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March 20 marked the 20th anniversary of the United States鈥� invasion of Iraq. The war took hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, with some estimates of Iraqi casualties putting the number at . More than in Iraq during and after the invasion, and . 

Meanwhile, and not coincidentally, the U.S. military is facing since the end of the Vietnam War. The Defense Department鈥檚 budget proposal for 2024 outlines a plan for the military to , but to reach its projected numbers, it will still need to embark on a heavy recruitment push. Across the country, anti-war veterans and their allies are working together in an effort to stop the U.S. military from reaching its goal.

is a project of New York City-based nonprofit World Can鈥檛 Wait. The organization sends military veterans into schools to share honest stories of the harm they have caused and suffered. In doing so, they hope to prevent young people from signing up. 

鈥淚 wish I had somebody who told me when I was young,鈥� says Miles Megaciph, who was stationed in Cuba and Okinawa with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1992 to 1996. 鈥淭he experiences I鈥檝e lived, as painful as they are, and as much as I don鈥檛 like to relive them, are valuable to help future adults not live those experiences,鈥� Megaciph told me.

鈥淲e wanted to get to the people who were going to be the next recruits,鈥� says Debra Sweet, the executive director of World Can鈥檛 Wait. When We Are Not Your Soldiers launched in 2008, the experience was often intense for veterans. 鈥淭hey were all fresh out of Afghanistan and Iraq,鈥� Sweet remembers. 鈥淚t was very raw, it was very hard. [It was] really hard for them to go talk to people in public about what had happened. And we learned a lot about PTSD, up close and personal, and how it was affecting people.鈥�

Since then, over 50 veterans have participated in We Are Not Your Soldiers. Currently, the project relies on a group of nine veterans, who receive a stipend of $125 for each visit. Teachers affiliated with World Can鈥檛 Wait also offer curricular support to veterans so they can connect their stories to class lessons.

I鈥檓 trying to respect these kids by telling them the truth that other people are not telling them.

Joy Damiani

Sarah Gil, a school teacher at the City-As-School, a transfer high school in New York City, has brought veterans from We Are Not Your Soldiers to her classroom to speak to students in classes focused on just war, race and racism, economics, and moral responsibility. 鈥淭hey share their vulnerability, and it鈥檚 more than I could ever do with any of my lessons,鈥� Gil says of the veterans鈥� visits.

Joy Damiani, an Iraq War veteran who served six years in the U.S. Army, has learned how to use that vulnerability more selectively over time. 鈥淚 used to go into the classroom and spend a lot of time talking,鈥� Damiani says. 鈥淸I was] trying to scare kids into not joining the military, because I was still so freshly traumatized from that.鈥� More recently, Damiani says her role is less about trying to scare young people and instead providing an alternative perspective. 鈥淚鈥檓 trying to respect these kids by telling them the truth that other people are not telling them. I鈥檓 trying to give them something I didn鈥檛 have, which was somebody to bring the real talk right into my face where I needed it.鈥� 

鈥淯sually, the students don鈥檛 have any idea of what it鈥檚 actually like,鈥� Megaciph says. 鈥淭heir narrative really comes from television and comes from the national narrative. 鈥楾hank you. Thank you for your service. It鈥檚 an honor to be a member of the military. Travel the world鈥� stuff.鈥� While most students have a generally positive view of the military, Megaciph has noticed a shift in recent years. 鈥淚 think in the past two years, maybe since the pandemic, there鈥檚 been a lot more talk about mental health in our country. And so I think in the past two years, I鈥檝e seen more students aware of the trauma that veterans have.鈥�

Susan Cushman is a professor at Nassau Community College and Adelphi University on Long Island, where military recruiters have a heavy presence, particularly on the Nassau campus. She hosts veterans from We Are Not Your Soldiers to help her students 鈥渢hink about alternative ways to achieve an education and get a pension and get a job and travel, without feeling the only option is to join the military.鈥�

In order to counter both the narrative and incentives that military recruiters offer young people, veterans try to share the truth about traumatic personal experiences as well as practical information.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very meaningful to hear from a veteran that when you enlist, that you are the property鈥攍iterally are seen as the property鈥攐f the U.S. government,鈥� Gil says. Damiani works to put the seemingly attractive military salary and benefits in context for students. 鈥淐onsidering you鈥檙e on duty 24 hours a day or on call 24 hours a day, you鈥檝e sold them your body, mind, and soul, essentially. You might not get it back.鈥� 

Megaciph also tries to place the role of the military in the context of broader social issues that he knows students care about, including police violence and climate change.

鈥淭he U.S. military is the global police, so I like to put that in the students鈥� head that the way that the police treat Black and Brown and poor people in this country is the way that the military treats people around the rest of the world,鈥� he says. He also tells students that the U.S. military is the . 

Ultimately, stories told by veterans like Megaciph and Damiani can be an effective tool to disrupt the mainstream narrative about militarism. But is it enough?

