrict Chinese access.

You lie, Sir, when you refuse to tell the American people a key reason for these wars is to serve the “military-industrial complex”, to keep their pockets bulging with money as they are given lucrative military contracts. You lie, Sir, when you say you seek to reduce spending by the Federal government and reduce the budget deficit because you are proposing huge increases in military spending to enable you to continue to prosecute these wars to achieve the purposes of empire, to prostitute the United States to Israel, and to prostitute yourself to the war profiteers in the capitalist class.

You lie, Sir. You lie. You lie. You lie.

Now, a daughter of the Valley has paid for your lies with her life. We shed tears of grief. You continue to lie.

Sir, if you want to reverse your slide in the polls, if you want to restore both the faith and the hopes of many of those who voted for you, if you want to begin to regain the respect of many former supporters who now are beginning to revile you with contempt, end these wars now. Bring our troops home. Stop serving your war monger, blood thirsty, imperial masters and do the job you SAY you were elected to do.

SERVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. FOR A CHANGE, DO WHAT IS RIGHT INSTEAD OF WHAT YOU ARE TOLD TO DO BY YOUR OWNERS. STOP SACRIFICING THE LIVES OF THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THIS GREAT NATION ON TO THE gods OF WAR AND EMPIRE. MAN UP DAMN IT!

Samuel Freeman is a political science professor based in the Rio Grande Valley and a Vietnam War veteran. His weekly Left Is Right column appears exclusively in the Guardian.

Content is republished in full from the Rio Grande Guardian.

Despite every plea made by religious leaders such as Pope Benedict XVI, this holiday has nothing to do with religion. The fact is Christmas fuel consumerism because the principle message being told during the holiday season is to buy, spend, and consume.

The commercialism of Christmas is not a recent phenomenon. In 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a lament that reflected a common sentiment: “There are worlds of money wasted, at this time of year, in getting things nobody wants, and nobody cares for after they are got.”

We’ve brainwashed ourselves to “give” into a mechanical generic holiday system instead of giving our hearts and souls to a worthy cause that the real Christmas represents.

This holiday season is a time when we should ponder the message of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic, “A Christmas Carol.” Most of us who grew up with it as children as being a story about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who cares about nothing but money and is visited in his house on Christmas Eve by three ghosts – the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Future. They make Scrooge see the error of his ways.

It is not surprising that everyone takes joy in Scrooge’s redemption, because it allows us to find the kernel of compassion, of humanity within us. However, many of us miss the true message Dickens was trying to convey. Understanding the conditions under which working-class people lived became based on his experiences, the scene with Christmas Present with the two orphans, Ignorance and Want is the central focus of the story. From Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol:”

‘They are Man’s,’ said the Spirit, looking down upon them. ‘And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it.’ cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. ‘Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.’

‘Have they no refuge or resource.’ cried Scrooge.

‘Are there no prisons.’ said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. ‘Are there no workhouses.’

Championing the causes of the poor and oppressed, Dickens personified ignorance and want as twins because Ignorance and Want are the twin evils of humanity. How we act and behave towards one another in society plays a vital role in lives of the poor and the oppressed. Yes, all of us! The orphan twins symbolized the plight of the poor and the causes of their poverty as well as humanity’s obligation to them. In addition, of the two, Ignorance is the greater evil.

When you look at the bigger picture, it is fear and need and want and anxiety that drives this country. Moreover, it is these fears that have caused our culture of cruelty that currently exists. Today, in his Year-End Press Conference, President Bush continues to push the illusion that Americans are at risk.

BUSH: As you all know, I’ve said this many times from the podium, I do believe in the universality of freedom. I believe if people are given a chance to be free, they will do so. I understand some don’t believe that. It’s kind of like, “We’re the only ones who can be free.” It’s kind of the ultimate isolationism, isn’t it. And the question then is: Is it in our nation’s interest to help others realize the blessings of liberty? And clearly the Bush foreign policy says it is, because I believe it’s going to yield peace. And it’s particularly important given the fact that we’re in an ideological struggle against people who use murder to achieve political objectives. And we faced these kind of people before in our past. And the question is: Does it make sense to confront them? And if we forget the lessons of September the 11th as a nation we will be naive or blind to the realities of the world. And the best way to confront these folks in the long term is to defeat their ideology with one based upon hope, and that’s one based upon liberty, and that’s what you’re watching unfold. It’s necessary work, and it’s hard work. And it requires determination and effort and commitment. And so, part of our efforts is to convince others: one, the nature of the world in which we live; two, that we’re in an ideological struggle; and, three, we will prevail because we’ve got the ultimate weapon against those who can’t see anything but terror and murder as the way forward, and that is freedom.

This is not a coincidence. Today Christmas is such a vital part of our economic system that Wall Street monitors the season as an indicator of the nation’s economic viability. Currently, the national mood is absorbed in the illusion that Americans are at risk and that they are in danger from terrorists abroad. While it is true that America has plenty of enemies, people in this country believe in the illusion created by this country that their hatred is toward us and not towards those who continue banging the drum of fear to achieve their political objectives. Rather than making sacrifices during a time when our economy is fragile, people today are being told that the best way to help economy is to go about their business and spend money as if nothing was wrong.

