Two members from VFP Chapter 21, New Jersey were elected to the National Board of Veterans For Peace. I'm happy to report that Michael McPhearson was reelected to another term and I was elected to my first term.
I would like to thank all my friends from VFP Chapter 21 and the New York Metro Area who supported me. It will be a real honor for me to serve our organization and our noble cause.
Peace and Solidarity
Ken Dalton
VFP 21, N.J.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Vets For Peace Arrested at NYC War Memorial
This account appeared on Facebook and describes an event that several members of VFP Chapter 21 attended along with Vets For Peace members from across the nation. About 25 veterans and supporters were arrested when they refused to leave the memorial site under police orders to obey a new city directive closing the park at 10 p.m. Jay Wenke served in the US Army in World War II and lives in Woodstock, NY, where he is a member of the Town Board.
By Jay Wenke
Yesterday, 10/7, was the 12th anniversary of the Afghan war. I was part of about sixty veterans who assembled at the Vietnam memorial on Water St. in Manhattan. We met there to protest this war, to honor the dead vets, and to defy [Mayor] Bloomberg's order to close that Memorial site at 10 PM. Normally, it's open 24/7; the Memorial in DC is also open 24/7. In spite of the cold rain, we were proceeding with our observance; reading the names of the dead, accompanied with a soft sounding gong, and putting white carnations in vases to place at the base of the Memorial.
Shortly after 10, the police started to arrest us, knowing we were veterans of many wars, who had been in harms way for this country. They were polite but firm, the plastic handcuffs bite deeply into one's wrists. Many of them told us that they were sympathetic to what we were doing and that they respected what we had done in the service.
Nevertheless, they were following orders, and we, men and women, were placed in locked cells without shoes, belts and water, for many hours. The police are not responsible for our Police State; those who gave the orders to close down a very peaceful observance of war and a memorial service for those who are killed in those wars are the obscene culprits. Bloomberg, and all the other anti-democratic 'pillars of society' around this land are examples of what is terrifyingly wrong in our country. They use the law as a bludgeon.
We say we are a land of laws, not individuals, but what kind of law is it, what kind of nation is it where some get the benefits and the vast majority of us are hit with unjust law, or supposedly just law used unjustly? It is definitely not a democracy, that's a myth. We are not finished, we will continue to give this Police State the opportunity to display its violence until enough people rise up and say "Enough"!
 |
| Jay Wenke at Quantico Marine Base demonstration (photo/Ward Reilly) |
Friday, October 5, 2012
Vets For Peace on Peace Mission in Pakistan
Thirty-two
U.S. peace activists, including 6 members of Veterans For Peace are
taking part in a peace delegation to Pakistan organized by the anti-war
group Code Pink.
Wednesday the delegation met with U.S. Charge d'Affaires Richard Hoagland. U.S. peace activist Robert Naiman asked about reports of secondary attacks on rescuers of drone victims. Ambassador Hoagland denied that rescuers are targeted, but not that strikes are launched on the same location just struck minutes before.
Hoagland also said that he agreed with President Obama that the number of civilian deaths was near zero, but later seemed to contradict himself when he said that number he believed was accurate was in "two digits." When asked to be more specific as to whether that number was closer to 10 or 99, he declined.
VFP President Leah Bolger asked: "Since you know exactly where we intend to go, presumably the CIA and the DoD know as well, so can you guarantee us that there will be no drone strikes in the area while we are there?" He then gave a 100% guarantee that there would be no strikes on the group. Bolger followed up with: "So if we just position Americans throughout the region, can we guarantee the safety of the Pakistanis as well?" He replied that most of the "militants" in the area are foreigners -- not Pakistanis -- and that they come in and take over. He said that the local people would be very pleased to have them go.
On Wednesday and Thursday the delegation met with drone victims, with more such meetings planned for Friday. The families of the victims related a very different story than that purported by the Charge. Karim Khan, described the deaths of his son and his brother in a 2009 drone attack, as well as the damaging psychological effects of having up to six drones circling overhead 24 hours a day. Khan's story is featured in the book "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control," which was written by the delegation's leader, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin.
The Pakistan National Defense University (NDU) was the site on Wednesday for a presentation by retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright, a lead member of the Code Pink delegation against drones. The delegation was invited to appear by the Dean of the Faculty of Contemporary Studies and was attended by an enthusiastic audience of NDU students as well as several high ranking officers.
Wright emphasized the illegality of the U.S. drone program which violates the sovereignty of other nations, and also allows President Obama to be the ‘judge, jury and executioner’ when he gives the go-ahead for extrajudicial signature drone attacks.
Wright’s anti-drone message resonated with the audience, who were also critical of U.S. policies. One questioner said that though drones may be an effective tactical weapon, but they were a failure strategically; i.e. the anti-American sentiment created by the deaths and the damage of the drones far outweighs the “benefit” of killing selected targets, even if they are considered “high value,” and that the policy of drone warfare would turn out to be counterproductive.
Following Wright’s presentation, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin presented a copy of her book "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control" to Brigadier General Najam and the Dean, and responded to questions.
Benjamin pointedly noted that the U.S. drone program in Pakistan is run by the CIA, not the military, and is thus classified and sheltered from accountability. The U.S. government has only recently even admitted that it has a drone program, even though the program has been responsible for the killing of over 3000 Pakistanis since 2004. Benjamin noted that the Executive branch of the U.S. government subverts the Judicial branch by using the cover of “national security” to protect itself from legal action, and thus undermines the entire governmental system. One questioner noted that not only were U.S. policies a violation of international law, but also were especially dangerous because they set a precedent…”Bush started it, but Obama has made it worse.”
