Henry A. Giroux / May 2, 2012  / Truthout - Since 9/11, the war on terror and the campaign for homeland security have increasingly mimicked the tactics of the enemies they sought to crush. Violence and punishment as both a media spectacle and a bone-crushing reality have become prominent and influential forces shaping American society. As the boundaries between "the realms of war and civil life have collapsed," social relations and the public services needed to make them viable have been increasingly privatized and militarized.(1) The logic of profitability works its magic in channeling the public funding of warfare and organized violence into universities, market-based service providers and deregulated contractors. The metaphysics of war and associated forms of violence now creep into every aspect of American society.

James Dao -

Ad Campaign for Marines Cites Chaos as a Job Perk

The war in Iraq is over, the troop reduction in Afghanistan is under way and America’s next war front is far from clear. If you are a military recruiter, how do market your product?

The Marine Corps thinks it has the answer: focus on something the world has in endless supply — chaos.

On Saturday, the Marine Corps will open its latest marketing campaign, “Toward the Sound of Chaos,” which will use social media, television commercials and print ads to underscore two points: That while no one knows where the next global hot spot will be, the Marines are ready to charge there.

Robert Koehler -

No mail on Saturday, maybe, but small-town police get armored personnel carriers?

Let's take a moment -- in the context of these bitter times, and President Obama's recent austerity budget proposal -- to celebrate the questions the residents of Keene, N.H., are asking their city council about the kind of world we're creating.

First of all, the grotesque insult of "austerity" in the shadow of limitless military spending is destroying our national sanity. And the proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, mental health services, environmental cleanup, National Parks programs and even, yeah, Saturday mail delivery are miniscule compared to the unmet social needs we haven't yet begun to address in this country, in education, renewable energy and so much more. But we're spending with reckless abandon to arm ourselves and our allies and provoke our enemies, and sometimes arm them as well, creating the sort of world no one (almost no one) wants: a world of endless war.

Amy Hagopian, PhD, Kathy Barker, PhD -

SINCE ITS ADOPTION IN 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified more quickly and by more governments than any other human rights instrument.1 There are only two United Nations (UN) members who have yet to ratify the convention: Somalia and the United States. Opponents of ratification object to giving away US sovereignty to the UN (a general objection applying to most treaties), but they also claim the treaty undermines parental rights.2

November 13, 2011 - Bloomberg Business Week

Dan Beucke -

My post last Friday about the jobless picture for young veterans clearly struck a nerve. The commentary that followed ranges across issues of war, peace, hope, despair, skills training — and, yes, immigration.

Some readers recounted their own experiences coming back from war and their success or failure in finding work. Billy Mo wrote that he “easily” found good-paying work after leaving the Air Force, then got caught in a 2006 downsizing. He has received “zero offers” and wound up “losing my home, car, retirement account and most of my possessions.” He concludes: “No one really seems to care.”

One part of my reporting that was backed up in some of the comments was the suggestion that vets face a cultural barrier coming back to corporate America. “There is (a) great wall against War veterans from corporate America,” writes John A. Mele. But it works both ways, says K. Mark Northrup; he suggests part of the problem is the military style of problem solving: