“Veterans For Peace” is gearing up to become a major national force to

[Laura Kamienski <tkd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

“Veterans For Peace” is gearing up to become a major national force to
oppose the Bush Administration both at home and overseas.
By Stewart Nusbaumer

At the Veterans for Peace annual convention this weekend in San Francisco,
the most pressing issue was not veterans’ affairs or government benefits 
or even
homeless veterans, although these and more subjects were discussed. What
fired up these aging veterans was the threat to our civil rights, and 
even more,
the continuing war in Iraq. Veterans For Peace is not your traditional 
veterans’
 group.

The largest antiwar veterans group in the United States, <A 
HREF="http://www.veteransforpeace.org/";>Veterans For Peace</A>
has 103 chapters from Maine to California to Florida. With the war in Iraq,
membership has grown substantially. The New Mexico chapter had 11 
members when it
formed last year, this year it has 130. Overall membership has climbed to
more than 3,500, doubling in a single year.

At its annual convention held this year in San Francisco’s historic 
Veterans
Memorial Building (the birthplace of the United Nations), an estimated 400
veterans discussed subjects ranging from gay and lesbian veterans to 
networking
with traditional veterans’ groups. Drawing the largest crowds were the 
meetings
pertaining to the Iraq war and those strategizing to oppose that war: “
Lessons of Recent Veterans’ Anti-War Actions: Working Out Strategies 
Opposing
Militarism,” and “The Invasion of Iraq: Background and Personal 
Observation.”

“The beginning of the end of war starts with remembrance,” said Woody
Powell, chairman of Veterans For Peace. “If this is true, then the 
beginning of
starting war must be in forgetting.”

Remembering and forgetting is the heart of every veterans gathering, but 
with
these veterans there is a major difference. Remembering is put into the
service of ending war, and forgetting is slammed for allowing war. Most 
of these
veterans served during the Korean and Vietnam War eras, and now they want
Americans to remember that wars to control other people’s resources and 
sovereignty
are not only wrong but will end in disaster for America. They know this 
from
personal experience; they have no problem with remembering that war is 
seldom a
good idea. And they want Americans to remember it was they who fought 
America’
s past wars, not President Bush and nearly all of his top advisors who 
today
are so hawkish for war. It is they who possess the experience and the
knowledge and therefore the credibility to be listened to on issues of 
war and peace,
not the chickenhawks in Washington.

And veterans, said Korean War veteran Woody Powell, must remember that they
have a responsibility to seek out citizens and speak at public forums –- 
to not
allow Americans to forget. The special responsibility of veterans to 
tell the
truth about war was a constant theme, as was the need for Veterans For 
Peace
to raise its national profile as the primary voice for military veterans
opposing not only the Iraq War but also all of the Bush Administration’s 
reckless
foreign adventures.

Amongst these veterans, there is a sense of growing crisis, a feeling that
America is in danger of changing irrevocably for the worse. “We are 
facing the
greatest struggle of our lives,” Vietnam veteran Dave Cline told a 
packed room
of veterans. “What Johnson and Nixon did on a regional level, Bush is now
attempting to do on a global level.”

“Most Americans were against this war, but they were manipulated, they were
systemically lied to," said Cline, who is the current President of 
Veterans For
Peace. "Veterans attempted to stop the war, we organized a teach-in, a
demonstration and lobbying effort in the nation’s capital. We worked hard.”

But the mainstream corporate media highlighted those veterans who supported
the war, especially retired colonels and generals (paid by the media 
because of
their contacts with the Pentagon), and tended to ignore veterans who 
opposed
the war, often former enlisted soldiers and sailors. “What was truly
surprising about this veterans’ effort to stop the Iraq War,” said Jan 
Barry, an
organizer of <A HREF="http://www.vaiw.org/";>Veterans Against Iraq 
War</A> a new group that worked in a coalition with
other veteran groups in opposition to the war in Iraq, “is how many career
military veterans and politically conservative veterans opposed the 
invasion of
Iraq. Opposition to this war is very deep and very broad in the veterans'
community.” But this anti-war message was muffled and even ignored by 
the media.

Unable to stop the invasion and occupation of the war, Dave Cline 
continues,
veterans pulled back; some became depressed. “But we’re gearing up again,
this time to bring the troops home. We’ll join with other antiwar groups 
and
coalitions in large actions, but we will also perform independent actions.”

Among the resolutions passed by the Veterans For Peace Board of Directors,
one demands an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and another the 
withdrawal of
U.S. troops. Still another supports a United Nation’s takeover of the 
security
and reconstruction effort in Iraq.

“We have to demystify war, make it not glamorous,” former Green Beret Stan
Goff told another group of veterans and their spouses. “And we need to 
reduce
fear here at home but talking out, by going in the streets where people 
can see
us and speaking out.” A woman spoke up, saying veterans are the "moral
compass" of the antiwar movement, which brought a healthy applause.

Still, the central question remains: can Veterans For Peace transform 
itself
into a national power to influence national policy? Will it continue to
develop its veterans' grassroots network and will the media broadcast 
its antiwar
message? Can Veterans For Peace become a powerful force for peace?

For over a quarter of a century, since the end of the Vietnam War, America
has been without a strong veterans’ peace movement. In much of the public's
mind, antiwar veterans are an anachronism. Today veterans support the 
President,
not oppose him. Veterans lobby for veterans’ benefits not march against 
a war.
Only those who really remember Vietnam, a dwindling number, remember 
there is
a different type of veteran, a veteran for peace, not for war. As Woody 
Powell
pointed out, forgetting is the start of wars. And many Americans have
forgotten.

But Stan Goff is also correct when he said, “Veterans have the potential to
strip this administration’s veneer of legitimacy -- which is why 
veterans are
the administration's most feared group.” Veterans have the power to
de-legitimize this administration because this is an administration of 
mostly men who
avoided public service for personal advancement, an administration that 
sent
young Americans off to Iraq by concealing the truth with lies, an 
administration
that knows the American people are slowly turning against this war, 
Bush's war.
And more than any one group, veterans can make Americans remember.

Veterans For Peace wrapped up its three-day convention with a demonstration
at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, implementing the pledge to resist
militarism abroad and repression at home. Members are now fanning out 
across America,
bringing that pledge to your hometown. Join them to bring our troops home
now!

For more information, go to <A 
HREF="http://www.veteransforpeace.org/";>Veterans For Peace</A>

Other sites: <A HREF="http://www.vaiw.org/";>Veterans Against Iraq 
War</A> and <A HREF="http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/";>Bring Them Home 
Now!</A>




Stewart Nusbaumer is editor of Intervention Magazine.

Posted Sunday, August 10, 2003
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