The last few months have seen an upswing in the amount of anti-war activity centered on challenging military recruiters and working with military families disillusioned with the current war. While both of these activities seem to hold promise, one obstacle many activists may find in pursuing them is a lack of knowledge about the realties of the modern American military. In his book America's Military Today: The Challenge of Militarism, Tod Ensign gives activists looking to learn more about the military a valuable tool. While Ensign, the director of the GI advocacy group Citizen Soldier, is listed as the author, the book contains several chapters written by different people on various topics pertaining to the military with variations in style and approach. Regardless, the book contains much information that is both informative and useful and is rather comprehensive in its examination of today's military.

For the activist working to educate young people on the realities of military recruiting, the first two chapters of the book will prove especially useful. Here Ensign systematically lays out the nuts and bolts of the recruitment process, pointing out the lies behind the recruiter's promises. Equally as important, Ensign explains what a person who has already signed the enlistment contract but has had a change of heart about joining the military can do. The second chapter is a point-by-point examination of basic training. This section is useful in that it lays bare the dehumanizing and degrading nature of boot camp and would be useful reading by any young person unfamiliar with the physical and mental abuse that makes up indoctrination technique referred to as "basic training".

The next section of the book consists of fifty pages of letters from service men and women serving in Iraq or from their family members. Some of these letters are from soldiers that have been killed. Two of the letters are from relatively well known anti-war activists, Stan Goff and Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia. While these two provide powerful and well written testimonies, all the letters are moving and thought provoking. This section of the book is certainly the most emotionally powerful part of the book and it is worth wondering if the letters do not deserve a separate and expanded publication of their own.

The next two chapters deal with discrimination in the military, particularly as it relates to women, minorities, gays and lesbians. The section on sexism by Linda Bird Francke is particularly disturbing in its description of harassment and rape within the military. Armed with a considerable amount of data and reports, Francke illuminates the military's sad history of hostility and abuse of its own female members. The chapter on gays and lesbians provides good information on the options and consequences for military members who wish to "come out."

These chapters are followed by a couple articles by different authors on Gulf War sickness and depleted uranium. Both of these articles provide clear sober analysis of these issues, something very difficult to find in the mainstream press, which often refuses to cover the topic, and from the independent press, which can be prone to hyperbole and exaggeration on this issue. The next three chapters are all written by Ensign and deal with the military justice system, the use of the military in police work, and the draft. As with the preceding chapters, these sections are laid out in a clear and understandable manner. The chapter on legal justice provides a good guide for military members who have run afoul of military law and are looking for help in navigating the lamentable system known as the "military justice."

The final chapter in the book, entitled "The return of the Poor Bloody Infantry" by George and Meredith Friedman, provides a rather odd and off-key end to an otherwise valuable and well thought-out book. Sounding more like a sci-fi fantasy than a sober appraisal of the role of the foot soldier in future warfare, this chapter is of little use to either the anti-war activist or the young person considering a military career. This chapter attempts to deal with the topic of how future and present technological advances in weaponry may affect the nature of future wars. The authors imagine a whole slew of new robotics to create "super soldiers" while neglecting to address how these same technological advances may also enhance other combat systems such as tanks (which the authors erroneously refer to as "obsolete") and aircraft.

Regardless of the discussion of what toys the generals may have in the future, the authors miss the more important point, which is that the U.S. already enjoys a huge technological advantage over any opponent it may fight. Given this reality, a more fruitful analysis may come from recognizing that any future war the US embarks on is bound to be an asymmetrical one, a trend which will only be increased by the technological marvels the authors see in the future. The most preposterous claim made by the authors in this section is at the end of the piece in which they conclude by reasoning that a substantial increase the firepower of the individual infantryman will somehow lead, through the magic of "precision" targeting and munitions, to a decrease in the level of destructiveness of future wars.

In spite of the Heinlein inspired fantasies of the final chapter, there is much valuable information in America's Military Today to make it required reading for any activist working to resist militarism and empire. While many books deal with the grand issues and analysis of US militarism and imperialism, Tod Ensign's book is a wealth of information on the important details of the modern military as well as providing a broad overview as well. Every person heading into a recruiting station should be given a copy.