What better time to get out that message than the Christmas holidays. Why? Because not only is Christmas celebrated by gift giving; but we are also compelled to do so, not necessarily out of the kindness of our hearts.

This year, the average individual US consumer is expected to spend $817 on holiday-related shopping, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2007 Holiday Consumer Intentions Survey. Last year, consumer spending on holiday gift spending totaled $450 billion and in the previous year, consumers spent a total of $438.6 billion. Although it is being reported that sales are down this year, yet, the forecast for this year, sales are still expected to see a 1.5 percent increase from a year ago.

As Christmas has become entwined with shopping, American consumers are encouraged to spend, while at the same time, they are being told to save money. In the end, consumer debt continues to grow. Recent statistics show 3 in 5 Americans (59%) incurred credit card debt when shopping for Christmas presents. According to the NRF 2007 survey, 40.1 percent of shoppers, up from 39.1 percent last year, will rely on debit and check cards to make purchases.

In our contemporary framework, the term “giving” equals buying rather than giving meaning providing. And this is the crux of the problem. Pure market capitalism does not respect traditions or religion. The market doesn’t care if you are rich or poor. All that matters is how to make the best profit possible from selling to the public. It is a system that believes that humankind exists only for the money that can be made through exploitation and intimidation.

It is Ignorance that turns a blind eye on a world full of “Little Matchstick Girl,” with an attitude that we aren’t their keepers. It is Ignorance that continues to play self-deluding word games for the sake of an ideal self-image. In truth, if we dare to look it, as Nietzsche said, the abyss stares back.” When this happens it is easier to avert our eyes and bury our heads in the sand and turn a blind eye to our moral cowardice, because it is their poverty makes us feel uncomfortable, their illnesses that disgust us, and the apparent hopelessness of their lives that scares us.

At a time when everyone invokes and acclaims progress, solidarity and peace for all, people continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty. It is Ignorance that has ignored those who continue to be enslaved, exploited and stripped of their dignity. It creates an environment where victims of racial and religious hatred are hampered by intolerance, by discrimination, and by political interference. It creates an environment that rationalizes the numerous assaults and rape to women like Jamie Leigh Jones and Kathryn Bolkovac by companies like Halliburton, KBR, and DynCorp International through physical and moral coercion. And it is Ignorance that has turned a blind eye to the numerous threats and harassments to thousands of immigrants by the Border Patrol, ICE, and the US.

You could say that the adverse nature within us that causes us to be contrary to what is righteous. However, it is our greed, our selfishness, our self-importance, our materialism and our aversions to Godliness that has taken us down a darker path – a path is sociopathic. We are living in a pluralistic society that has created a climate that protects all variations of irresponsibility and irrationality. It is draining the economy, bankrupting the country, and making a psychotic mess of our political process. The twin evils of humanity have consumed us like a cancer. Make no mistake; this country seeks to control the world for its own political and economic interests and we are its collateral damage as many misguided flag-waving zealots rally to a jingoistic cause. And as we open our gifts this Christmas and singing songs of “peace on earth,” just remember, thousands of innocent children will either spend their Christmas in some private detention facilities located this country and millions of families will continue to be blown up by our bombs because they shall forever roam in the dark alleys of our indifference.

We have become deaf and blind to the truth: we help create this economic, political, and legal systems that is stepping on the backs of the poor and the oppressed.

Refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left is outraged with certain politicians in Fort Worth, Texas. Homophobia Rears Its Nasty Head in Fort Worth City Council Race tells who is being a jerk and how to contact one of them.

Muse was at Armando Walle’s campaign kick-off and reports why it’s time for a change in Texas House District 140. Kevin Bailey (Craddick D) has been serving Craddick and not the district. Walle, who is from the district and has a proven track record of service and leadership, already has a large group of supporters lined up to help him take back 140 for the people.

Phillip Martin of Burnt Orange Report provides a detailed chart and analysis updating what’s going on with the Craddick D’s. The post brought forward an interesting reader response as well.

TXsharon at Bluedaze gives the Texas Railroad Commission Protection Money Breakdown and makes it easy for you to take action. So, please take that action before you become the next victim of RRC Malpractice.

Hal at Half Empty wonders whether FEMA has finally taken a page out of George Orwell’s book when they held a ‘news conference’ this past week without a single journalist in attendance.

WhosPlayin notes that he would gladly pay the $13.30 per year per person to pay for SCHIP.

McBlogger takes a look at the strange world of Focus on the Family and the very odd people that attended their Values Voters conference.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notes that Perry appointed a public corruption figure to the UT System Board of Regents.

Johncoby at Bay Area Houston finds the highest and lowest costs for electricity in the Houston area. Power Watch: Highest and lowest electricity rates for November.

Stace at DosCentavos features the trailer to the upcoming Jesse Salmeron film, This Is America. “This is America” is the story of a family torn apart by deportation.

NatWu at Three Wise Men exposes the truth about why we need Net Neutrality, especially with all the recent Telecom shenanigans.

North Texas Liberal’s Texas Toad gives a breakdown on the factions of the “Trinity Vote” in Dallas Weighs Pros and Cons of Trinity Toll Road.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson wonders What Will John Carter’s Excuse Be This Time For Voting Against Health Care For Children?

