It's been a tough year for the U.S. military. But you wouldn't know it from the Internet, now increasingly packed with slick, non-military looking websites of every sort that are lying in wait for curious teens (or their exasperated parents) who might be surfing by. On the ground, the military may be bogged down in a seemingly interminable mission that was supposedly "accomplished" back on May 1, 2003, but on the Web it's still a be-all-that-you-can-be world of advanced career choices, peaceful pursuits, and risk-free excitement.

Mothers Against the Draft joined over one hundred local, state and national organizations today in urging Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to end the "Joint Advertising and Market Research Studies" (JAMRS) Recruiting Database.

A national coalition of parents groups, privacy advocates and community organizations is launching a campaign today to dismantle a database of high school and college students built by the Pentagon to help target potential military recruits.In a letter being sent today to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, more than 100 groups charge that the database violates federal privacy laws and is collecting demographic and other personal information on young Americans that could be misused by the government and the marketing firms handling the program.

At North Side High School, Army Sgt. Leah McDonald is a regular in the cafeteria. At 23, she could pass for one of the students, if not for her olive dress uniform and pumps. A student volunteer staffed the information table while the young recruiter visited with students during a lunch hour last week. A custodian shared pictures from his National Guard assignment in the Gulf region as other students hung close to speak with her. McDonald ended the conversation with one young woman by giving her a hug.

Imagine a massive database packed with the driving records, favorite college subjects, GPAs, ethnicity and Social Security numbers of every American age 16-25. What could anyone possibly want with all that data?

With the brutal realities of the ground war in Iraq contributing to a well-publicized drop-off in recruitment, the federal government will roll out a sophisticated and expansive marketing campaign on Oct. 17 that will rely on slick advertisements to convince parents - mothers in particular - that military service remains a wise choice for their children.

Sharon Shea-Keneally, principal of Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vermont, was shocked when she received a letter in May from military recruiters demanding a list of all her students, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. The school invites recruiters to participate in career days and job fairs, but like most school districts, it keeps student information strictly confidential.

In some communities, parents are complaining about strong-arm recruiting tactics applied to their children without the parents’ knowledge. And many people are disturbed that this year the Pentagon hired a private company — BeNOW of Wakefield, Massachusetts — to put all the children’s information into a massive database, matched with data from credit cards, drivers’ license records and other sources. BeNOW is also adding Social Security numbers, what the Pentagon refers to as “ethnicity codes” and students’ height, weight and grades to the mix.