Bolger said, "In the few days we have been here we have met with dozens of Pakistanis who are outraged about the illegal murder of their fellow citizens. We have received nothing but gratitude, admiration and support for our stand against the policies of our own government, and we have been told that our presence here inspires them to stand up against the Pakistani government, which they see as complicit in these attacks."
The six members of VFP who are part of the Code Pink delegation of 32 are Leah Bolger, Bill Kelly, Jody Mackey, Rob Mulford, Ann Wright, and Code Pink's Medea Benjamin who is an associate member of VFP.
(Veterans For Peace news release)
Wednesday the delegation met with U.S. Charge d'Affaires Richard Hoagland. U.S. peace activist Robert Naiman asked about reports of secondary attacks on rescuers of drone victims. Ambassador Hoagland denied that rescuers are targeted, but not that strikes are launched on the same location just struck minutes before.
Hoagland also said that he agreed with President Obama that the number of civilian deaths was near zero, but later seemed to contradict himself when he said that number he believed was accurate was in "two digits." When asked to be more specific as to whether that number was closer to 10 or 99, he declined.
VFP President Leah Bolger asked: "Since you know exactly where we intend to go, presumably the CIA and the DoD know as well, so can you guarantee us that there will be no drone strikes in the area while we are there?" He then gave a 100% guarantee that there would be no strikes on the group. Bolger followed up with: "So if we just position Americans throughout the region, can we guarantee the safety of the Pakistanis as well?" He replied that most of the "militants" in the area are foreigners -- not Pakistanis -- and that they come in and take over. He said that the local people would be very pleased to have them go.
On Wednesday and Thursday the delegation met with drone victims, with more such meetings planned for Friday. The families of the victims related a very different story than that purported by the Charge. Karim Khan, described the deaths of his son and his brother in a 2009 drone attack, as well as the damaging psychological effects of having up to six drones circling overhead 24 hours a day. Khan's story is featured in the book "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control," which was written by the delegation's leader, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin.
The Pakistan National Defense University (NDU) was the site on Wednesday for a presentation by retired U.S. Army colonel and former diplomat Ann Wright, a lead member of the Code Pink delegation against drones. The delegation was invited to appear by the Dean of the Faculty of Contemporary Studies and was attended by an enthusiastic audience of NDU students as well as several high ranking officers.
Wright emphasized the illegality of the U.S. drone program which violates the sovereignty of other nations, and also allows President Obama to be the ‘judge, jury and executioner’ when he gives the go-ahead for extrajudicial signature drone attacks.
Wright’s anti-drone message resonated with the audience, who were also critical of U.S. policies. One questioner said that though drones may be an effective tactical weapon, but they were a failure strategically; i.e. the anti-American sentiment created by the deaths and the damage of the drones far outweighs the “benefit” of killing selected targets, even if they are considered “high value,” and that the policy of drone warfare would turn out to be counterproductive.
Following Wright’s presentation, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin presented a copy of her book "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control" to Brigadier General Najam and the Dean, and responded to questions.
Benjamin pointedly noted that the U.S. drone program in Pakistan is run by the CIA, not the military, and is thus classified and sheltered from accountability. The U.S. government has only recently even admitted that it has a drone program, even though the program has been responsible for the killing of over 3000 Pakistanis since 2004. Benjamin noted that the Executive branch of the U.S. government subverts the Judicial branch by using the cover of “national security” to protect itself from legal action, and thus undermines the entire governmental system. One questioner noted that not only were U.S. policies a violation of international law, but also were especially dangerous because they set a precedent…”Bush started it, but Obama has made it worse.”
Bolger said, "In the few days we have been here we have met with dozens of Pakistanis who are outraged about the illegal murder of their fellow citizens. We have received nothing but gratitude, admiration and support for our stand against the policies of our own government, and we have been told that our presence here inspires them to stand up against the Pakistani government, which they see as complicit in these attacks."
The six members of VFP who are part of the Code Pink delegation of 32 are Leah Bolger, Bill Kelly, Jody Mackey, Rob Mulford, Ann Wright, and Code Pink's Medea Benjamin who is an associate member of VFP.
(Veterans For Peace news release)
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Call for Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in Middle East
Dear VFP sisters and brothers,
On behalf of the Iran Working Group of Veterans For Peace, I would like to urge all of you to sign the Open Letter to President Obama and the Congress (on IWG web site: http://vfp-iwg.org) calling upon them to publicly support the establishment of a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in the Middle East as well as the upcoming UN Conference in Helsinki (December 12th) to discuss the issue of establishing a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East. I also invite you to join the IWG Discussion Forum on our web site and use its platform to express your views or share your experience on various issues, from war, sanctions, nuclear crisis, and other topics of your choice. I take the opportunity to ask you again to join VFP's Iran Working Group and help us stop the madness.
Peace
Faraz Azad, Chair, Iran Working Group
Veterans For Peace
On behalf of the Iran Working Group of Veterans For Peace, I would like to urge all of you to sign the Open Letter to President Obama and the Congress (on IWG web site: http://vfp-iwg.org) calling upon them to publicly support the establishment of a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in the Middle East as well as the upcoming UN Conference in Helsinki (December 12th) to discuss the issue of establishing a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East. I also invite you to join the IWG Discussion Forum on our web site and use its platform to express your views or share your experience on various issues, from war, sanctions, nuclear crisis, and other topics of your choice. I take the opportunity to ask you again to join VFP's Iran Working Group and help us stop the madness.
Peace
Faraz Azad, Chair, Iran Working Group
Veterans For Peace
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
A Call to Action
 |
| Alice Walker |
"I admire Veterans For Peace for one central reason above everything else," Donahue told the August gathering of community-to-international activists. "Veterans For Peace walks the walk."
