Firstly, it should be noted that UC Berkeley has become a very conservative campus over the past few decades (Trust me, I've visited, it's far from liberal) Whatever this protest is, it's not a popular protest. Something must have sparked this protest, possibly ROTC troops arriving somewhere and protesting an anti-war lecture or something. It is not illegal for the Military, with the proper permission from the campus, to recruit on or around campus. Therefore, they're protesting a moot point, and unless they have the proper permission from the campus their protest is illegal. My ideas about government have shifted quite a bit, I now believe government power should be absolute, and the power of the law is undeniable.
Secondly, korni, those are Socialist ideas, not Communist. Communist is vague, indefinite. Please state Marxist, Stalinist, Leninist, Trotskyist, Anarcho-Communist, Maoist, etc. There is no such thing as "Communist".
Thirdly, Mahasoor, Marine's don't protect, the National Guard protects. Marines, although founded upon the policy of harassing British through guerilla warfare, are frontline shock troops, not urban defense. That's why the Army and Army National Guard hold the cities while Marines take the offensive.
Fourth...ly... Myro government dictating what goes where isn't communism lol not at all. It's state control. There's State Capitalism, State Socialism, Police states, etc. all around the world. To ignorantly call everything run by authoritarian rule communist is naive.
As for my opinions: The Marines have their right to recruit, this country affords all things their right to advertise. In general, the military targetting college campuses tends to be rather foolish, most people join the military to get their college fund, if they're at a 'prestigous' if decayed school like UC Berkeley they aren't going to join a war. Hell, people join ROTC, so it's even more pointless. For the Marines to have a recruiting is perfectly fine. For the people to call them blood sucking scum is fine, as Federal law states that Federal employees are not subject to the same rights as regular citizens, which is why I can't be arrested for calling the president a scum sucking cock wrangling pansy. For them to disagree with the war is fine, for them to be hippies is laughable. Honestly, a Marine recruiting station isn't the place to protest, it only makes me sympathize with the soldiers and feel rather annoyed with the protesters. They need to do it some place meaningful, like a Federal building. This is the kind of bad organization the SDS had in the 70's.
On a side note, the hippies and their anti-Vietnam war protests didn't stop the war. Surveys show that as a result of their anti-war demonstrations support for the war actually increased. It's why Nixon was voted in, and not an anti-war cadidate. A movement started and upheld by rich white kids with draft deferrments and college students isn't attractive to most of America, and it is sad that today the institution teaching history is filled with these inflated egomaniacs who believe they did stop the war.