Off the Kuff gives his recommendations for the state and local bonds and propositions.

NYTexan at BlueBloggin asks how many wars and how many enemies can Bush have?

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that Tom Craddick has borrowed a page from Warren Chisum in announcing that trial lawyers were behind efforts to remove him during the 8oth Legislative Session and wonders why, since he reported it some months ago, it is suddenly “news” to the mainstream media.

In the wake of the Houston Chronicle’s announcement of a “position-elimination program”, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs recounts his personal experience with Hearst newspapers, budgets, and staff cutbacks in The Trouble with the Newspaper Bidness.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at who is fueling the push for a toll road in the banks of the Trinity River in Dallas. You guessed it, Big Business!

In the most recent installment of The Texas Blue’s podcast interview series Who’s Blue, we talk to State Representative Jim Dunnam. We discuss how he got started in politics, what Kirk England’s party switch means to Texas, and the restoration of community college funding vetoed by Governor Perry.

The video shows young children playing in a kindergarten, with their playing imitating the War on Terror. In the beginning of the video there is a little girl playing with blocks in the shape of the World Trade Center, both of which are knocked over by a toy airplane thrown by a boy, clearly making the girl upset. There are various different images displayed in the coming scenes that are symbolic of the War in Iraq (such as the children preparing for “war”, a teddy bear being pulled down like the statue of Saddam Hussein, a presidential figure declaring “Mission Accomplished”, imitation of the torture at Abu Ghraib, a car bombing, etc.). All the while Serj, dressed in a top hat and suit, sings as they play. The video concludes as the children all look out the window of the day care they are in and solemnly watch a Marine Corps detail load a flag draped casket into a hearse. The video is slightly humorous at first glance due to the silly nature of the scene, but has a much deeper message of the cost of the war in Iraq and how it affects people’s lives.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Watch the lies they are telling our kids. As one of the put it, “there is peer pressure and there is army pressure.”


There is a movement to have the DREAM Act pass. However, after much soul searching, I simply cannot send any more people in harms way knowing that the conditions of our Latino schooling will make military enlistment the only “choice” for our undocumented youth because in predominantly Latino high schools, military recruiters outnumber college representatives five to one. How can we overlook the amount of evidence about the misleading tactics military recruiters use to trick Latino youth to enlist. This decision is a decision of the head and the heart, reason and compassion, and it is not a decision taken lightly.

I understand that the military provision has been included since 2001 and that the military has had their hand in all the education bills, but why can’t we finally be different and make a stand. And if we know there are all these faults, why do we always have to settle for less?

According to the Department of Defense, 750,000 youths who benefit from the DREAM Act. However, the current high school dropout rate among undocumented immigrants is 50 percent. Therefore, that would mean, half of them are already unqualified, which now brings that number to roughly 350,000 undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before age 16 and graduated from high school would qualify.

Since not all high school graduates will go on to college according to a study conducted by RAND because they found that roughly half of those students were “very likely to serve in the Armed Forces.” So we are now left with roughly about 25% of the original 100%, which means roughly 187,500 undocumented immigrants would choose college over the military option.

Of those 25%, not everybody will automatically get to adjust from conditional to permanent legal resident status, they still have graduate from a two-year college or complete two years of a four-year degree before they can qualify baring any hurdles placed by the Sec of Education and their respective state. The current dropout rate during the first two years in college for immigrant students is between 50 to 68 percent.

In the end, roughly 60,000 to 93,750 undocumented immigrants will able to adjust from conditional to permanent legal resident status. But what about the others? Where will those students end up? Dead on the battlefield in Iraq or Afghanistan? Adding more to the over 600,000 dead Iraqis? Can we live with this?

What concerns me is the message that is being put out regarding pro-immigrant anti-war people. If we do not support the DREAM Act, we must be anti-immigration and this is a totally erroneous assumption. I am willing to do my part and join the struggle to get the DREAM Act if it is being pushed without the military provisions, but it is not.

The DREAM Act’s education component is a wonderful dream and one that I share those in favor of the DREAM Act, but as it stands, the only DREAM that is really being accomplished is the military’s DREAM.

On the floor of the Senate, when we return next week, we will resume consideration of the Defense authorization bill. It turns out that many in the Department of Defense believe, as I do, that the DREAM Act is an important part of making certain we have talented young men and women ready to serve in our military. I have spoken to people at the Department of Defense who support the idea of the DREAM Act. I think we ought to include it in the Defense authorization bill. I hope to have that opportunity. [snip]

I hope when we return to the Defense authorization bill we can make the DREAM Act part of that bill. Certainly, it is going to help our defense and help our military. I think it is going to help America even beyond that. [snip]

Mr. President, as I said, I rise to speak about legislation known as the DREAM Act, which I hope to offer as an amendment to the Defense authorization bill.

Some people might ask why the Senate should revisit immigration again and whether an immigration amendment should be included in the Defense authorization bill. The answer is simple: The DREAM Act would address a very serious recruitment crisis that faces our military.

Under the DREAM Act, tens of thousands of well-qualified potential recruits would become eligible for military service for the first time. They are eager to serve in the Armed Forces during a time of war. And under the DREAM Act they would have a very strong incentive to enlist because it would give them a path to permanent legal status.