Donahue was there to show and discuss his film, Body of War, the story of a severely wounded Iraq war veteran, Tomas Young, who flung himself into peace movement activism, interacting with many of the veterans attending the convention.
“Hundreds of veterans with knowledge of war and dedicated to the abolition of war were gathered for the opening night ... [of] their first international convention as VFP has opened a chapter in the U.K. from which members are attending. VFP also has a chapter in Vietnam,” the St. Louis-based group noted in a news release.
Walker, the Pulitizer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple and numerous other books, was the keynote speaker at the convention’s concluding evening banquet.
In a soft, firmly focused and melodious voice, Alice Walker presented an extended poem/riff on the deaths of war veterans who killed themselves and her persistent, well-put plea that the best way to address this tragedy is to issue a call to veterans in despair to join the fight for human rights at home and abroad.
“The madness of war is given mute testimony by our young men and some young women who take their lives,” she said, “rather than continue to murder others or to self-murder in slow motion while feeling half-alive…
“We need them beside us with all that they have learned, with all of their valor and expertise, the lack of fear of dying—the lack of fear of dying—which can be a very good thing. Stay with us, I say to them, stay with us—we desperately need you…”
She cited the example of Howard Zinn, the historian and vet for peace who was horrified by his role in bombing European cities and villages during World War II. Walker recalled how Zinn, one of her professors at Spellman College in Atlanta, persistently got arrested in civil rights demonstrations in the early 1960s and the long arc of his life of social activism.
A video of Alice Walker's speech is here:
http://warisacrime.org/content/video-alice-walker-veterans-peace-convention
"Not included in the video is what happened right after Walker finished," Vietnam vet Paul Appell of Illinois wrote in an email. "Carlos Arredondo, who you know lost his first son Alex to war by way of a bullet in Iraq on August 25, 2004 and then lost his remaining son Brian to war by way of suicide on December 19, 2011, spoke. Carlos asked everyone who had lost a family member to suicide to stand. Almost every table in the banquet hall had someone stand up."
Friday, August 31, 2012
Peace Boat Update
By Jan Barry
The Golden Rule, the storied sailboat that sparked a successful campaign to stop nuclear bomb testing in the South Pacific, is well on the way to going to sea again.
Two years after a storm-battered relic was raised from Humbolt Bay in California, a crew of volunteers is working with experienced boat workers to restore the 30-foot wooden ketch and launch her under the flag of Veterans For Peace.
The Golden Rule sailed into history in 1958, when a retired Navy commander, Albert Bigelow, and three other men set out from Hawaii to deliberately intrude into the US nuclear test zone in the Marshall Islands as a protest of exploding radioactive bombs in the Pacific Ocean. Their arrest by the US Coast Guard set off a wave of protests across America that prodded President Eisenhower to halt the testing and start negotiations with the Soviet Union that culminated in the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty that ended atmospheric nuclear tests.
The “peace boat,” as Project Coordinator Fredy Champagne calls her, “will
once again sail …in opposition to militarism and the manufacture, testing, and
use of nuclear weapons,” to quote the project mission statement. “Over a period
of years, we plan for the Golden Rule
to take its message of peace far and wide – on all three coasts, as well as the
Great Lakes and inland waterways.”
The sailboat is being restored at Zerlang and Zerlang Boat Yard in Fairhaven, CA. Boat yard owner Leroy Zerlang salvaged the ship and donated space for the restoration. “The Golden Rule showed up in Humboldt Bay 10 years ago as the property of a local doctor,” Zerlang told the Eureka Times-Standard earlier this year. “It sank in a big storm two years ago this month. After he raised the battered 30-foot hull from the bottom of the marina, Zerlang said, the boat nearly became firewood.
”If it wasn't for her history, her very unique history, the boat would have been destroyed,” he said. “People have come from the East Coast to visit this boat. They come from Canada to visit this boat.”
During a visit to the boatyard on a vacation trip in July, I
got an opportunity to see the work in progress. I was especially interested in
the plank I’d purchased for $100 as part of a Golden Rule fund-raising swing through the East Coast that I
encountered at the 2011 Clearwater music
festival on the Hudson River.
“Pick a plank!” Restoration Coordinator Chuck DeWitt said with a chuckle, sweeping a hand along the restored hull. I missed the “Whiskey Plank” party in March, when the last new plank was put in place. Still, I was glad to have made a small contribution that helped put the project’s phase one $50,000 fund-raising goal over the top.
DeWitt, a Navy vet, and Champagne, an Army vet, clambered up the scaffolding and into the boat’s open innards to show off the new Yanmar engine that an anonymous veteran had purchased. The boat lies in a specially built boat shop, surrounded by salvaged and donated rigging, masts, sails and other parts.
It is being restored as a project of Veterans For Peace Chapter 22 with the aid of other VFP chapters, other groups and individuals, including family members of the original Golden Rule peace crew.
“The Golden Rule will be a powerful out reach effort,”
Elliot Adams, past national president of Veterans For Peace, said in a support
statement. “[H]er story is an inspiration to all of us, she will attracted
local media attention and all of that will be used to deliver the message of
peace and motivate people to work for peace.”
In a letter of support from VFP Chapter 61 in St. Louis, MO, chapter President Tom Tendler wrote: “We hope the Golden Rule may some day find its way up the Mississippi River.” Other chapters providing support for this project, and welcoming the Golden Rule to sail its waterways, range from San Francisco to Vermont.
