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Title: JROTC is Fascist Author: Scott Rittenhouse Language: en Topics: anti-fascist, anti-militarist, anti-racist, education, Insurgency Culture Collective, sexism, United States, violence, war Source: Retrieved on January 1, 2005 from http://www.cat.org.au
“At a mass meeting thought is eliminated.”
— Adolf Hitler
“When troops react to command rather than thought, the result is more
than just a good-looking ceremony or parade. Drill has been and will
continue to be the backbone of military discipline.”
— Army JROTC Textbook, Vol 1, Page 87
“We’ve eliminated that conception of political freedom which holds that
everybody has the right to say whatever comes into his head.”
— Adolf Hitler, Secret Conversations, 1943
“Soldiers are trained to obey orders instantly, without questioning
them.”
— Army JROTC Textbook, Vol 2, Page 185
“Fascism, in short, is not only the giver of laws and the founder of
institutions, but the educator and promoter of spiritual life. It wants
to remake, not the forms of life, but its content, man, character,
faith. And to this end it requires discipline and authority that can
enter into the spirits of men and there govern unopposed.”
— Benito Mussolini, Italian Encyclopedia, 1932
“Respect for authority and discipline go hand in hand, but the first one
to be acquired must be discipline. Self-discipline involves voluntary
acceptance of authority.”
— Air Force JROTC Textbook, Vol 1, Page 65
“My Honor is Loyalty.”
— Nazi SS slogan etched in their daggers
“Among the traits of a good follower, loyalty is at the top of the list.
This means loyalty to those above us on the chain of command, whether or
not we agree with them.”
— Navy JROTC textbook, Vol 1, Page 24
Only you can destroy fascism, racism and sexism.
Smash Fascism!
Expel JROTC from our schools.
“The receptive ability of the great masses is only very limited, their
understanding is small; on the other hand, their forgetfulness is
great.”
— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1923
“The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed,
for the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more
easily deceived that they are consciously and intentionally bad. The
primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a
big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but
would be ashamed to tell big ones.”
— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1923
“If Fascism came to America it would be on a program of Americanism.”
— Huey P. Long, Army Talk, March 24, 1945
“Not every item of news should be published: rather must those who
control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a
certain purpose.”
— Joseph Paul Goebbels, Diary, March 14, 1943
The United States Government is tracking non-white and low income youth
into the military. The military has runs JROTC programs in 2600 high
schools nationwide. The military targets low income schools in the same
way tobacco and alcohol companies target low income communities. The
results are equally deadly. 54% of JROTC participants are students of
color. JROTC participants are recruited directly into the lowest
enlisted ranks of the military. During the Persian Gulf War over 50% of
Front Line Troops were people of color. Overall, 30% of enlisted
personnel are people of color but, only 12% of officers are people of
color. As a result, people of color are disciplined and discharged under
other than honorable conditions at a much higher rate than whites.
Non-whites are less likely to receive technical training with
applications outside the military and are more likely to be tracked into
combat jobs. As a result, they are less likely to be employed when they
get out. When a recent study showed a slight dip in young
African-Americans’ (disproportionately high) interest in the military,
the Pentagon reacted with a new advertising campaign. They now target
Latino youth with special Spanish-language advertising.
The US Army spends $800,000 a year on 16 vans used for recruiting. The
recruiting vans avoid wealthier communities and target more working
class areas and communities of color. The vans spread propaganda that
tells high school students that the military is an adventure and war is
like playing video games. They gloss over military involvement in
promoting racial segregation, the placement of Japanese Americans in
Concentration Camps and genocide against Native Americans. The official
military policy until after World War II was that African Americans were
“natural cowards” and couldn’t be trusted to fight in combat!
JROTC takes $50,000 per school per year of local school district money
away from high schools in communities of color which would otherwise go
to fund a legitimate education for students.
“War is to man what maternity is to a woman.”
— Benito Mussolini, Autobiography
Sexual harassment and assault are a daily reality for the overwhelming
majority of women in the military. The U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs says that 90% of recent women veterans report being sexually
harassed and 1/3 report being raped while they are in the military.
Despite glossy military recruiting brochures which advertise
“opportunities for women,” the military’s inherent sexism is evident
from Sergeants shouting “girl!” at trainees who don’t “measure up,” to
the intimidation of women who speak out about harassment and
discrimination.
The military doesn’t consider women to be “qualified” for many military
jobs and many military personnel don’t consider women “strong enough” to
lead or accompany male troops into combat. The military does not
consider them serious material for potential military personnel. As a
result, female JROTC students are not given the same opportunities as
their male counterparts.
“The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this
world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which,
fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will
against others.”
— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1923
Almost all schools feel that one of their primary obligations is to
teach critical thinking where young people are able to solve “real
world” problems. Instead, JROTC teaches unquestioning amoral obedience
and loyalty to “leaders,” regardless of whether they are right or wrong.