The DREAM Act doesn’t mandate military service. A student who is otherwise eligible could earn legal status by attending college. It would be inconsistent with the spirit our volunteer military to force young people to enlist as a condition for obtaining legal status.

But the DREAM Act creates a strong incentive for military service. And many DREAM Act kids come from a demographic group that is already predisposed towards military service. A 2004 survey by the Rand Corporation found that 45 percent of Hispanic males and 31 percent of Hispanic females between ages 16 and 21 were very likely to serve in the Armed Forces, compared to 24 percent of White men and 10 percent of White women.

Let’s break down the numbers using the average that is being thrown around. According to the Department of Defense, 750,000 youths who benefit from the DREAM Act. However, Durbin states the high school dropout rate among undocumented immigrants is 50 percent. Therefore, that would mean, half of them are already unqualified, which now brings that number to roughly 350,000 undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before age 16 and graduated from high school would qualify. As Durbin noted, not all high school graduates will go on to college according to a study conducted by RAND. They found that roughly half of those students were “very likely to serve in the Armed Forces.” Since the military is eying about half of those students, we are now left with roughly about 25% of the original 100%, which means roughly 187,500 undocumented immigrants would choose college over the military option. Of those 25 percent, not everybody will automatically get to adjust from conditional to permanent legal resident status, they still have graduate from a two-year college or complete two years of a four-year degree before they can qualify baring any hurdles placed by the Sec of Education and their respective state. The current dropout rate during the first two years in college for immigrant students is between 50 to 68 percent. In the end, roughly 60,000 to 93,750 undocumented immigrants will be allowed to adjust from conditional to permanent legal resident status.

So in reality, who is really benefiting from this Act? Recently, Sen Durbin has agreed to drop the in-state tuition clause for the college option thereby eliminating the college option for thousands of undocumented immigrants. The DREAM Act’s education component is a wonderful dream, but as it stands, the only DREAM that is really being accomplished is the military’s DREAM – the few, the proud, the military’s Green Card Soldiers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For veterans who escape physical injury, however, there is the mental stress caused by combat. Like so many veterans returning home from combat duty, Anslem Ifill returned home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to Caribbean American News [pdf see page 6]. What was once called “shell shock” or “combat fatigue,” PTSD displays symptoms that include flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, feelings of detachment, irritability, trouble concentrating, emotional outbursts and sleeplessness. The National Center for PTSD states that PTSD is a highly prevalent lifetime disorder.

Its social and economic costs can be devastating. Civilians who suffer from the disorder miss not only work days but also the chance to lead full lives. Almost half the Vietnam veterans with PTSD have been arrested or jailed; Anslem is no different. He has committed a crime and served out his sentence. Instead of being released he was detained for several years and now faces deportation. After September 11th, the law changed and those in the military can apply for citizenship, however this is not the case for military men and women such as Anslem, who served before this time.

This country asks our troops to defend a country that will just as soon disown them, as they would embrace them. Be it civilian, retired, active duty, or veteran – they will eventually hang under an uncaring bureaucratic machine.

Widely discussed throughout the media and the blogs is how the current immigration reform bill being debated in the Senate would create a permanent underclass of indentured slave labor by allowing multinational corporations and independent contractors to hire thousands of “guest” workers a year outside the US. However, what is not often discussed or reported is how one of the provisions tucked inside the bill would also benefit the military.

This provision is called the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act or DREAM Act, which would legitimize in-state tuition programs and “provide a pathway to obtain permanent residency” to immigrant children who were brought to the United States illegally by their parents as children. In other words, the DREAM Act would allow undocumented immigrant to qualify for in-state tuition and automatically qualify them for state-funded student financial aid. As things stand, many undocumented students have not benefited from the financial aid aspect, because students are required to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application to be considered. However, FAFSA is a federal form and undocumented students are not eligible to receive federal student aid.

A couple of days ago, Kyle from Immigration Orange informed of an of an article that was written in the Boston Globe. Bryan Bender reports how the military will benefit from this provision.

While the DREAM Act may facilitate access to college for a small percentage of these undocumented students, in many cases other factors will militate against the college option. This is where the military comes in, tucked away in the current immigration bill is a provision that will help boost military recruiting.

A little-noticed provision in the proposed immigration bill would grant instant legal status and ultimately full citizenship to illegal immigrants if they enlist in the US military, an idea the Pentagon and military analysts say would boost the Pentagon’s flagging efforts to find and recruit qualified soldiers.

The reality is that military recruitment is down significantly and there are reports that the Pentagon is wanting to impose a “limited military draft” in order to maintain “its present force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan” according to The First Post. If the bill were to become law, the provision is expected to improve military recruitment numbers by allowing undocumented immigrants to enlist as a means to obtain citizenship. It is evident that current recruitment programs are ineffective. Recently the Department of Defense announced that the recruitment goals fell short in May and this probably would explain why the military urgently wants to have Congress pass the current immigration reform bill or just the DREAM Act portion of the bill. The Army fell short in May by 7%, short of its goal of 5,500, while the Army National Guard fell 12% short of its goal and the Air National Guard was well below its target by 23%.