Champagne reports in a recent email that work is well along at “cutting, fitting and installing the deck beams. … We have all the parts now to finish her, just trying to keep the funds coming to pay the worker to keep working with our volunteers.”
Plans are to have the ship seaworthy in time for the 2013
Americas Cup Yacht Races in San Francisco and
then tour ports along the West Coast, Gulf
Coast, East Coast, Great
Lakes, and rivers and canals in the Mid-West.
“The Golden Rule project is seeking regional volunteers to sail and to join the committee as the tour moves from one area to the next, and logistical and publicity assistance from local activists, especially from VFP chapters. Financial assistance is also welcome,” Champagne wrote in a recent article in The War Crimes Times.
For more information:
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Bring NJ National Guard Home from Afghanistan
This opinion piece appeared in The Record of North Jersey on Aug. 23, 2012
'Green on blue': N.J. feels ominous turn in Afghan War
By Walt Nygard
Is it any wonder that our enemy wears the uniform of our friend?
IN THE DAYS before Memorial Day, I noticed the banner strung above Cedar Lane at Palisade Avenue in Teaneck. It welcomed home U.S. troops. Presumably from Iraq, since President Obama had recently declared that war over.
I didn't get it. Afghanistan is happening, at that point hitting 2,000 killed. And didn't Teaneck know that our own 508th Military Police Company was on orders to depart July 19?
Looped into a 45-day training cycle at Camp Shelby, Miss., the soldiers would fly out for nine months at Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan, about six miles from Kabul International Airport. They are assigned to train and mentor Afghan National Police.
The 508th is entering an Afghan cauldron where every man, woman and child has been at war their entire lives. We started out in Afghanistan fighting al-Qaida. Now, the 508th finds itself with a new enemy: our allies. "Green on blue" violence is the new front in the Afghan War. This year more than 30 American, British and French soldiers have been killed by members of the Afghan National Army or police. Many others have been wounded. Green on Blue casualty totals already surpass the number of such killings in all of 2011.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. General Martin E. Dempsey, speaking of Green on Blue, said, "I'll tell you definitively at this point that our national security interests are such that we have to take the additional risk that this brings."
Our "national security interests" have nothing to do with young Americans being killed by Afghans fed up with foreign invaders occupying their land. Our "national security interests" would have been better served if, at the time of the Soviet collapse, we had assumed the benevolent and diplomatic mantle of the sole world power. Instead, we have loosed barbaric invasions on country after country to feed the corporate greed that has corrupted our government and the star-studded luminaries of the U.S. military. We have made ourselves hated around the world and crippled our country in the process.
The "additional risk" now falls to an under-strength MP company from New Jersey. 146 soldiers: The two dozen female soldiers will have to be reassigned out of sight lest they offend the religious sensibilities of Afghan mentorees. In Mississippi, the 508th will shake off their part-time status and screw on their full-time courage. By month's end, they'll be bound for Afghanistan. There are those, however, who are paying attention. Introduced May 14, 2012, Assembly joint resolution 66 calls upon the president of the United States and the secretary of defense "to withdraw all New Jersey National Guard troops from Afghanistan."
AJR-66 notes the $1 trillion cost — so far — of the Afghan War. It does not mention an earlier trillion dollars squandered in Iraq or the ongoing deluge of funds for the shadow wars on Iran, Pakistan and Yemen. It doesn't mention the secret wars in Honduras or Colombia or the wars-in-the-works in Africa and Asia. The resolution further notes the potential vulnerability of New Jersey to "natural disaster or terrorist attack" and "the close proximity of the state to potential terrorist targets." New Jerseyans know we'll bear a lot of grief for anything that happens in New York City. The local disruption of lives, business and economy is noted as military families, children, employers and co-workers deal with the absence of their citizen soldiers.
The untried soldiers of the 508th are about to become veterans. As the World War II old-timers used to say, they have chosen to stand up and be counted. Unlike those soldiers of yesteryear, the 508th is off to fight a country that never attacked us and was once our ally, just like Iraq. Is it any wonder that our enemy wears the uniform of our friend?
I spoke to my son Joe. A veteran of 16 months in Afghanistan (10th Mountain Division) and a year in Iraq (256th Infantry Brigade), he is now a .50-caliber machine-gunner assigned to the 508th MP Company. He tells me training is good, but Mississippi's even hotter than Jersey. They have Middle Eastern people role playing on the maneuvers. They know all about "Green on Blue." Worried that the .50 caliber — a thunderous and effective weapon that I saw employed, ironically, by a Marine MP company south of the Danang airstrip a lifetime ago — might be too large to be brought to bear against an up-close target, I ask him if he has a pistol. He knows what I'm asking, and he answers in the affirmative. He tells me he's good to go. He's got a 9mm pistol and an M4 carbine.
I am a veteran for peace, and, although I know he knows, I tell him anyway: Keep that pistol with you at all times.
As I write this, three more American soldiers have been killed: "Green on Blue." AJR 66 should be passed in the Legislature by acclamation. Every state should pass an AJR 66. The silence of the American people throughout the prosecution of illegal and disastrous war over the last decade has been deafening. It is time to reclaim, not just our state and our country, but our very soul.
Walt Nygard, Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, lives in Teaneck. His son is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Walt is a writer, artist and member of the Warrior Writers and Combat Paper projects.
'Green on blue': N.J. feels ominous turn in Afghan War
By Walt Nygard
Is it any wonder that our enemy wears the uniform of our friend?
IN THE DAYS before Memorial Day, I noticed the banner strung above Cedar Lane at Palisade Avenue in Teaneck. It welcomed home U.S. troops. Presumably from Iraq, since President Obama had recently declared that war over.
