Tag: Vietnam Veterans Against the War

We Just Marched On Veterans Day

I just got home from the big NYC Veterans Day Parade.

The “we” in the title is the crew of anti-war veterans and friends who have had a presence in the parade since the war began. Our contingent was led by members of Iraq Veterans Against the War carrying American flags. Among the others reporting for duty were at least three area chapters of Veterans For Peace (including mine, NYC’s Chapter 34), Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and a group memorializing the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (whose actual veterans are now too few and too old to join us as they had in years past).

Don’t get me wrong. Our whole contingent totaled under fifty people and we were by a considerable margin the scruffiest and least military looking one in the whole parade.

And quite possibly the best received.

We were toward the rear of the march. While the organizers didn’t, this time, slot us at the very end, they put a very loud sound truck with a deejay directly behind us and forbade us to carry any signs or posters other than organizational banners.

Nice try. They neglected to amputate the fingers with which we all made the peace sign and to remove our vocal cords. So anti-war chants, especially the cadences led by Ben Chitty, echoed in the valley of Fifth Avenue the whole way from 27th Street to 55th. Meanwhile, marchers on both sides of the contingent directed a steady stream of explanatory slogans and talk to those watching.

Now, Veterans Day doesn’t draw the crowd you’ll find at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or on the rare occasion when a New York sports team wins something, but we didn’t pass a single block that wasn’t at least half full of spectators.

And we were overwhelmingly greeted with peace signs, thumbs up, clapping and enthusiastic yells. It was striking. Even people who went out of their way to attend a Veterans Day parade, and an awful lot of them were veterans themselves, were thrilled to see and hear us voicing their own feelings:

Bring Them Home Now!

The people of this country want this war over and they want it over yesterday. It is up to us to keep the heat on those now in power–and on those who will, blessedly, take their place in 70 days–to bring this fiasco to an end. So I encourage you, in the strongest possible terms, to observe the Iraq Moratorium one week from this coming Friday. You can act by yourself or with others, but please do something to observe the first antiwar mobilization since the election which will be national in scope.

Winter Soldier: Speaking truth to power

"I joined the National Guard.. didn't know it was going to be the International Guard."

Next week, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupations will come together in Washington, D.C. to tell the world about their experiences.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will feature testimony March 13-16 from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.

It is not an official, government-sponsored hearing. Rather, like the 1971 hearings sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, these hearings are being organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War.

IVAW held a fundraiser in Milwaukee recently to help cover expenses of vets making the trip to DC, and this 10-minute video resulted. It's a good preview of Winter Soldier, featuring local vets,the Chicago veteran who thought of holding next week's hearings, and some footage from Iraq.

It ends with a powerful statement by Barry Romo, national director of Vietnam Veterans Against the War:

"What is great is that veterans are standing up again, and they know what's gonna happen to them … They saw what happened to [John] Kerry … There is something in terms of your souls; you are setting yourselves free from this culture of death which says you are supposed to keep your mouths shut and allow another generation to be sold down the river … You have seen what can happen from speaking truth to power and you are not afraid …

Audio and video of the hearings will be available online. Public viewing is being sponsored by veterans and peace groups in many communities.  

Winter Soldierizing

The following comes from Jack Dresser, Ph.D., Behavioral Scientist, Co-founder, Lane County Veterans for Peace: Capt., US Army (psychologist, Vietnam era)

Squadron 13 ; Veterans Against Torture via  G.I. Special-Military Project, Volume: 6B Issue: 16 Ft. Dix, you can read it in Word or in PDF for the rest of the News Letter.

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Some Powerful Articles like ‘Pentagon Breaks with White House’

Greyhawk had this posted at ePluribus about the Military breaking ranks with the White House on the propaganda about the Successful Surge with only this one snippet

“Don’t let the quiet fool you,” a senior defense official says. “There’s still a huge chasm between how the White House views Iraq and how we [in the Pentagon] view Iraq. The White House would like to have you believe the ‘surge’ has worked, that we somehow defeated the insurgency. That’s just ludicrous. There’s increasing quiet in Iraq, but that’s happened because of our shift in strategy – the ‘surge’ had nothing to do with it.”

And just a few sentences, so I followed the link. Here’s abit more to hopefully get you to drop over to the Asia Times online and read the rest.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan

Once Again, Our Country Needs Winter Soldiers

Message to Military Veterans of Peace

Saturday Jan. 12th Radio Tribute to Dave Cline

RADIO ON SATURDAY

Tune in to the radio tribute to David Cline on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York on Saturday, January 12, Noon – 3 PM EST {WBAI is streamed live over the Internet in multiple formats:

MP3: 24K or 64K or .ram

OGG: 24K or 64K

See WBAI Stream

PTSD Forum – Fort Drum – Watertown NY – Video and Audio Reports

Back on December 2nd I posted about a Forum on PTSD {this link to my site} on a few important sites.

This Forum took place on December 6th, six days before the House held a Public Hearing on Military Suicides at which Ilona Meagher, of PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within testified.

Well, as promised in another post, there is more to pass on about the Fort Drum – Watertown NY PTSD Forum which you will find below.