When the immigration bill failed to go through Congress earlier this month, Bill Carr, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, told a veterans’ group that he would like to see Congress fast track the DREAM Act so the military could start recruiting undocumented immigrants right away.

“In other words, if you had come across (the border) with your parents, yet you were a minor child and have been in the U.S. school system for a number of years, then you could be eligible to enlist,” he said. “And at the end of that enlistment, then you would be eligible to become a citizen.”

Currently, between 40,000 and 47,000 non-citizens are serving in the military. According to Emilio Gonzalez, director of the Bureau of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, about 40,000 non-citizens are already serving in the military. Another source, Defense Manpower Data Center, reports there are 35,000 non-citizens are currently serving on active duty in the US Armed Forces, with another 12,000 serving in the Guard and reserves.

Only legal residents and green card holders were qualified to serve because the executive order President Bush signed 2002 only applied to them. If the current bill were to pass, the Defense Department is hoping to see a major boost because the expansion of the recruiting pool would now include at least 750,000 youths of military age that could immediately enter the path to citizenship in exchange for at least two years of service in the armed forces.

However, not everybody can qualify. According to the Globe, only high school graduates who are “honor roll students, star athletes, talented artists, aspiring teachers, and doctors” would qualify for military service. The Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, told the Globe only some of them – roughly 280,000 illegal immigrants between 18 and 24 – would qualify for the program. However, this is not true. The Globe most likely cited a summary of a previous bill because neither of the current bills that have been introduced in the Senate Bill 774 (as the “DREAM Act”), H.R.1275 (as the “American Dream Act”), the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1348) or S. 1639 say anything about making such exclusions.

Why would the Globe and Deputy Undersecretary Carr state a provision that is not there or cannot be found in any of those three bills? One does have to wonder why they would make such a statement, could it be so that the nativists will not be claiming this to be another example of another amnesty program.

I previously wrote that Council on Foreign Relations neo-conservative senior fellow Max Boot had proposed that the military enlist and actively recruit foreigners from other countries.

The military would do well today to open its ranks not only to legal immigrants but also to illegal ones and, as important, to untold numbers of young men and women who are not here now but would like to come. No doubt many would be willing to serve for some set period in return for one of the world’s most precious commodities – U.S. citizenship. Open up recruiting stations from Budapest to Bangkok, Cape Town to Cairo, Montreal to Mexico City. Some might deride those who sign up as mercenaries, but these troops would have significantly different motives than the usual soldier of fortune. (Emphases mine)

The truth is the US is running out of troops because the war in Iraq has tied down roughly 150,000 US troops continuously for almost four years. Now that the Bush is sending another 30,000 troops to Iraq this only makes the troop shortage worse. Recruitment is so bad, it was reported that the Army sent its recruiters to Panama City, FL during Spring Break hoping to entice some young drunk white co-ed into signing their life away to the Army.

Given the difficulty, undocumented youth have in affording college tuition, the pressure on them to make financial contributions to extended families, and the tendency to adopt uncritical forms of patriotism based on “gratitude,” military recruiters will be the ones who benefit the most. As I stated before, the US Military has a long history of targeting people who happen to come from working class families and areas with a large number of minorities, both urban and rural – otherwise known as a “poverty draft.” Many people assume that joining the military is a way out of poverty. Some veterans do say that their experience in the military or the college benefits that they were able to get, was helpful to them. However, the reality for most veterans is far different. According to the Army Times, reports that over 50,000 unemployed veterans are on the waiting list for the military’s “retraining” program. The Veterans’ Administration estimates that 1/3 of homeless people are vets.

The Pentagon has already spent millions to gather information on how to target recruit Latinos into the military. Each year, employees from JAMRS – the “official Department of Defense program for joint marketing communications and market research and studies” – gathered for their annual direct-marketing conference. JAMRS claims the role of the marketing communications programs is to “help broaden people’s understanding of Military Service as a career option.” However, it also engages in all sorts of not-for-public-consumption studies that are meant to “help bolster the effectiveness of all the Services’ recruiting and retention efforts.” In 2005, in their annual conference, paid New York marketing consultant Michael Saray made a presentation – “Marketing to Hispanics” – to JAMRS on how the Latino community is “wired” differently and how Hispanics tend to be “emotional” and “right-brained.”

According to Jorge Mariscal, Saray’s presentation indicated that Hispanics are supposedly “emotional, intuitive, creative, Big Picture, and visionary.”

Simply put, JAMRS trainees were taught “the Spanish language has not favored intellect over emotion. It’s [sic] bias or thought process has not favored the left brain over the right brain. This is a real cultural difference.” Therefore, the Saray group’s advice to Pentagon ad men devising Hispanic campaigns for military recruitment is to “avoid blatant overuse of numbers. You want to reach the heart, not the left brain.” To sum up, “the traditions of Hispanic culture are not necessarily in-synch with the concept of ‘mainstream society’ or the ‘American Dream.’ In general, Hispanics are right brain thinkers. The marketer must ‘acculturate’ or risk losing relevancy by continued reliance on left brain thinking.” (Emphases mine)

We live in a world of too much marketing and too much branding. The role of a marketer is to convince us to want things we don’t really need because their goal personal goal is to promote or exchange goods or services for money. They will develop techniques to that will trigger a person’s emotions that also meet their wants and/or needs. Their employment, like any marketing company, exist with the sole purpose to convince people that consuming resources is a way toward greater happiness. But the question is at who’s expense?