I didn't get it. Afghanistan is happening, at that point hitting 2,000 killed. And didn't Teaneck know that our own 508th Military Police Company was on orders to depart July 19?
Looped into a 45-day training cycle at Camp Shelby, Miss., the soldiers would fly out for nine months at Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan, about six miles from Kabul International Airport. They are assigned to train and mentor Afghan National Police.
The 508th is entering an Afghan cauldron where every man, woman and child has been at war their entire lives. We started out in Afghanistan fighting al-Qaida. Now, the 508th finds itself with a new enemy: our allies. "Green on blue" violence is the new front in the Afghan War. This year more than 30 American, British and French soldiers have been killed by members of the Afghan National Army or police. Many others have been wounded. Green on Blue casualty totals already surpass the number of such killings in all of 2011.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. General Martin E. Dempsey, speaking of Green on Blue, said, "I'll tell you definitively at this point that our national security interests are such that we have to take the additional risk that this brings."
Our "national security interests" have nothing to do with young Americans being killed by Afghans fed up with foreign invaders occupying their land. Our "national security interests" would have been better served if, at the time of the Soviet collapse, we had assumed the benevolent and diplomatic mantle of the sole world power. Instead, we have loosed barbaric invasions on country after country to feed the corporate greed that has corrupted our government and the star-studded luminaries of the U.S. military. We have made ourselves hated around the world and crippled our country in the process.
The "additional risk" now falls to an under-strength MP company from New Jersey. 146 soldiers: The two dozen female soldiers will have to be reassigned out of sight lest they offend the religious sensibilities of Afghan mentorees. In Mississippi, the 508th will shake off their part-time status and screw on their full-time courage. By month's end, they'll be bound for Afghanistan. There are those, however, who are paying attention. Introduced May 14, 2012, Assembly joint resolution 66 calls upon the president of the United States and the secretary of defense "to withdraw all New Jersey National Guard troops from Afghanistan."
AJR-66 notes the $1 trillion cost — so far — of the Afghan War. It does not mention an earlier trillion dollars squandered in Iraq or the ongoing deluge of funds for the shadow wars on Iran, Pakistan and Yemen. It doesn't mention the secret wars in Honduras or Colombia or the wars-in-the-works in Africa and Asia. The resolution further notes the potential vulnerability of New Jersey to "natural disaster or terrorist attack" and "the close proximity of the state to potential terrorist targets." New Jerseyans know we'll bear a lot of grief for anything that happens in New York City. The local disruption of lives, business and economy is noted as military families, children, employers and co-workers deal with the absence of their citizen soldiers.
The untried soldiers of the 508th are about to become veterans. As the World War II old-timers used to say, they have chosen to stand up and be counted. Unlike those soldiers of yesteryear, the 508th is off to fight a country that never attacked us and was once our ally, just like Iraq. Is it any wonder that our enemy wears the uniform of our friend?
I spoke to my son Joe. A veteran of 16 months in Afghanistan (10th Mountain Division) and a year in Iraq (256th Infantry Brigade), he is now a .50-caliber machine-gunner assigned to the 508th MP Company. He tells me training is good, but Mississippi's even hotter than Jersey. They have Middle Eastern people role playing on the maneuvers. They know all about "Green on Blue." Worried that the .50 caliber — a thunderous and effective weapon that I saw employed, ironically, by a Marine MP company south of the Danang airstrip a lifetime ago — might be too large to be brought to bear against an up-close target, I ask him if he has a pistol. He knows what I'm asking, and he answers in the affirmative. He tells me he's good to go. He's got a 9mm pistol and an M4 carbine.
I am a veteran for peace, and, although I know he knows, I tell him anyway: Keep that pistol with you at all times.
As I write this, three more American soldiers have been killed: "Green on Blue." AJR 66 should be passed in the Legislature by acclamation. Every state should pass an AJR 66. The silence of the American people throughout the prosecution of illegal and disastrous war over the last decade has been deafening. It is time to reclaim, not just our state and our country, but our very soul.
Walt Nygard, Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, lives in Teaneck. His son is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Walt is a writer, artist and member of the Warrior Writers and Combat Paper projects.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Tackling the War Machine
By Walt Nygard
The Pentagon's Achille's Heel: U.S. War - Profitable But Unwinnable, Sara Flounders' valuable primer on "the converging crises of the capitalist system and it's military," is an important source book for any activist looking to be re-charged in these days of numbing American totalitarianism.
Ms. Flounders does not shrink from the ominous danger our government has created around the world. In a relentless series of essays, she exposes a military budget that when expenditures hidden outside the Defense Department are factored in - military pensions, Treasury Department; nuclear weapons, Energy Department; financing foreign arms sales, State Department - exceeds $1 trillion a year.
The environmental assault on the entire planet by the U.S. military, the insidious subversion of the Bill of Rights under the National Defense Authorization Act and the disgraceful neglect by our government of the American worker, his/her family, educational, social and artistic institutions and the infrastructure that holds it all together are but a few of the topics of these essays.
While daunting in it's immensity, the struggle against American totalitarianism has reason for optimism and renewal of effort. Ms. Flounders insightful comparison of WikiLeaks and the invention of the printing press provides a historical context for those who would work for social change, liberation or revolution. "New forms of technology are inherently destabilizing to the established order," she declares, and her "small book aims at mobilizing the forces that can stop the war machine."
For more information:
http://www.ipgbook.com/the-pentagon-s-achilles-heel-products-9780895671776.php
Walt Nygard is Vice President of VFP Chapter 21. He served in the US Marines in Vietnam.
