Members of the UW-Madison Campus Antiwar Network tried to dissuade students from joining the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Army at a career fair in the Kohl Center Tuesday.
CAN, an organization that opposes all forms of war, made its presence visible at the career fair by holding signs near the U.S. Marines and Army recruitment booths.
Their main goal was to approach people interested in joining any military branch and inform them about the negative aspects of war.
Nathan Maney, a UW-Madison freshman and member of CAN, said the group wanted to use counter-recruitment tactics to educate students.
[Our goal is to] intercept people talking to the Marines or a military branch and try to convince them of our arguments why they shouldn't go [to] war.""
In contrast, Matthew Grabowski, a U.S. Marine Corps selection officer, emphasized that the recruiters attended the career fair to provide information and not to force anyone to join.
""We don't force anything upon anybody, we are just about the information given and facilitating the process of them applying to the '¦ program,"" he said.
Grabowski said the U.S. Marines find the most candidates from Wisconsin at UW-Madison.
""The majority of our applicants are from UW-Madison '¦ We actually find the most highly qualified candidates from Madison both physically and academically,"" he said.
Grabowski did not believe the CAN presence affected students' position toward the Marines either way.
""If those people were swayed by these protesters, they wouldn't belong in the program in the first place,"" he said.
Jonah Zinn, a UW-Madison freshman and CAN member, said if its efforts fail and the war in Iraq drags on, CAN will continue pushing to make its voice heard.
""We are going to keep holding protests, putting pressure on our officials and anyone that is contributing to the war effort,"" he said. ""Our ultimate goal would be to push Obama to get troops out as soon as possible,"" he said.
