October 25, 2011

March Forward -

Since the Occupy movement started, veterans and active-duty troops in March Forward! have been active organizers and participants in cities all over the country. Our members have been attacked by police, pepper sprayed and arrested at occupations and actions. We have been speaking, camping and helping organize at Occupy events from coast to coast.

We believe that it is essential for our community to be active in this movement, and call on all veterans and GIs to join the encampment nearest you.

Click here if you are a veteran or active-duty GI who supports the Occupy movement!

Here is why we are participating:

1. We are used as pawns in Wall Street’s wars. Over 6,000 of our brothers and sisters are dead; tens of thousands maimed; hundreds of thousands will live the rest of their lives with psychological trauma. Over 1 million Iraqis have been killed, along with tens of thousands of innocent Afghans. The past 10 years have been nothing but constant, repeated deployments to wars waged in the interests of the 1%.

27 October 2011 - War Is a Crime - David Swanson's blog

David Swanson -

One of the most valuable benefits of putting political action into the form of nonviolent encampments is that we learn each other's stories as we occupy our public parks and squares. Here's a story from the October 2011 occupation in Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C. There are many more, and we'd like to hear yours when you join us.

Aristine Maharry is 29 years old and now lives in Freedom Plaza. She grew up in a very military family, with members of her family having participated in every major U.S. war going back to the war for independence, and with members of every generation having joined the military.

Maharry's family did not encourage her to aspire to a military career, but -- as in many such stories I've heard -- actions spoke more loudly than words. Maharry was proud of her father's military experience. She hoped from a very young age to join the U.S. Army. She grew up playing at army with her half-brothers. They would flip the couch on its side and toss pretend grenades. She loved the board game Risk. The biggest holiday in Aristine's family was the Fourth of July. She doesn't say she bled red white and blue. She says she bled green, Army green. She wanted to serve her country and other people. She was willing to die for her country. She was proud of her country.

October 31, 2005

Nikki Robinson -

Iraq war veteran and Kent State student, Dave Airhart, is under attack for opposing the war he considers "unjust" and for attempting to stop any more students from being used as "cannon fodder."

On October 19, the Kent State Anti-War Committee (KSAWC) stood around the Army recruiters, who had brought a rock-climbing wall to entice students over to talk with them. A member of KSAWC and former Afghanistan and Iraq War veteran, David Airhart decided to show his opposition against the war by exercising his rights of free speech. After filling out liability forms Airhart climbed the rock wall. Once he reached the top he took out a banner, which he held under his jacket, and draped it over the wall. The banner read: Kent, Ohio for Peace. Airhart was forced to climb down the back of the wall because a recruiter was coming up the front, yelling at him.

As he was climbing down another recruiter came up the back and proceeded to assault Airhart both verbally and physically by pulling his shirt, forcing him off the wall. Airhart was fined $105 by city police for disorderly conduct and told that he will have to go to judicial affairs at the university where he will face probation or expulsion.

When asked why he wanted to counter-recruit against the military Airhart responded, "I do not feel that the administration should allow the military to recruit their students for an unjust war that is taking the lives of innocent people. They should be protecting their students, not using them for cannon fodder." The recruiter who assaulted Airhart was never charged with disorderly conduct; nor was the bigot who came by screaming profanities and spitting at KSAWC members fined for being disorderly.

Somehow an Iraq War veteran hanging a banner, which called for peace, was disorderly and the others were not. Even after the atrocities of the May 4, 1970 massacre at Kent State University the military has the audacity to come to campus and attempt to recruit students for their illegal war. However, KSAWC, which is a member of the national grassroots organization, Campus Antiwar Network (CAN), counter-recruits against the military every time they are on campus. We stand around the table of the military, hold signs, chant and pass out literature exposing the lies of recruiters.

The administration’s blatant attack against the antiwar movement will not be tolerated. We can clearly see that the administration does not want its students and veterans practicing free speech on this campus, especially if we are taking a stand against the war in Iraq. However, we will continue to fight.

We believe in getting troops out of Iraq now, as well as assuring that they have a voice to stand in opposition to the war when they return. It is obvious that the Kent State administration does not care about Iraq Veterans who attend their school. After everything Airhart had to go through and see as a soldier, after viewing thousands of innocent Iraqi lives being taken, he has every right to exercise his opposition to this war. The administration may have the audacity to punish an Iraq Veteran for speaking out against the war, but the Kent State Anti-War Committee will continue to fight back for all Veterans and students right to exercise free speech against the war. We will continue to challenge our administration’s role in recruiting for the war and demand our right to a ‘recruiter-free’ school.

Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/2005/10/29/crack-down-at-kent-state/

March 15, 2005 / Hadas Tjier and Katrina Ywaw / Counterpunch - On Wednesday, March 9, three students from the City College of New York (CCNY), Justino Rodriguez,  Nicholas Bergreen and one of the authors of this piece (Hadas Thier) were brutalized and arrested by campus security guards for peacefully protesting the presence of military recruiters at CCNY’s "career fair." We were charged with misdemeanor counts of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace, among other things. Hospital records from Mt. Sinai confirm that Bergreen and Rodriguez suffered multiple contusions and post-concussion syndrome. A court date is set for April 5.

What was the reaction of CCNY’s administration to these events? Without so much as a phone call to see if we were alright, or to find out our side of the story, Gregory H. Williams, the president of our college, sent an email to the entire faculty and student body repeating the allegations against us as if they were facts. "The confrontation escalated and several of the demonstrators grabbed and hit the officer. At this point, the three students involved in the attack on the officer were arrested," he wrote.

Perhaps his previous job experience as a small-town sheriff filled him with an innate sympathy for security forces. Nevertheless, Williams is now the president of an institution of higher learning. Debate, dissent, and, yes, even protest, must not only be tolerated in education, they should be nurtured and encouraged.

January 10, 2011 / Dave Lindorff / This Can't Be Happening - At the local YMCA today, I ran into a boy who was a childhood friend of my son’s. As my kid goes to a public arts high school in Philadelphia outside of our local school district, I don’t see much of his old grade-school friends any more. This boy, who used to be over at our house years ago at least once a week, recognized me right away though, and said, "Hey Mr. Lindorff, I haven’t seen you in years. How’s Jed!"

I was impressed by how he’d grown up, tall and strong looking. He was headed for the basketball court. I asked him, since both he and my son are seniors this year, where he was applying for college, and he stunned me by saying he had signed up for the Marines. "I’m going to be going in after graduation," he said proudly. "The recruiter came to school, and he convinced me it’s a good move."

I asked him what he planned to do, and he said, "Helicopter gunner! I’m really excited and proud!"

This was really shocking. This kid doesn’t own a gun. I doubt if he’s ever shot at anything except maybe a target with a .22 rifle at Boy Scout Camp, and now he’s all excited about manning a machine gun in a helicopter, where he’ll be shooting down at Afghan fighters–and inevitably at civilians, too–in a matter of months.

I really didn’t know what to say. I awkwardly told him "congratulations," because I could see he was proud of his "accomplishment" and because I didn’t want to have him cut me off as a possible confidante. Then I added, "You know of course that I’m not really in favor of what the Marines are doing?"