The Pentagon's Achille's Heel: U.S. War - Profitable But Unwinnable, Sara Flounders' valuable primer on "the converging crises of the capitalist system and it's military," is an important source book for any activist looking to be re-charged in these days of numbing American totalitarianism.
Ms. Flounders does not shrink from the ominous danger our government has created around the world. In a relentless series of essays, she exposes a military budget that when expenditures hidden outside the Defense Department are factored in - military pensions, Treasury Department; nuclear weapons, Energy Department; financing foreign arms sales, State Department - exceeds $1 trillion a year.
The environmental assault on the entire planet by the U.S. military, the insidious subversion of the Bill of Rights under the National Defense Authorization Act and the disgraceful neglect by our government of the American worker, his/her family, educational, social and artistic institutions and the infrastructure that holds it all together are but a few of the topics of these essays.
While daunting in it's immensity, the struggle against American totalitarianism has reason for optimism and renewal of effort. Ms. Flounders insightful comparison of WikiLeaks and the invention of the printing press provides a historical context for those who would work for social change, liberation or revolution. "New forms of technology are inherently destabilizing to the established order," she declares, and her "small book aims at mobilizing the forces that can stop the war machine."
For more information:
http://www.ipgbook.com/the-pentagon-s-achilles-heel-products-9780895671776.php
Walt Nygard is Vice President of VFP Chapter 21. He served in the US Marines in Vietnam.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Marching for Peace and Justice
The People's Organization For Progress (POP) is a grassroots community
organization based in the African-American community in Newark, NJ with members
and supporters throughout Essex County and beyond. Their issues are our issues.
Their struggles are our struggles. We inspire each other. In fact, members of
VFP have joined POP and members of POP have joined VFP!
On June 27, 2011 POP took on the challenge to have a demonstration for 381 consecutive days - the same amount of days of the historic Birmingham, Alabama bus boycott which took place from Dec.1, 1955 to Dec. 20, 1956. This initiative calls for justice, equality, a national jobs program and an end to war in Afghanistan. Other organizations have been asked to "take a day" and VFP / Chapter 021 took a day in April 2012. It was a great experience!
On Wednesday, June 27, VFP Chapter 021 is taking another day - Day #266! - as POP comes down the homestretch. (The final day will be July 11, 2012.) VFP / Chapter 021 will be demonstrating from 1630 - 1800 ( 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm) at the intersection of Springfield Ave. and West Market St. (by the Lincoln Monument) in Downtown Newark. This is not far from Penn Station Newark - which is serviced by NJ Transit, Amtrak, PATH, Newark Light Rail, various bus lines and taxis. It is approximately .8 miles from Penn Station Newark to the demonstration site.
For further information about POP check out their website: njpop.org/wordpress/
For any members with special transportation needs or questions contact me at 201-388-1684.
Michael Kramer
Chapter Secretary
On June 27, 2011 POP took on the challenge to have a demonstration for 381 consecutive days - the same amount of days of the historic Birmingham, Alabama bus boycott which took place from Dec.1, 1955 to Dec. 20, 1956. This initiative calls for justice, equality, a national jobs program and an end to war in Afghanistan. Other organizations have been asked to "take a day" and VFP / Chapter 021 took a day in April 2012. It was a great experience!
On Wednesday, June 27, VFP Chapter 021 is taking another day - Day #266! - as POP comes down the homestretch. (The final day will be July 11, 2012.) VFP / Chapter 021 will be demonstrating from 1630 - 1800 ( 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm) at the intersection of Springfield Ave. and West Market St. (by the Lincoln Monument) in Downtown Newark. This is not far from Penn Station Newark - which is serviced by NJ Transit, Amtrak, PATH, Newark Light Rail, various bus lines and taxis. It is approximately .8 miles from Penn Station Newark to the demonstration site.
For further information about POP check out their website: njpop.org/wordpress/
For any members with special transportation needs or questions contact me at 201-388-1684.
Michael Kramer
Chapter Secretary
Monday, May 28, 2012
Suicide and Military Veterans
letter sent to The Star-Ledger of Newark, NJ:
I was appalled, but not surprised by your Memorial Day article “Rutgers genetics center to study Army suicides.” This $2.4 million grant will fund the university’s collection of 55,000 blood samples taken from active-duty soldiers, to be studied by Rutgers’ Human Genetics Institute in a joint effort with the National Institute of Mental Health and the Army to determine beforehand individuals who might be “biologically” pre-disposed to commit suicide due to a genetic inability to cope with intense stress. Also, the study will determine whether the experience of combat or stress actually changes the soldier’s genetic make-up.
How fitting that this news should appear on Memorial Day. As pointed out in the article, the current rate of suicides among active-duty personnel is about 18 per month, and your Memorial Day Editorial “Our War Dead” (on a different page from the Rutgers article) adds that the Department of Veterans Affairs states that 18 military veterans commit suicide every day. In fact, more victims of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have died by suicide than have died from enemy fire.
I am a Vietnam veteran, and I cannot escape my memories of the genocidal (“The only good Gook is a dead Gook”) training we received, nor the barbarity and cruelty we witnessed. That war, like the present ones, was born of lies and misrepresentations, and prolonged far too long while the military establishment garnered its ribbons and promotions, and the “defense” contractors wallowed in obscene profits. In the years since the Vietnam tragedy, we have seen our country abandon its manufacturing and moral foundations.
