Turning The Military Against The Regime

When George W. Bush received the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia on Armistice Day, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans shouted “SHAME!” during his speech. Source: AboutFaceVeterans.org  Photograph by Ryan Harvey

While preparing my Armistice Day post I stumbled across some encouraging news of military personnel who aren't buying the so-called war on terror. Following dissenter Brittany DeBarros on Twitter -- a little late, since her 14 day campaign to share some truth about U.S. military deployments was last summer -- led me to this evidence of the war criminal Bush being held accountable:

Happening now: Iraq & Afghanistan #veterans have blocked entrances to the National Constitution Center in #Philadelphia where @JoeBiden is awarding the "Liberty Medal" to @GeorgeWBush. Dozens of veterans of his wars are outside refusing to leave. #veteransday #vereransday2018 pic.twitter.com/Vodh6r8xbC

— Ryan Harvey (@ryanharveysongs) November 12, 2018

DeBarros articulates the rage of veterans who mourn the dead and maimed while the wealthy sweep past them in fur coats on their way into $1,000 a plate dinners like the one held for Bush.

That’s VETS saying it’s past time to sound the alarm that we continue to bomb 7 countries & lay the blame for millions of dead Iraqi & Afghan ppl, for thousands of killed/wounded Americans at the feet of corporations & politicians who warmonger for profit #DropTheMIC #MoMoreWar

— Brittany DeBarros (@BrittDeBarros) November 12, 2018

I was reminded of veteran-led dissent while attending a training for future action at General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard. Our two fine nonviolent action trainers Jessica and David challenged us to think about the various audiences for action at BIW. This helped me realized my audience is school age children, who hold the keys to our collective future. This will inform my planning for messaging at the next warship christening[sic]. For example, using images of the animals harmed by the U.S. Navy could be a good tactic:

Bruce said that his target audience is the crew of the warship, who used to march down the sidewalk in dress uniforms before entering the gate where our actions take place. (Now they are hustled through a back entrance where they can't see us.) That's Bruce's preferred audience because he was once a conservative young man who enlisted in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. Seeing protests outside the base where he was stationed led to debates inside that changed his mind and heart about war forever.

The working class youth who sign up for the military have far more in common with the working class youth who don't than with the titans of industry like General Dynamics CEO Phebe Novakovic who makes millions every year on the backs of U.S. taxpayers.

Some of the workers realize this.

Historically, the ruling class has feared that the working class military would turn against their regimes.

The so-called Sepoy Mutiny saw Indian soldiers turn against their British masters. It is seen as the first battle in the Indian war for independence that ended successfully following widespread nonviolent actions led by Gandhi.

They should fear this, because once consent is withdrawn it is difficult to regain. I believe that's why U.S. wars are increasingly fought by robots.

What a hell of a way to die is a self-described socialist podcast series by two reservists who can make sad and infuriating things sound funny. In a Paste magazine review of the series, podcaster Francis Horton explained why he joined the military:

It’s a job better than anything you can get at the age of 18. 

There are good benefits for you and your family. For 18 years I’ve been doing this but I also hit a point where I believe that this is gross. But then you get a $10k signing bonus. My patriotism was third on the list of priorities when I first joined. It’s the post office with guns.

Once they've taken the bait, many veterans wind up injured, broke, even homeless. They're right back in the same lousy job pool they escaped by enlisting.

Speaking of jobs, many folks in the nonviolent action training talked about the audience mostly present at warship events: the shipyard workers and their families. In the context of a poor state like Maine, these are lucrative jobs unavailable elsewhere. 

But building weapons of mass destruction is a demonstrably bad jobs program.

Research by economist Heidi Garret-Pelletier at Brown University continues to find that investment in sectors that build sustainable solutions to climate change would produce millions more jobs. Education is another sector where investments produce far more jobs. Many at the next BIW action will call on the shipyard to convert to building for life rather than for death.

This history major cherishes the hope that working class people turn away from the racist wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria that have killed half a million people since 2001. Of those who died, 6,951 were U.S. military personnel. 

Honor the war dead: demand the truth.

Armistice Day Or Veterans Day?

It's Armistice Day, proclaimed as the ceasefire of the Great War, the "war to end all wars" also known as the First World War.

Of three, so far; with the U.S. dropping tens of thousands of bombs all over the globe every year no matter whether the man in the White House has a D or an R after his name, I consider that WWIII is already underway whether we admit it or not.

There will be a lot of flag waving and bloviating on television about how grateful the U.S. is to the men and women who fight in wars few of their neighbors could explain, or even find on a map.

The veterans I know don't want to be thanked for their service.



They don't want to watch parades glorifying the military, or hear false claims about how those in uniform are defending freedom. 

The veterans I know want to make reparations for the harm they've done while in uniform. Harm to the women raped, the children burnt by napalm or by bombs from flying killer robots. Harm to the environment from chemical warfare and the giant carbon bootprint of the Pentagon, with its 800+ bases in other countries.

The veterans I know want to remind us that war is not the right answer to conflict. That violence doesn't solve conflicts but it often creates lots of new ones.

The veterans I know want to heal, and most of them realize they'll carry the wounds from their moral injuries for the rest of their lives.

The veterans I know don't commit suicide. But, they've thought about it. 

As a veteran turned historian observed, 

The veterans in my family are gone now. They survived Armistice Day lying wounded and gassed on a battleground in Europe. They survived occupying Nagasaki shortly after it was destroyed by the testing of a second kind of atomic bomb. They occupied Korea and saw how the people had suffered there, how they couldn't feed their children.

The veterans in my family told their children: "Don't believe it when they say the next war is a good one. There is no such thing."

Some of the veterans I know write poems. Good poems. Sometimes the poems help them heal and stay alive. 

Here's one from Doug Rawlings, a founding member of Veterans for Peace. Doug teaches peace studies at the University of Maine, Farmington. He works on projects to accurately remember our wars, and to heal. 

NOVEMBER COMES

November comes on to me like a C-130
slinking into Dover Air Force base
laden with tin caskets
draped in red, white, and blue

I know, I know
I should just
let it be

Okay.
I can still do this:
push my shopping cart down
the local IGA's aisles
pick up cheese and wines and crackers
while avoiding aluminum cans
like the plague
pay the cashier
smile at the bagger
push the cart out into the parking lot
neatly place everything I just bought

into the dumpster out back

light up a smoke
relax

Sure, sure,
you want me to join in
on your celebrations
bless our bounty
accept your thanks
for my service
as if I were some Pilgrim
come home to receive your grace

It is November, you say, and we set aside
a day just for you to wrap up war
with the dissonance of fife and drum
and bagpipes blaring down main street

as if we can all finally dance
to the same tune

Sorry about that

My dancing days are long gone
I'd rather skate across the pond alone

I have more faith in ice 

-- Doug Rawlings