On Dec. 22, the U.S. House and Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011. The bill authorizes $725 billion for next year’s Defense Department budget, including nearly $160 billion of what the Pentagon calls “overseas contingency operations” – Congress’s name for the U.S. wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon spends over $2.5 billion a year to recruit low-income youth using commercials, video games, personal visits and slick brochures that promise a better future through the military. Enticed by the promise of free college, many of our youth see the military as the only path to a college education. In fact, two-thirds of all recruits get no college funding from the military. Only 15% actually graduate with a four-year degree.