Rick Jahnkow is a steering committee member and an administrative staff volunteer and organizer at the nonprofit National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY). 鈥淪imply having veterans doesn鈥檛 take into account the way that military recruiters have been trained to convince young people to want to go in the military,鈥� Jahnkow says. 鈥淭he recruiters have been trained to use basically psychological methods to turn people around if they鈥檙e being reluctant to enlist, and if a recruiter knows that a veteran has visited the same class, they have ways to negate that.鈥� 

In addition to the military鈥檚 preparedness for counter-recruitment, there鈥檚 also the issue of simple math. The Pentagon has a multibillion-dollar budget for recruiting alone. By contrast, We Are Not Your Soldiers has an annual budget of $25,000. Meanwhile, Megaciph, Damiani, and the seven other volunteers are up against a much larger body of veterans who generally support military recruitment. According to a 2019 survey conducted by , the military. 

With these challenges in mind, NNOMY produced a video called The 16-minute video seeks to lay out a case against military service that preempts the military鈥檚 psychological recruitment tactics. With veteran stories and statistics, the video debunks perks, such as 鈥渇ree education鈥� and job training, that the military uses to appeal to potential recruits. The video explains that college benefits are not guaranteed and a 鈥済eneral鈥� discharge can completely disqualify a veteran from receiving benefits. Furthermore, a college education paid by the U.S. military still bears a cost, even if it is not financial. As Matt Stys, a U.S. Army veteran featured in the video, says, 鈥淵ou might not be paying monetarily, but you鈥檙e paying with your body, you鈥檙e paying with your soul, you鈥檙e paying with your mind.鈥� Other veterans share stories of struggling to find meaningful, well-compensated work after their service. According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics figure cited in the video, unemployment for young veterans aged 25 to 34 was 42% higher than non-veterans of the same age.

The video also offers a way to bring this message into a greater number of classrooms given the limited number of veterans who are able to make classroom visits. Jahnkow also describes the video as a training tool to develop students鈥� critical thinking skills so they will be prepared to handle recruitment conversations themselves.

Also central to the video鈥檚 message is an explanation of the idea of the 鈥渆conomic draft鈥� or 鈥�.鈥� The video ends by directing viewers to . Jahnkow and others explain that understanding the economic constraints of young people and offering alternative pathways is essential to counter recruitment efforts.

鈥淚 feel like empathizing with them is the first step,鈥� Damiani says. 鈥淎cknowledging that right now they don鈥檛 have a lot of choices and the military offers a lot of at least money. It seems to them to be a lot. A $10,000 signing bonus sounds like a shitload of money to a teenager.鈥� 

Transforming the pre-K-12 education system is an important component of countering recruitment drives. The ways in which starting from an early age has a . Students who have been excluded from higher-level courses and the college and career pathways that accompany them . Other resources educators can tap into include texts like Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz鈥檚 An Indigenous Peoples鈥� History of the United States and the Zinn Education Project, which present U.S. history with a more honest context.

Aside from creating more opportunities for poor and working-class students, targeting policy changes at the school and district level to protect students from recruitment is another important tactic. Jahnkow cites victories by the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities鈥� campaigns to limit recruitment activity at schools that other communities could replicate. 

At the same time, the curriculum itself has a role to play. Currently, the standard school curricula often valorizes war and soldiers, while leaving out the U.S. military鈥檚 historical role in genocide and colonization. 鈥淵ou know, the Department of the Army was started for clearing Natives off their land and eradicating them, and that still goes on today,鈥� Megaciph says, referring to the original Department of War established in 1789. 

Lastly, veterans and organizers like Jahnkow say there is an urgent need to build up the capacity of anti-war, anti-recruitment organizing. Damiani says that includes 鈥渇inding ways to de-stigmatize sharing the dark side of the military so that more veterans, when they get out, feel safe and comfortable talking about the real shit rather than continuing to glamorize it.鈥� 

But growing the pool of veterans鈥攁nd starting other counter-recruitment strategies鈥攚ill take money. Counter-recruitment organizing efforts are severely underfunded, Jahnkow says. At the same time, many counter-recruitment and anti-war organizations are being outmaneuvered by the military in digital and social media spaces. This is partly an issue of funding, but Jahnkow adds that the volunteer base for anti-war organizations also skews older. Fighting recruitment online more effectively will require more younger volunteers with the skill set to use Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms in ways the counter-recruitment movement currently does not.

Meanwhile, Jahnkow believes that in today鈥檚 poor recruiting environment, the military will 鈥減ull out all the stops鈥� in both digital and personal recruitment. 

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 super trippy, that there are children who are old enough to be in the military and being deployed to Iraq, who were not born when the war started. That is something that is just devastating and tragic to me,鈥� Damiani says. 鈥淚t fuels my fire to keep talking to the kids, because they need to know.鈥