Today we spend more on militarism than all the other countries in the world combined, and our chief exports are death and destruction. Our brave young soldiers join, often because it is the only employment available to them, for all the best reasons. However, when they see modern combat, the horrible effects of modern weapons, and the brutality encouraged by today’s American way of waging war, many are mentally and emotionally scarred for life. In most of these cases, PTSD is not a post-traumatic stress DISORDER. It is the soldier’s humanity, respect for other human beings, and distress at the “collateral damage,” or atrocities that our country is unleashing upon the innocent peasants and poor who get in the way of the carnage. It is outrage at the actions of our “leaders,” from politicians down to the officers and NCOs, that cause so many unnecessary wounds and deaths among their peers. What is so disturbing about this article is the continuing strategy of our military to blame the soldier for his or her very normal reactions to the horrors of war. That $2.4 million could be better spent, perhaps on a study of how to avoid wars.
John Ketwig
Washington, NJ
Ketwig is the author of …and a hard rain fell: A G.I.’s True Story of the Vietnam War, originally published by Macmillan in 1985 and currently published by Sourcebooks.
I was appalled, but not surprised by your Memorial Day article “Rutgers genetics center to study Army suicides.” This $2.4 million grant will fund the university’s collection of 55,000 blood samples taken from active-duty soldiers, to be studied by Rutgers’ Human Genetics Institute in a joint effort with the National Institute of Mental Health and the Army to determine beforehand individuals who might be “biologically” pre-disposed to commit suicide due to a genetic inability to cope with intense stress. Also, the study will determine whether the experience of combat or stress actually changes the soldier’s genetic make-up.
How fitting that this news should appear on Memorial Day. As pointed out in the article, the current rate of suicides among active-duty personnel is about 18 per month, and your Memorial Day Editorial “Our War Dead” (on a different page from the Rutgers article) adds that the Department of Veterans Affairs states that 18 military veterans commit suicide every day. In fact, more victims of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have died by suicide than have died from enemy fire.
I am a Vietnam veteran, and I cannot escape my memories of the genocidal (“The only good Gook is a dead Gook”) training we received, nor the barbarity and cruelty we witnessed. That war, like the present ones, was born of lies and misrepresentations, and prolonged far too long while the military establishment garnered its ribbons and promotions, and the “defense” contractors wallowed in obscene profits. In the years since the Vietnam tragedy, we have seen our country abandon its manufacturing and moral foundations.
Today we spend more on militarism than all the other countries in the world combined, and our chief exports are death and destruction. Our brave young soldiers join, often because it is the only employment available to them, for all the best reasons. However, when they see modern combat, the horrible effects of modern weapons, and the brutality encouraged by today’s American way of waging war, many are mentally and emotionally scarred for life. In most of these cases, PTSD is not a post-traumatic stress DISORDER. It is the soldier’s humanity, respect for other human beings, and distress at the “collateral damage,” or atrocities that our country is unleashing upon the innocent peasants and poor who get in the way of the carnage. It is outrage at the actions of our “leaders,” from politicians down to the officers and NCOs, that cause so many unnecessary wounds and deaths among their peers. What is so disturbing about this article is the continuing strategy of our military to blame the soldier for his or her very normal reactions to the horrors of war. That $2.4 million could be better spent, perhaps on a study of how to avoid wars.
John Ketwig
Washington, NJ
Ketwig is the author of …and a hard rain fell: A G.I.’s True Story of the Vietnam War, originally published by Macmillan in 1985 and currently published by Sourcebooks.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Healing from War through Art
Healing from War through the Arts:
Vets’ Art Exhibition, Workshops and Readings
Saturday April 21 at Teaneck’s Puffin Cultural Forum
An exhibition featuring handmade paper art crafted from military uniforms by war veterans will open April 21 at the Puffin Cultural Forum from 5-9 p.m. The Puffin Cultural Forum is at 20 Puffin Way in Teaneck, NJ. Reservations recommended; call 201-836-3499. Requested donation is $5 or bring a food dish for potluck supper.
The featured art was created by participants in the NJ Combat Paper project, Veterans’ Sanctuary in Ithaca, NY and workshops in other cities. At these hands-on events, which grew out of Warrior Writers writing workshops, veterans transform war uniforms into cathartic works of art. The uniforms are cut up, pulped and formed into paper sheets, which are turned into posters, book covers and other creative objects decorated with images from a veteran’s military and post-war experiences.
The April 21 event will open with workshops, starting at 5 p.m., in making Combat Paper, writing and drama, which are open to veterans, military families and friends. The workshops will be followed by a potluck supper at 6:30 p.m. The art show grand opening is at 7:30 p.m., followed by readings of poetry and prose by Global War on Terrorism veterans from the new Warrior Writers anthology, After Action Review.
The Combat Papermaking workshop facilitators are David Keefe and Eli Wright, coordinators of the NJ Combat Paper Project at the Printmaking Center of New Jersey; they will be aided by Nathan Lewis of the Veterans’ Sanctuary in Ithaca, NY. The three all served in the US military in Iraq.
The drama workshop facilitator is Dustin Evans, who coordinates drama workshops at the Bronx (NY) Veterans Affairs Medical Center. An actor and playwright (“Perimeters”), Dusty is a Vietnam war veteran.
The writing workshop facilitators are Lovella Calica, director of Philadelphia-based Warrior Writers, and Jenny Pacanowski, writing facilitator at the Ithaca, NY Veterans’ Sanctuary; Jenny is an Iraq war veteran.
The event is curated by Jan Barry, a poet and Vietnam veteran, and Walt Nygard, a writer, artist and Vietnam vet. It is cosponsored by Military Families Speak Out – Bergen County; NJ Combat Paper Project; Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ; Veterans’ Sanctuary, Ithaca, NY; and Warrior Writers.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Defense act abrogates Constitution
This letter to the editor appeared in The Record of North Jersey on Jan. 28. Joe Attamante is a member of Veterans For Peace Chapter 21, a former Marine and English teacher. He lives in Morristown, NJ.