With few prospects of gaining US citizenship through the usual channels, and with little hope of employment, decent housing and education, risking ones life for a glimmer of a chance for a better future clearly holds some attraction. But it does comes with a price. The sad reality, the promises made by the Government frequently fail to materialize. Just ask Yaderlin Jiminez, wife of missing servicemen Alex Jimenez, who is now facing deportation. One of the greatest challenges for many immigrants is the experience of immigration itself, but to the Bush War Machine, this is not a concern to them. For them, all they see is cannon fodder for their war effort, while at the same time they arrogantly tell military families they should “learn how to laugh” if they fell stressed out from hear news about the war. To the military people expendable while families are morning over the fresh graves that are being dug daily! Maybe the Bush cabal can see the humor in sending thousands of people in harms way, however, I doubt the children do as they see their moms or dads being shipping off to a war that is illegal, immoral and unjust. Or the the parents who are losing their sons and daughters. Or the spouses who are losing their husbands and wifes.

Ironically, nativist and xenophobic groups are demanding the deportation of the Brown, yet, you never hear them complain when it is not unusual to hear a Spanish surname on the roll call of dead or missing. Among the first US solider killed at the beginning of the Iraq War was Jose Antonio Gutierrez from Guatemala according to Casualties.org’s database.

For some immigrants, the DREAM Act will help them access to college in the US; for others, the barriers will continue to be insurmountable. One thing is certain – if the immigration bill passes, the quest to access higher education and achieve the American Dream will be nothing but a pipe dream as these new residents will be at the frontlines of next imperial misadventures.

And last night, Bush stated he is proposing a plan that would allow the military to “hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad … in the defining struggle of our time.”

The US Military has a long history of targeting people who happen to come from working class families and areas with a large amount of minorities, both urban and rural – otherwise known as a “poverty draft.” What makes today’s “poverty draft” more devious, given our current immigration issue, the proposed [tag]Civilian Reserve Corps[/tag] is one way “to uphold the great tradition of the melting pot that welcomes and assimilates new arrivals” and it would “resolve the status of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country — without animosity and without amnesty.”

The truth is without a draft that will impacted young white men and women, there will be no mass resistance among los gringos like it was in the 60s.

In other words, these pour souls will become the few, the proud – the military’s cannon fodder for the current war. In the document “Strategic Partnership Plan for 2002-2007″ written by the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, the architects of what we might call “[tag]niche recruiting[/tag]” stated:

“The Hispanic population is the fastest growing demographic in the United States and is projected to become 25% of the U.S. population by the year 2025.” The Plan goes on to explain: “Priority areas [for recruitment] are designated primarily as the cross section of weak labor opportunities and college-age population as determined by both [the] general and Hispanic population.” Not surprisingly, the top two recruiting batallion areas according to the Plan are Los Angeles and San Antonio.

With the promises of employment and visions of success and prosperity, it will not be surprising if we many Latinos and African Americans be willing to join the new Civilian Reserve Corps.

In hopes of escaping their economic prison, many will come to realize they will be bamboozled with empty words and false images – war really means death and suffering, not some X-box video game they thought it was.

The rest of this post is a re-post of the Green Card Daft because much of what I wrote has not changed.

As the military began preparing the invasion of Iraq, they already realized they were lacking the manpower needed for their invasion. There is no doubt the military’s Recruiting Command did not overlook the use of non-citizens to play a major role in their plan.

In July 2002, President Bush issued an executive order that would grant any non-naturalized soldiers serving honorably in the “war on terrorism” to speed up their process to citizenship once they have enlisted. Within 6 months, citizenship could be granted and they are once naturalized they can apply to have immediate families naturalized also.

According to Betsy Streisand, of the U.S. News & World Report, citizenship applications have gone up from 300 a month before Bush’s order to 1,300 a month in 2003. In short, the only reason Hispanics enlist in the military, really has nothing to do with defending our national security or “honor”, it is solely to increase their access to a decent education and a better life.

In a 2005 report by the Center for Naval Analysis (CNA Inc), a federally funded research organization for the US Navy, analysts found immigrants were half as likely as their US-born counterparts to wash out before completing their enlistment. Based on their finding and recognizing the need to “help fill current gaps and meet future needs,” they made several recommendations to tap into the “roughly 1.5 million potential non-citizen recruits”

To facilitate recruitment and retention of non-citizens in the military, the Department of Defense should:

• =>Provide military recruiters with more information for non-citizen recruits by developing materials for applicants and new recruits that explain eligibility for expedited citizenship, the advantages of filing for citizenship while in the military, and the benefits of attaining citizenship.
• =>Consider more structured, installation-based assistance that would help non-citizen service members and their dependents with the citizenship process.
• =>Investigate, through the Office of the Secretary of Defense, whether more uniform treatment of noncitizens across the military services is needed.

As Congress debates to tighten [tag]immigration[/tag] controls, tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants are serving in the armed forces. What is not generally known is that the Bush Junta, like the business community, has also been exploiting them. Some have even gone even further, Council on Foreign Relations neoconservative senior fellow Max Boot, and have proposed that the military, enlist and actively recruit foreigners from other countries.

