by Antonio Aguilar

Created on: April 15, 2008   Last Updated: May 09, 2008

In a disturbing trend that is reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s, cities and institutions are turning against the U.S. military, and expressing their political views through outright attacks and symbolic gestures against the military and the U.S. government.

You may remember in December of 2004 when the Boston Globe reported that Harvard University banned military recruiters from their campus, supposedly due to the Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Harvard saw this as anti gay; and banned recruiters from the campus. Harvard is not alone in this move. In August 2005, SeattlePi.com reported that Seattle School Board members sought more restrictions on recruiters and accused them of disproportionately targeting different populations. This accusation ignored the fact that in certain areas, different ethnic groups respond more favorably to military recruiting efforts. In 2007 a federal appeals court struck down an attempt by Yale to limit recruiters.

Schools are not the only place where an extremely hostile attitude has been displayed, increasingly so since the war in Iraq began, against the military and the U.S. government. In March 2008, Reuters reported that two Vermont towns, Marlboro and Brattleboro, had voted in favor of arresting President Bush for war crimes. Obviously this is a symbolic gesture as the two towns could not legally arrest the President of the United States, nor do they have legal authority in any international court or war crimes court. To some, including myself, this borders on treason. In a time of war, to take direct action against your own government, is in essence siding with the enemy. According to the Random House Dictionary 2006, treason is "the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign; a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state; the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery." To arrest the President of ones country for charges that no legal court has even brought against him, much less found him guilty of, would be harming one's government and sovereign, a violation of allegiance to the same, and the betrayal of trust and confidence.

Towns are not only turning against the President, they are turning against the military too. As reported by Fox News, and confirmed by Snopes, in January 2008, the city of Berkley California passed a measure 8 to 1 to tell U.S. Marine recruiters that their downtown recruiting station was unwelcome, and that any recruiters in the city were "unwelcome guests". The city council also allocated the parking lot in front of the recruiting station to the anti-war group Code Pink. Finely, the council called on citizens of Berkley to impede the work of the recruiters. In February, the city of Berkley stated that they respect and support service members, and that recruiters were welcome, but nothing was done to rescind the allocation of parking in front of the recruiting station to an anti-war group, or the statement urging citizens to impede the work of recruiters. The council members stated that they strongly oppose the war and the recruitment of young people. The city of Berkley did not respond to an email from this author regarding this incident.

All these actions show ignorance on the part of those involved. If it were not for the military and the U.S. government, the right to take such anti government and anti military action would not exist.

Learn more about this author, Antonio Aguilar.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.