Iraq Veterans Kick Off Campaign to Shut Down Military Recruitment

“Befriend A Recruiter” campaign is designed to escalate ‘truth in recruiting’ effort by shutting down recruiting altogether.

CHICAGO – On September 17, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) will kick off its “Befriend a Recruiter” campaign, which encourages concerned citizens to help end the war the war in Iraq by befriending a recruiter and wasting military recruiters’ time.

As part of the IVAW “Truth in Recruiting” campaign, this action encourages anyone opposed to the Iraq war to tie up the resources of their local recruitment offices by pretending to be interested in signing up for service. The goal is to prevent recruiters from talking to anyone who is genuinely interested in joining the Armed Forces.

The IVAW campaigns aims to educate the public about the lies recruiters tell to bolster their ranks. As recruitment numbers continue to fall in response to Americans’ decreasing support for the Iraq War, the Armed Forces have lowered their standards for eligibility and started using misleading tools, like video games, to glorify the experience of going to war.

The “Befriend a Recruiter” campaign will subvert this system and help end the war by keeping these recruiters from doing their job. Anyone can take part in this operation by simply setting up an appointment with a recruiter and spending as much time with them as possible, said Aaron Hughes, president of the Chicago chapter of IVAW.

"By flooding recruiters and recruitment centers with phone calls, appointments, questions and smiling faces, recruiters will waste their time and resources on us,” Hughes said. “By calling and asking every question we can think of about the false opportunities the military is offering, we are taking away recruiters’ ability to recruit and thus helping to end the war and occupation of Iraq."

The kickoff is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 17 at a local recruitment center. The location will be announced the day of the event. For more information, visit www.befriendarecruiter.org or contact Aaron Hughes at 217-898-9083 or Chicago (at) ivaw.org.

10 AM, Monday, September 17
Chicago: specific location to be announced
Media Contact: Aaron Hughes, 217-898-9083, chicago (at) ivaw.org, aarhughes (at) gmail.com

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