The military would do well today to open its ranks not only to legal immigrants but also to illegal ones and, as important, to untold numbers of young men and women who are not here now but would like to come. No doubt many would be willing to serve for some set period in return for one of the world’s most precious commodities — U.S. citizenship. Open up recruiting stations from Budapest to Bangkok, Cape Town to Cairo, Montreal to Mexico City. Some might deride those who sign up as mercenaries, but these troops would have significantly different motives than the usual soldier of fortune. (Emphases mine)

As extreme as that might sound, when it comes to military service, many immigrates are willing to put their life on the line as a way to prove their loyalty to the US in hopes of obtaining the American Dream, equal treatment and acceptance in their new country. Realities the military and neo-cons like Max Boot are well aware of and are willing to exploit.

During the 2004 Presidential race, many people were talking about the possibility of reinstating the draft. But want many people don’t realize, once America went to war and after Bush’s executive order, the military, Congress and Citizenship and Immigration Services were already in the process of fast-tracking applications and making it easier for immigrants to become citizens.

When reports were coming in about the military recruitment was at a 30-year low, the military already started targeting Latinos to meet their targeted numbers. One of the Pentagon goals is to double the amount of Hispanic enlistment through aggressive marketing.

Another tool aiding the [tag]military[/tag] in recruiting Latinos into the armed services is through the little known Hispanic Access Initiative Act (HAIA) of 1996, which allows ROTC recruiters to target Latino students at high school and Hispanic Serving Institutions, colleges with a large Hispanic student body. Recruiters are given access to high school students’ addresses and phone numbers and are free to contact them at home, unless parents object. In 2004, the Army has added $10 million to its recruitment budget to advertise directly aimed at Hispanic audiences.

So how effective are their advertisement efforts in the recruiting process? As of Sept 9, 2006, everything is going as planned:

The Pentagon announced Friday that the Army met its recruiting goal for August, which a senior Army official said makes it virtually certain that the service will achieve its aim of signing up 80,000 new soldiers for the full recruiting year, which ends Sept. 30. Last year the Army fell short for the first time since 1999.

And recently, Emilio Gonzalez, director of the Bureau of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced there are more than 40,000 immigrants currently serving in the military and more than 26,000 have already been naturalized since Sept. 11, 2001.

Their pipeline for a brighter future – a chance to become the next teachers, doctors, scientist, and other professionals – is soon to becoming nothing more but a pipe dream of empty hopes and promises. For them, there is no American Dream, only an American Nightmare.

The sadistic irony in all of this, as many immigrants risk life and limb entering this country for a better life, they are now being asked to risk life and limb to be played as pawns in a geopolitical chess game – all for the most “precious commodity” – [tag]US citizenship[/tag].

It seems like many people were talking about the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s plan to introduce a bill to reinstate the draft last week. On CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday, Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel had told Bob Schieffer, he is serious about calling for the draft.

“If we’re going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can’t do that without a draft,” Rangel said.

On the following Monday in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Rangel continued to make his case by saying that the U.S. is too strained in Iraq.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rangel’s call for a reinstatement of the draft is based on the notion that congressional representatives would be less likely to back a war that might involve the lives of their own children.

“There’s no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm’s way,” said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

The fact is, the US is very unlikely to reinstate the draft because of the Vietnam experience, however, and the reality is, according to Gen. John Abizaid, the 4-star who runs Central Command, the US does not have the appropriate number of troops to maintain “stability” in the region.

In August, the Marine Corps resorted to involuntary call-ups, meaning the Marine called up as many as 2,500 Marine reservists who have already left active service for combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They would come from a pool of about 59,000 members of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) — Marines with specific skills who left active duty and returned to civilian lives, but are obligated to serve if called. Marine Corps officials said yesterday that reservists in their first or last years of enrollment will not be subject to recall.

Rangel’s bill is tempting among progressives and liberals because the proposed bill would require all men and women – regardless of socio-economic background – between age 18 and 42 to serve in the military. Rangel has introduced a similar bill in the past that has failed. The proposed bill is a modified version of a bill he sponsored in 2003 which he proposed a draft for people between 18 and 26.

Soon after Rangel stated he was in favor of reinstating the draft, there was enough buzz in the progressive blogosphere to scare off top level Democrats to ensure that there’s no chance a draft will be instituted in a Democratic controlled Congress. Other political and military leaders suggest that there is no need to institute a draft but and the problems in Iraq can be solved by providing a several hundred thousand additional troops.

However, conscription does have some unlikely champions, including Noam Chomsky.

I might add, for what it’s worth, that although I was actively involved in organizing and supporting resistance (including support for draft resisters) in the 60s, and was saved from a likely prison sentence only by the Tet offensive, I was never opposed to the draft. If there is to be an army, it would be best, I think, for it to be mainly a citizen’s army. In part for the reasons that the top command oppose that option.

The proposed bill, would force every level of society to participate in military service, rather than placing a disproportionate burden on minorities and the working class. Those who are in favor of this idea are calling this type of draft the “equality draft” because Rangel clearly states, “everyone should share in the sacrifice.” In other words, everybody will have equal opportunity of living in misery.

