Unfriendly Fire

Last year, as Americans celebrated their military victory in the Persian Gulf, a group of peace activists were planning a comprehensive, and apparently unprecedented, assault of their own. The goal of this new coalition: to eliminate the influence of the U.S. military in the nation's public and private schools.

The broad-based coalition, encompassing more than two dozen organizations, is encouraging and coordinating the efforts of grassroots peace-education and anti-military activists across the country. Working in concert, they hope to increase pressure on school boards, administrators, and counselors to halt recruitment and other practices on high school campuses, acknowledged by the military to be ``desired'' turf.

The coalition, known as the National Campaign to Demilitarize Our Schools, emerged as a formal entity in October. It brings together longstanding national anti-war groups, such as the American Friends Service Committee, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, and the War Resisters League, with newer and smaller...