September 12, 2009, a crowd of 250 activists marched to the AEC in opposition to the use of public dollars to teach children--in a quasi-public-space--that killing can be fun, while also recruiting eighteen-year-olds to engage in the real thing. This time, police arrested six protesters and one journalist. The journalist, Cheryl Biren, wasn't with the protesters but was picked out of the crowd, apparently because of her professional camera.

Days prior to this long-planned and publicly announced protest, the Army preemptively announced that it would likely close the AEC and not open any others in shopping malls, as had been planned. The reason? Are you ready to hear this?

By their own admission, the Army doesn't need any more recruits because the bad economy has driven up recruitment significantly.

I seen those things in my local mall. War turned into a video game. The real deal is completely different.

I mourn for our kids.

In our (as in where I live) they are being recruited to fight wars for a foreign power which have no relevance to their history or future and with the current colonial goverment firing tens of thousands of goverment workers, I expect more lambs will be fed to the meat grinder.

The sad thing is that most go willingly...fuggin' sheep to slaughter.

They don't know any better. I wanted to join the Army, (a steady diet of G.I. Joe will do that to a kid) even considered doing an internship with the CIA of all places!