The last time there was talk about the possibility of the draft being reinstated was after the 2004 Presidential election, several Internet sites and alternative media were advocating this view. In March 2005, Phillip Carter and Paul Glastris wrote a decidedly pro-draft stance, “The Case for the Draft,” in the pro-centrist magazine, the Washington Monthly. Carter and Glastris argues that the US simply doesn’t have enough soldiers to occupy every country in Bush’s agenda since we already have hundreds of thousands of troops – of the 1.4 million men and women on active duty – stationed in hundreds of foreign nations. Therefore, a draft is needed to meet our shortcomings.

However, unlike last year, where most major media called it a “draft scare” created by Internet rumor mills and conspiracy theorist, this year, they have come out denouncing the idea. The US Selective Service System (SSS) website has been very quite this time around, during the “draft scare” officials from the Selective Service were quick to state that there were no “active plans” to revive a draft. Yet, US Selective Service System has said that they are ready to “pull the trigger” if Congress the president to authorize a draft system.

With the number of casualties nearing 3,000 since the invasion in Iraq and the dismissal of reinstating the draft, what are Americans to assume? One thing is for certain, most Americans are skeptical that a draft is likely. The general idea is that politicians of either party look at all costs to stay away raising the specter of a revived draft. And for most young Americans the draft seems far off. If only they knew.

Although Congress and the Department of Defense remains steadfastly opposed to a draft, their actions tell a different story. Even though the requirement for all men between 18 and 26 to register with the draft was suspended in 1975, in 1980, Congress reinstated draft registration for men 18 to 25 years old in “preparations for intervention” after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

Later, in 1987, Congress modified the Military Selective Service Act by enacting Public Law 100-180 which ordered the Selective Service System to put in place a structure capable of registering and classifying qualified health care personnel who are essential to the “maintenance of the Armed Forces.” Called the “Health Care Personnel Delivery System” (HCPDS), the system is able to specifically induct 73,000 civilian health care personnels from about 60 medical specialties if such a special-skills draft should be ordered by Congress.

The Selective Service system shall be maintained as an active standby organization, with (1) a complete registration and classification structure capable of immediate operation in the event of a national emergency (including a structure for registration and classification of persons qualified for practice or employment in a health care occupation essential to the maintenance of the Armed Forces), and (2) personnel adequate to reinstitute immediately the full operation of the System, including military reservists who are trained to operate such System and who can be ordered to active duty for such purpose in the event of a national emergency.

In 1989, Selective Service published its plans for the HCPDS for public comment on August 15, 1989 (54 Federal Register 33644-33654), and has had them ready ever since. According to one military doctor, in 2004, there was talk about that a physician draft is was most likely coming in the near future, however, nothing has been said if it will happen.

In 2003, a top-level meeting took place between the head of the SSS and Deputy Undersecretary in charge of Personnel and Readiness of the Department of Defense on reengineering a new type of draft, the Skills Draft. The unclassified memo proposes that the SSS be able to call up any number of several hundred skills the Pentagon and even the Dept. of Homeland Security might be lacking.

Washington Monthly piece by Phillip Carter and Paul Glastris, calls it the “21st century draft” and argues it would be more efficient than the conventional draft because it would be more universal (women as well as men) and more complex. In fact, it will not even be called a draft, it will wrapped up with an Orwellian label, sort like the “Clear Skies Initiative” or the “No Child Left Behind.” The draft will more likely be called “national service,” “homeland service,” or “universal service” and it draft for “homeland security” as well as duty overseas – duties would include being a border guard, immigration cop, IT specialists and medics.

If one were to look carefully to the wording used on “Face the Nation,” Rangel stated that the draft was not just for military services, but –

“young people (would) commit themselves to a couple of years in service to this great republic, whether it’s our seaports, our airports, in schools, in hospitals,” with a promise of educational benefits at the end of service.

I have previously written other posts (The CO Candidate’s Community Service Draft for Boys and The Green Card Draft) about chatter of reinstating the draft for “national service.”

This type of draft being proposed by some liberals and conservatives closely resembles what Israel has today. The Israeli national service requires three years of service for all Jewish and Druze men, two for all women–between age 17 and 50. Israel divides the type of service in three parts: military (compulsory for men, except orthodox women and Jewish or Druze theology students or teachers), security (police, fire, border, anti- terror units), and community service.

It is hard not to agree with Rep. Rangel and the pro-draft people who argue that the war in Iraq cannot be sustained by the existing volunteer force that makes up the current so-called All-Volunteer Army. But the idea of forcing people to become cannon fodder is unconscionable. And the to literally believe that creating a draft would limit political options by creating a level playing field between classes, are only fooling themselves from reality.

Rangel has provided the elite and the well connected a way out from serving military combat. The proposed plan will allow an individual the choice of serving in the military or doing civilian work. And if given that choice, the children of the ruling class and those who are well connected will be found working in air conditioned offices, while the vast majority of minorities and the working class will still be found fulfilling their “national service” duties in the Armed Forces. Anyone with an option to stay away from the military would and those who couldn’t would be sent off to some other country for the American Empire.

A draft by any other name is still a draft and it will still and always be wrong!