The military teaches that “leadership,” blind obedience to authority and
“honor” are one in the same thing and that this is the military’s most
respected personality characteristic. The military drills JROTC cadets
over and over so that they are conditioned to blindly follow orders and
believe whatever the military authorities over them tell them.
JROTC classes are taught by teachers who do not have the education
necessary to qualify to get a standardized State teaching credential.
JROTC classes and textbooks are designed by the Pentagon to encourage
cadets to trust the military and believe that anyone who does not trust
military “leaders” and the U.S. Government is inferior and deserves to
be discriminated against. JROTC lies about American history to promote
militarism and make largely boring, servile and degrading military jobs
look glamorous and adventurous.
JROTC promotes Nationalism to encourage cadets to think of wars like
high school team sports rather than a series of hardships, senseless
killings and betrayals by people in charge which are characteristic of
real combat. They teach cadets that the military only fights to defend
“Freedom” and “the American Way of Life.” They do not tell them that
members of the military are routinely denied civil rights guaranteed by
the U.S. Constitution; including being assumed guilty of charges made by
persons in charge unless you can prove yourself innocent (and that the
military seldom believes you if your “leaders” contradict you).
The military never tells cadets that military officers are trained to
accept 50% casualties (half of you and your friends ending up dead in
combat) as acceptable losses in a war. It claims that this is “fighting
for your country” but, young people from wealthy or upper middle class
families have seldom been drafted. The Government has routinely provided
draft loopholes for privileged people through College Exemptions or
non-combat jobs in the United States, or military administration or
support operations where they are unlikely to get shot at. The people in
the government who declare war are never the ones to fight it.
JROTC programs across the country have been rocked by scandals because
JROTC encourages violence and predatory behavior among the young. The
resulting violence ranges from military-style executions to
military-style hazing. Violence is not an aberrational byproduct of
JROTC; violence is the program’s inevitable result. Violence is promoted
by the ethics and curriculum of the program itself! By glossing over the
murder and brutality of war, cadets become more at ease with murder,
hazing and other forms of brutality. The continued presence of bigotry
in the military curriculum teaches JROTC cadets that hate crimes are
O.K. because certain people are “inferior.”
Military training is designed to dehumanize soldiers so they will kill
on command without questioning orders. JROTC praises obedience without
question. JROTC cadets receive military training like enlisted soldiers
including training them to uses rifles and other weapons. JROTC training
has been linked to the Mafia style shooting of a student in Detroit, MI,
Hate crimes, kidnapping and murder in Long Beach, CA, Murder in an
Arizona Buddhist Temple, Conspiracy to murder in Clifton, NJ, Robbery
against immigrants in South San Diego County, CA, Hazing and assault in
San Francisco, CA and Heat Stroke of 50 students in Houston, TX after
they were ordered to remain standing in formation in the hot sun (26 of
these students were hospitalized).
“A violently active, dominating youth is what I am after. I will have no
intellectual training. Knowledge is ruin to my young men.”
— Adolf Hitler, Quoted in The Nation
JROTC is a “Trojan Horse” used by the military to get access to high
school students for recruiting purposes. JROTC provides no opportunities
to learn job skills applicable to a real job. 50% of JROTC graduates
goon to enlist in the military. Persons enlisting in the college fund
program must pay a $1,200 non-refundable fee and only 35% of veterans
ever receive any college benefits. Although persons going into the
military were promised money to go to college, the military actually
deducted $720 million more from military paychecks between 1986 and 1993
than they paid out in actual college assistance.
Military job training is a myth. Only 12% of men and 6% of women use any
of the skills they learn in the military in a job after they get out.
The unemployment rate for veterans is higher than people who don’t join
the military. 50,000 veterans are now on Government waiting lists for
training. 1/3 of all homeless people were once in the military. Many
employers actively discriminate against ex-military personnel.
Many soldiers who end up in combat are permanently disabled. Land mines
and terrorism are now the weapons of choice in most third world wars and
so-called “low intensity conflicts.” Battlefield medical facilities
often do not provide for modern medical care and the military medical
doctrine which emphasizes returning soldiers to combat as quickly as
possible sometimes leads to malpractice. Military doctors are officers
and are protected by federal law from be sued by military personnel or
their families.
In the 1950s U.S. Army troops were ordered to conduct military training
in the desert after nuclear bombs had been set off so the military could
see what would happen to them. All of them died from cancer or related
diseases. Many Viet Nam veterans were permanently disabled by Agent
Orange and other chemical weapons. Gulf War veterans have been
genetically disabled so their children are born physically deformed. The
military routinely denies any harmful exposure of troops as a result of
military blunders in order to protect their image.
“Three cheers for war! Three cheers for Italy’s war, noble and beautiful
above all, with its 500,000 dead who are our surest wealth. And three
cheers for war in general.”
— Benito Mussolini, Autobiography
Destroy Fascism
Organize Against JROTC in Your School
Tell Everybody about the Big Lie of Military Opportunity