To the editor:

This is a call to all military recruits. First, please ask yourselves whether an institution that uses deceptive recruiting practices should be willfully entered. Second, ponder the moral implications of participating in an institution of violence used by a government that doesn’t require justification for invading another country. By definition, Bush’s foreign policy is always right and anyone who opposes his administration is always wrong. This is the same mentality used by all past empires, which we consider to be the opposite of what the United States represents.

These are points that should matter the most to any prospective recruit. I concede that one can benefit personally from joining the military, but consider that a drug dealer can also benefit personally from selling drugs to kids, and a CEO can benefit personally from hiding billions of dollars in losses from stockholders, and a president can benefit personally from lying about “stockpiles” of weapons of mass destruction, and then order the deaths of 10,000 innocent people, and so on.

As a military recruit prepared to defend your country with your own life, does it make sense to put your own interests above all else? If you or someone you know wishes to exit their contract before going off to boot camp (as are many students of the class of 2004), there’s nothing illegal about it, contrary to what recruiters say.

Chris White,

Lawrence