The provision, signed last year to showcase a greater resolve to improve academic performance and opportunities for the nation's youth, contains a little-known provision to help military recruiters.

        It requires high schools that receive federal education funds to disclose the names, addresses and telephone numbers of students to military recruiters. Such information, I imagine, could come in handy should the need arise for more young adults to serve in a war effort.

        David P. Driscoll, U.S. education commissioner, sent a communique two months ago to all public school superintendents, principals and leaders of charter schools and collaboratives, reminding them of their duty to identify kids for recruiters.

        Parents who don't like this can opt out. But it's like those so-called privacy provisions to prevent more junk mail from businesses; you must take the initiative to remove your child's name from his or her high school's lists.

        Schools are required to notify parents of their rights, Mr. Driscoll wrote, and to keep records of parents or students who exercise them by objecting.

Patriotic considerations

        This gives the phrase “leave no child behind” a new connotation, and it further bolsters my qualms about waging war against Iraq, or anywhere.

        The armed forces we are readying are mostly young men and women with lives still capable of heading in a multitude of directions. Their futures bear immeasurable amounts of potential as well as risks, but war would make those risks deadly.

        Would I want my son “over there” if we went to war with Iraq?

        Of course not. But neither did parents of the soldiers, sailors or service members during previous wars. It was a sacrifice they made, my patriotism says, to serve their country.

        But I can't answer the next question: Is this sacrifice necessary? Will this be a righteous war?

        I'm afraid we won't look back on it like we do World War II; it'll seem more like Vietnam or, at least, like the Gulf War. That conflict made a part of the region safer for global oil interests and moneyed classes, but it didn't quell threats against the United States.

        I know I'm in the minority. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll completed Sunday showed support for U.S. military action against Iraq at 57 percent.

        About 64 percent said they approve of how President Bush is handling Iraq, even though half of all Americans say they don't think his administration has “a clear and well-thought-out policy on the Iraqi situation.”

        About 39 percent of Americans are opposed to a U.S.-Iraq conflict.

Family ties

        Go ahead and call me a wuss, pinko or whatever else you think describes my position. I've always been too cautious to be a wartime hawk.

        As a parent, I've become worse. There's an imaginary umbilical cord that binds me to my children and makes me vulnerable to whatever they go through.

        As babies learning to walk, they'd tug that cord and I'd fight an urge to tell them to stay by me, where I could keep them (and myself) safe.

        Now they're older — not draft age, though — and the draft has not been reinstated.

        But selective service is still alive and well. Our government still requires registration of all males age 18 through 25. The country is 88 percent compliant.

        I bet No Child Left Behind would boost that number.

        Funny thing about the new law: Its mandate doesn't extend to private high schools.

        E-mail damos@enquirer.com or call 768-8395

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