Who could forget the sly recruitment tricks exposed in Fahrenheit 911? It's even worse than Michael Moore showed. The military makes promises of high-tech training and money for college in return for military service, but fails to deliver in many cases. Much of the training is useless in the private sector. Money promised as part of the Army College Fund and other incentives come with strings attached.

As casualties increase and the military falls short on of enlistment goals, recruiters resort to high-pressure tactics and more empty promises. They also use information about our children public schools must provide. Leavemychildalone.org asks:

DID YOU KNOW…that the infernal Leave No Child Behind Act has a sneaky Pete section requiring high schools to turn over student information to military recruiters?

YIKES. What do we do? Any way you look at it, this is a family privacy nightmare, another strong-arming of our local schools, and a creepy warm-up to the Draft. However, it's also a great excuse to get together in action again.

Leavemychildalone.org has a five-point remedy, as they explain:

So whether you're a parent, neighbor, student, or just another adamant American concerned about privacy rights, look for an action to your liking below, and JOIN US.

1. SIGN ON as a citizen co-sponsor of US Representative Mike Honda's Student Privacy Protection Act.

2. OPT OUT your own child, or learn how the process works so you can tell your friends.

3. ADOPT-A-SCHOOL-BOARD by downloading the Working Assets AASB toolkit: everything you need to know to help your local schools do it right.

4. Host a MMOB house party with nationwide conference call on Wednesday, June 1st.

5. SEND an email to friends and family telling them how to Opt Out.

You can do all that at their website: www.leavemychildalone.org

It's bad enough recruiters are using sneaky access to trick teenagers behind their parents' backs. The military keeps making misleading promises about benefits while denying it condones deception by its recruiters. Slick TV commercials persuade potential recruits by making empty promises and by making military combat look like a video game.

The military runs deceptive inducements on networks teens watch like MTV. The Air Force - apparently without irony - sponsored a Comedy Central show called "Con" in which a self-professed conman tricks people into doing things for him by lying to them. I doubt many 17 year-olds question this connection - or the exciting enticements in the glitzy Air Force ads. The military uses what works. Their advertising experts know promises of college tuition attract new recruits. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:

The tuition perk offered as part of the Montgomery GI Bill, passed in 1985, is the No. 1 reason that young people enlist in the military, and it has become even more useful to recruiters as they have attempted to reverse declining enlistment numbers by signing up high-school students. But that benefit covers only about 60 percent of the average cost of college, according to the College Board. And while the majority of active-duty troops sign up for the benefit, during the last decade just 8 percent of eligible veterans used their full benefit and 30 percent failed to use it at all.

Even officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs warn potential enlistees that money for tuition should not be their motive for joining the U.S armed forces. Their message may not be getting through, though, because military recruiters, who report to the Department of Defense, have a different agenda.

See: "GI Recruiting Blues" http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2005/05/gi/chat.php3

Military expert Rod Powers wrote: "I spent 23 years in the Air Force and enjoyed every minute of it. My primary profession today is to manage this web site and research/write about the United States Military. Both of my daughters are happily serving in the Air Force. I love the military and every aspect of it. However, the military is not for everyone. Fully 40 percent of recruits who enlist in the military today will not complete their full term of service...."

None of that group - at least 2 of every 5 enlistees - will get any money for higher education from the military under the regulations governing benefits. Neither will almost all who leave the service without completing 3 continuous years of active duty service, nor those who leave early with anything less than a full honorable discharge. Powers discusses the Active Duty Montgomery G. I. Bill:

The ADMGIB is the same for all of the active duty services. The choice of whether or not to participate in the program is up to the recruit, and is made (after a briefing) in basic training. This is a one-time-choice, and you don't get the chance to change your mind later. If a recruit elects to participate, his/her military pay is reduced by $100 per month for 12 months ($1,200 total). In return, the recruit receives education benefits worth $36,104 ($29,376 for a two year enlistee)....

The G. I. Bill Benefits can be used while on active duty, or after (honorable) discharge (Note: Benefits expire 10 years after discharge). To use MGIB while on active duty, you must serve two continuous years of active duty.

According to Powers, this is the bottom line on the complex reality behind the enticing promises recruiters use to persuade children as young as 17 to risk their lives: "To use MGIB after (honorable) separation from active duty [y]ou must have served three continuous years of active duty, unless you were (honorably) discharged early for one of for one of a very few specific reasons (such as medical)."

After enlistees pay $1,200 per year to remain eligible for the benefits most of them never see one cent in return. Why? Because many if not most erstwhile scholars in uniform never serve three continuous years on active duty. Many don't complete even one!

Powers warns, "I found that a significant number of the involuntary discharges we imposed on first-term recruits was because they simply stopped trying - they discovered that the military wasn't what they thought it was going to be. Many of them told me that the military wasn't even close to what their recruiters told them it was going to be (either the recruiter lied to them, or they were guilty of 'selective listening.')" He adds "Education benefits for the Guard/Reserve Montgomery G. I. Bill are worth a total of $10,368. You must enlist for a period of six years or more."

See: "What the Recruiter Never Told You - Your Guide to U.S. Military" http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/recruiter.htm Also see: "Education Benefits and Enlisted College/Commissioning Programs" http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/recruiter8.htm

Not even $11 grand for six years risking life and limb for the USA? With the cost of college tuition that's a rather paltry reward. Keep in mind this is from a pro-military expert, a veteran whose own daughters serve in the Air Force.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports: "[C]ritics of the GI Bill, including many veterans, say it does not come close to meeting the financial needs of the modern soldier, and the benefits are often difficult to obtain.... 'It's inadequate, and well short of what is needed to pay for the cost of education at a state institution,' says Steve Robertson, legislative-affairs director for the American Legion."

But misleading promises work because "'Students hear the amount, and it's a big number, and they can't imagine that it wouldn't pay the full amount,' says Phillip Gainous, principal of Montgomery Blair High School, in Silver Spring, Md., where the percentage of students who enlist in the armed services right after high school is 1.5 times as high as the county average. 'Their mindset is that it's nothing to worry about, that they'll have it covered by the time college comes around.'"

See: "Military recruiters promise 'money for college,' but recent veterans find that tuition benefits fall short" http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i36/36a03101.htm

As the military keeps missing quotas, recruiters keep misleading if not lying to young kids The US military supports these deceptions with fantastic ads - paid for by our tax dollars - packed with special effects and empty promises.