By Joseph R. Attamante
ON DEC. 15, the 220th anniversary of Bill of Rights Day, the U.S. Senate passed the 2011-12 National Defense Authorization Act, 86-13.
Recently signed into law by President Obama, this act includes sections that codify indefinite military detention without trial of anyone, including American citizens, the president accuses of "supporting" al-Qaida, the Taliban or "associated forces."
As this law permits the president alone to decide whoever fits the broad and elastic categories of "supporting" or "associated," the law effectively abrogates any accused person's rights to due process of law and a speedy public trial guaranteed by our Constitution's Fifth and Sixth amendments.
Although the law makes military detention mandatory only for non-U.S. citizens, it nonetheless leaves the door wide-open to military imprisonment of Americans by saying such detention is not "required" for U.S. citizens.
And Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., dispelled any doubt about the law's applicability to U.S. citizens when, speaking about Section 1031, he said: "The statement of authority to detain does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as a battlefield, including the homeland."
However, Graham and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the law's primary sponsors, maintain they had no intention of changing existing law since (they say) the president already has authority to capture anyone, anywhere and incarcerate anyone he designates a suspect indefinitely without trial or due process.
The senators' cited assertion of established presidential powers raises the following questions:
* If the president already has such powers, why did the overwhelming majority of Congress, including New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, find it necessary to vote to grant these powers by inserting them into a defense authorization bill?
* Why did the Senate strike down amendments that would have exempted American citizens from any detention without trial and limited military detention to those captured abroad?
* Why did Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., affirm on the Senate floor that American suspects should be subject to indefinite military detention without trial?
The answer is that Congress chose to legalize the authority President George W. Bush and President Obama had previously claimed and acted on.
Notably, the law's military detention provision was opposed by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who said it would interfere with the FBI's ability to investigate and interrogate terrorism suspects. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said it could damage national security. Two retired four-star Marine Corps generals concluded it would damage due process and place an undue burden on the military.
James Madison, the father of our Constitution and key author of the Bill of Rights, warned that "loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."
Attempting to fend off and control real or perceived threats, Congress limits our liberty; but in undermining the freedom so many have given their lives to preserve, they can only achieve a temporary and finally false security.
All our elected representatives swear an oath to "protect and defend the Constitution." Members of Congress who voted for the bill, and the president who signed it, violated that oath and in doing so betrayed the Constitution and the people they represent.
By Joseph R. Attamante
ON DEC. 15, the 220th anniversary of Bill of Rights Day, the U.S. Senate passed the 2011-12 National Defense Authorization Act, 86-13.
Recently signed into law by President Obama, this act includes sections that codify indefinite military detention without trial of anyone, including American citizens, the president accuses of "supporting" al-Qaida, the Taliban or "associated forces."
As this law permits the president alone to decide whoever fits the broad and elastic categories of "supporting" or "associated," the law effectively abrogates any accused person's rights to due process of law and a speedy public trial guaranteed by our Constitution's Fifth and Sixth amendments.
Although the law makes military detention mandatory only for non-U.S. citizens, it nonetheless leaves the door wide-open to military imprisonment of Americans by saying such detention is not "required" for U.S. citizens.
And Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., dispelled any doubt about the law's applicability to U.S. citizens when, speaking about Section 1031, he said: "The statement of authority to detain does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as a battlefield, including the homeland."
However, Graham and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the law's primary sponsors, maintain they had no intention of changing existing law since (they say) the president already has authority to capture anyone, anywhere and incarcerate anyone he designates a suspect indefinitely without trial or due process.
The senators' cited assertion of established presidential powers raises the following questions:
* If the president already has such powers, why did the overwhelming majority of Congress, including New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, find it necessary to vote to grant these powers by inserting them into a defense authorization bill?
* Why did the Senate strike down amendments that would have exempted American citizens from any detention without trial and limited military detention to those captured abroad?
* Why did Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., affirm on the Senate floor that American suspects should be subject to indefinite military detention without trial?
The answer is that Congress chose to legalize the authority President George W. Bush and President Obama had previously claimed and acted on.
Notably, the law's military detention provision was opposed by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who said it would interfere with the FBI's ability to investigate and interrogate terrorism suspects. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said it could damage national security. Two retired four-star Marine Corps generals concluded it would damage due process and place an undue burden on the military.
James Madison, the father of our Constitution and key author of the Bill of Rights, warned that "loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."
Attempting to fend off and control real or perceived threats, Congress limits our liberty; but in undermining the freedom so many have given their lives to preserve, they can only achieve a temporary and finally false security.
All our elected representatives swear an oath to "protect and defend the Constitution." Members of Congress who voted for the bill, and the president who signed it, violated that oath and in doing so betrayed the Constitution and the people they represent.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Remembering Dave Cline
Last Sunday, January 8th, would have been Dave Cline's 65th birthday. Dave died on September 14, 2007, which was far too soon and in my opinion, Dave was a belated casualty of the war in Vietnam.
Please watch this video and if you wish, you can download an abbreviated version of the entire movie from Google videos.
Peace and Solidarity,
Ken Dalton
VFP 21, N.J.
VVAW
Ken Dalton
VFP 21, N.J.
VVAW
"In the 1960's an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. This movement didn't take place on college campuses, but in barracks and on aircraft carriers. It flourished in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point. And it spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. It was a movement no one expected, least of all those in it. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. And by 1971 it had, in the words of one colonel, infested the entire armed services. Yet today few people know about the GI movement against the war in Vietnam."
Vietnam vet Dave Cline was one of those organizers.
Visit www.sirnosir.com
Visit www.sirnosir.com
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